New Head Coaches and Sizing up the Regions

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
And now it's time for extra party. Your host Phil Jones.
All right, welcome in guys, Phil Jones with you. MS
producer is in the house. She is producing today. We'll

(00:31):
tell you a little bit more about that in a minute.
We have got Larry LG. Godwin in the house with
you today, co hosting. Larry, how are you man?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm doing better than good and better than most of them.
And MS producer, as I said, is here. She's producing
the show and she's waiving everybody.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Now, Hey, Mazonnie, you know Phil, you know some of
the things that I wish you guys knew some of
the antics that are some of the conversations I should
say that we get into before we go on the air,
just some downtime, just banter back and forth. We be
with us or with us, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
A few minutes agoin right, so, I had revealed to
my co host here that you know, in the last
six months I've been purposely trying to lose weight through
some intermittent fasting and I've lost yep, thirty pounds in
the last six months. Right, And so we were talking about,
you know, is it mostly diet? Is it mostly exercised,
and I said, I don't want exercise cause that stuff

(01:29):
will kill you.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And I refer to that as Larry's logic, and it's
actually Larry language. That's what I call it. So here's
a part of Larry language.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Okay, So did you know that if you eat healthy
and you exercise, you're still gonna die. You'll just be
healthier when you do.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
It well and hopefully you extend your life. So anyway,
we are all here today, Thanks so much for you
guys being here. Big thanks to our SPONSORSPSI Cola, longtime
sponsor and our newest sponsor, but we love him, doctor
Kevin Collins, Houston Clinic, he of Courses, the Orthopedic Team,

(02:09):
Orthopedic Doctor Team doctor for the kal Quick County Pickers,
as well as the Valdosta State University of Blazers. So well,
they are in good hands there with doctor Kevin Collins,
and so are we with both doctor Kevin Collins as
our sponsor and Doyer DeLoach some of the guys at
PEPSI Cola. So a lot to get to today. As always,

(02:31):
we're on Chicken. See who's in the house, and let's
do that now with roster Sutherland up top and out
front roster Sutherland checking in from Marietta. What's going on
in Marietta, home of the Blue Devils and a new
head coach there and uh in Marietta with Cameron Duke
coming up from Orlando to take the job former head

(02:55):
coach of Edgewater. There's a lot of new head coaches now, well,
there's a lot of new head coaches and there's a
lot of your head coaches coming from the Florida area.
That Travis Rowland last year came over to go or
came up took over the Camden County jaw. He comes
up from Daytona Beach Mainland High School. You've got Cameron
Duke now coming up. I think you've got the new

(03:17):
alpha Reddick head coach was coaching in Florida, if I'm
not mistaken. We'll talk more about that with Sly coach. Sly,
of course, the former athletic director at Milton High School,
is always going to be joining us today at five
forty five, So looking forward to that. So Missouri, you
can do that sign language, I mean people can still
hear you. Right, Oh yeah about that? That that well,

(03:46):
we obviously want you. We couldn't find a third headset
and that's my fault. But anyway, just a miscommunication on
my end. But listen, you tell you want to chime in,
chime in. If they can't hear you, we'll translate for you.
How about that? Okay, I want to get your thoughts
on everything. So we all three are here today. Thanks
so much for being with us. Jody Hewett, Evening Phield
and LG. Jody. Is it Jody or Jody or Joe Jody? Okay,

(04:11):
so thanks so much for checking in and Jody, thanks
for your comments. I believe you had commented on our
baseball top ten, so we thank you your input, whether
you're wrong or not, we always thank you guys for
uh for being I was wondering if youbody would catch that.
Larry got it a little smile on his lady's there.
Jody's a good guy. I have no doubt about that.

(04:33):
What happened was in case you guys missed it and
wonder what I'm talking about. So I did o work
statewide pre season top ten and I had edawah pre
season number one. Now I don't think anybody's gonna argue
with this on that. Yeah, they are low dead okay,
and I had lounge rinked number nine, and of course

(04:54):
I got some pushback from Jody and Greg Maddox, former
All Star pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, and also, uh,
just kidding, he's not but I kind of give him,
you know, a little bit of Yeah, I just kind
of joke with him, okay. But also you've got somebody
named Georgia Trainer who comments a lot, and uh, still

(05:19):
trying to figure out who Georgia Trainer is, but anyway,
I will find out. Anyway, not this big deal. We
appreciate everybody for checking in, but I had right Lownes
rank night, and some folks didn't like it. I think
if you're one of the top ten teams in the state,
that's pretty good, right, I mean, especially this year, Georgia
is going to be loaded. I know that we talked
primarily football, high school football. I get it, but this

(05:40):
is going to be what looks like one of the
premier years in high school high school baseball this year.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, gonna see me interesting to see how Lownes does
you know? They've had some some magical seasons last couple
of years. They graduate a lot of talent. I understand,
there's there's they're reloading with talent. So we're gonna see
how well that my vikings do got you.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
So Jody says it was a joke feel and nobody
got it. Jody, I guess I didn't either. Man. I'm
I thought you were dead serious coming at us. But anyway, brother,
it's all good, my man. I think Jody had said
that we got every that lounds out, everybody coming back,
when in fact Coach Page had told me, you know, Phil,
look we got two or three coming back. Who's the

(06:21):
young man's coming back from the uh of the injury?
Got y'all help me out? I should know his name
relative to my tongue. Beast of a player that's coming
back had the torn I think he had the torn
achilles or a c L. Do you know what I'm
talking about?

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Uh? I can't remember who you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
When I hear his Now, I'm gonna be like dwink,
I'm sure you guys know who it is, Jody, who
is it? Anyway? Let me know Rusty Cravy. You don't
know Rusty Cravey. I know miss producer those just from
being here on the show. Do you know Rusty Cravy, Larry,
I don't. Rusty krab is a good friend of mine.

(07:02):
To my going back to the old days, Rusty Cravy,
me and two of our buddies hopped into Rusties Rusty
what was it a Cadillac? And we drove to Lagrange,
Georgia for the Tiff County Lagrange State championship game. The

(07:23):
four of us we had to stop on side of
eighty two go to bathroom. Those good old days, good
old days, man, I tell you, I love it. And
went over there and watched Schiff County just put a
beatdown on the Lagrange Grangers. By the way, who wouldn't
think it the last state champion for Tiff County?

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Is that right? You know, all these years, I have
never still found out what a granger is. What the
heck is a granger?

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I'm assuming it's sounded like a cowboy MASZOONI do you know?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
I'm too lazy to google it?

Speaker 1 (07:56):
So know?

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (07:59):
So miss was that? Okay, Tyler Parker? Yeah that's right,
that's right, Thank you, Jody appreciate that. So Rusty corrects me.
He said it was a Lincoln. That's right, it was
a Lincoln Continental one that man, that thing rode smooth.
Let me tell you, rusty, are you do you remember
that day? And I'm sorry you guys gotta bear with
me on this. We went to the Lamplighter Pub ate

(08:23):
a big old pizza anyway. I just you know, it's
the smallest things that you were. A lamp lighter pup
lmplighter pub and it's still open. And listen. It was modeled.
I told Mazzoannie about this because she went over to
London and I remember me telling you about this. Yeah, yeah,
it was a lamp. It's called the Lamplighter Pub. It

(08:45):
was modeled after an authentic old English pub. Dark inside,
not much lighting, don't matter if it's three o'clock in
the afternoon. You going there and your eye is going
to have to shift because it is a dark but not
not skanky or danky or anything like that. It's just dark.
It's just the way an old English pub is, you know.

(09:05):
But you go in, had some of the best food.
Would it be considered a local dive you know what
I'm talking about? Yeah, you probably could call it that way. Yeah,
and listen. Thursday nights for the drinking age was race.
They used to have. Thursday nights were just great nights.
I mean, all the a back kids were in town.
Some great memories. Rush, you can back me up. And
if anybody else remember those Thursday nights at the pub

(09:29):
at some good memories, just reminiscent guys. Appreciate you bearing
with me on that. We'll move on and talk high
school football for sure. Let's see who else we got
in the house. What do you say? Oh, yes, yes,
thank you, thank you for that. Yeah. And I was

(09:49):
mentioning that to miss producer and Larry before we start
on the show. In fact, I had a chance to
talk to Mike Chastain just before we went on the air,
and and that's what Mazzanie was referencing. Who we talked
about it. Who brought it up? Roster Sutherland, So Roster
Sutherlin our number one. Mary had a fan had mentioned

(10:10):
in the comments earlier about the head now former head
football coach at Jones County, Mike Chastain has stepped down
from his post. Again. I had a chance to talk
to him about four o'clock and he told me a
number of things. In fact, we're the only ones to

(10:31):
get a comment from Mike Chastain today I'll follow up
with that on Facebook. Some things that he had to say,
not really anything earth chattering, but he did not want
to leave and tell you that. But he leaves behind
some good memories. And again, you guys be sure to
check us out on our social media platforms and I'll
give you a little bit more about Mike Chastain. But

(10:51):
leaving after I believe it was a tendancy record last year.
If I'm not mistaken at Jones County, he's done a
good job up there. He's in a really good job,
done a really good job. So he else we got
in the house.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
H yeah, you know feel one of the most interesting hires.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Let's interpret what miss producer said. Okay, I know a
lot of that we can't hear. So what what uh
help help help me out here? What was Mazzonnie saying?

Speaker 2 (11:30):
So she was saying, uh, some of the more interesting
vacancy coaching face they been field in in in south
and southwest Georgia. And also the reclassification talk good. The
GHSA is talking about good stuff, good stuff. So yeah,
well we're gonna bring it up by the way for
y'all wondering. Yes we uh again some miscommunication I went

(11:52):
sureman Zanna was gonna be here today anyway, just some
outside stuff that she does for us.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Uh, So I asked Larry to come in, and we
don't have a third hit. So miss Mazzoni has Misproducer
Mazzoni has been kind enough to give the headset to Larry.
So she is still producing the show, but she's out
a headset. But she's still part of the show. But
if you can't hear, that is why you can't. So
just an explanation on that. What's that a third headset?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Coming?

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Say? I thought we had a third headcent. I mean,
aren't we this big yeah, big Bold Media company. You
think we'd have a third headset, but we don't. That's okay,
that's a right, normally we don't need one. But anyway, guys,
it's all good. We're gonna make it work. So, yes,
you are seeing my in trip block. Thank you so
much for the shout out. You are seeing me. Don

(12:43):
my Lee County swag today, one of many outfits, by
the way, that I have. If any of you guys
okay want to send me some of your team swag,
I will gladly take it. I'll gladly wear it. And
I will showcase and show off your favorite scene. That's
what I love to do. Are you you able to

(13:04):
have the comments up or you don't you need me
to need to read these off or I do have
the comments up.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
But I wanted to address something that, uh, that we
were just talking about ago about some of these head
coaching positions. One of the most interesting to me that
has been filled is Steve Divorsney. Yes, going to Veterans,
which has never been a big powerhouse up there in

(13:30):
Houston County. When you think of Houston County schools, you
think of Warrener, Robbins and North Side and on occasion
Houston County, but never really Veterans.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
No, they did enjoy some some mild success under the
previous coach. And gosh again here I am, my brain's
not working today, but who Jake who was the previous
head coach there that just resigned. That opened the door
for Steve Divorceitey to come in and yeah, apologies is

(14:00):
a good dude. I had mentioned this year before the
season started that Veterans was going to have the hardest,
the toughest schedule this year. Josh Ingram, Josh Ingram, there
we go Josh Ingram and I mentioned this to him,
you know, I said, coach, you guys are gonna have

(14:21):
the toughest schedule in the state this year. Yeah, and
he was like, what, thanks, But you know it was true.
I mean based on and I went through this and
you guys can always revisit this, you know, I wrote,
we wrote the story. We've got the graphic top ten
toughest schedules in the state of Georgia this past year.
In fact, I'm going to we want to go back
and revisit that because see how teams did, but veterans

(14:44):
had the toughest schedule based on their opponents win lost
record and how they finished from the previous year.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
So, man, that's tough. This is tough when you don't
have the greatest team up there in Houston County. Very
competitive situation by the way.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Up there, that's right. So when Mylon Turner was there,
and he was the predecessor of Josh Ingram, he he's
the one that had a moderate amount of success there
you go, yes, yeah, so so Mylon coach Turner left
at the end of the twenty one season.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Josh Ingram takes over twenty two twenty three twenty four.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
In the past three seasons, they have gone two and nine,
five and five, three and seven. No, I'm sorry, yeah,
five and five, three and seven and one and nine
last year. And so Divorsney although a really really good coach. Yeah,
you know you guys recognize him from his k ROA days. Right,
So he moved off, went off, I think out of state.
Now he's come back to Georgia and taken over a

(15:38):
kind of a not a beat down but not a
school with a rich tradition of winning like Terran High School. Right,
And so we're going to see how a good quality
head coach, you know, injected into a an okay program
to see if he can make them rise to the top.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Good good point. And you know we've talked about it before.
There Houston County, it's just a tough situation. You've got,
you know, Houston County. You've got Warner Robbins, You've got
North Side one of Robins, who, by the way, just
hired coach Boone william Daniel Boone Williams. So it's gonna
get tougher. You got Steve Divorceney now taking over at
Veterans UH State Championship winning coach, both of them state

(16:20):
championship winning coaches. Okay, obviously you've got Shane Sam's over
at Wanner Robbins. He's been part of that one of
Robins staff under Maurice Westbrook that won all the state championships.
You've got over at Houston County Jeremy Edwards. What a
great job coach Edwards has done with the Houston County Bears.
Now they do lose their big time quarterback. Who is

(16:44):
that quarterback? Houston County boy, I'm bad.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
On the name of the agent.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
It was a J. Hill. That's it.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
So you've got a lot of talent. You've got a
lot of great coaches. But what I was gonna say us, guys,
the talent if you have this cyclical yeah, this thing
will be good. This thing would be good. But you're
always gonna have somebody that's kind of on the outside
looking in. So it's gonna be interesting to see if
Steve divorce and you can get veterans, because they're kind
of that team right now, that program being on the

(17:17):
outside looking in. I mean, I want to see Carrie
Clayburne has giving me some grief about that. Phil said
swanky or danky. Listen, skanky Carrie.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Carry is picking on both of us, on me because
you know, he's reminding me of, you know, basically the
loss that Lound suffered at the hands of Buford. Yes,
and so you know, as you guys know, I do
during the football season, we do a show called The
Viking Nation Live. And I've got some couple of co
hosts that I have on there every every week.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Don't you do to show you around?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Well, the last several years, at the end of the year,
we take a couple months off just to recharge.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
So the last couple of months, that's why you'll have
you haven't seen me host very much on The Viking Nations. Okay, stuff,
I just needed a mental break, sure, So instead I've
been stressed about getting involved with local politics. But anyway,
got much of a break there, I got you so
what during the season last year, so one of my
co hosts started making a joke out of it, and

(18:20):
every single week feel I would ask my two co
hosts to give a score prediction, and one of the
co hosts armand he made a big joke out of it,
and every single week it didn't matter who we played,
he'll he would always say lowndes By Fiddy. And so
when we were getting ready to go play Beauford, I asked, Okay,
what are you what's your score prediction? He said, lowndes

(18:41):
By Fiddy.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
So Car Carrie, he took that and ran with it.
And so now that not age. Well that now he
will not let.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Me forget that.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
How about that? I want to go back to Larry Thompson.
Who's Larry Thompson Junior? Who's well? Now is this l
T Are? Is this the dad Larry? Which one am
I talking to? Obviously? El Larry Thompson Junior? I think
this is LT? Who I know? Is LT the new
head coach of the Roswell Hornets. Congratulations? No, waitment, wrong one,

(19:16):
I'm sorry, mistaken, that's JT. Er forget that anyway. Larry
Thompson Junior said it was fifty nine to six beat down.
He's talking about that Tiff County Lagrange game. Okay, fifty
nine six beat down. Danny Kronick and Jim Brody got
into got into it at midfield. After the game. I
broadcasted that game in Lagrange that night. Wow, Larry did

(19:37):
not know that I had heard where Danny Chronic, head
coach of Lagrange, did take issue with Brody, who apparently
decided to run it up a little bit on Lagrange. Look,
I don't like to do I mean, I don't like
to hear stories like that. If I'm not mistaken. There
was some talk about how La Grange was gonna do this,
gonna do that at tiff County. You know, it was
a Southern boy, South Georgia boys, and it wasn't going

(20:00):
stand a chance. Well they stood a chance and a
lot more, but anyway, did not know that.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
So so let me ask you a question. So, out
of all the coaches that have gotten hired this season,
what would you rank I won't say the top of
maybe the top two or three. Was what a top
two or three hires that you that you think have
been made this year?

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Boy, that is a great question. Well let me think.
So I think that we go back to Steve Divorceny
being hired, and I guess here's the way we look
at this. I'm not really sure kind of what you
had in mind on your question. Is it a matter

(20:46):
of a coach coming in with room to grow? Is
it is your question pertained to the coach coming in
and maybe having the ability to change a turn it around.
Well follow me.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, my question really wasn't that deep at all. Okay,
it was out of all the names out there, who
do you think.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
He's gonna have the most impact? Who do you think
got the coach that's gonna have the most impact? Okay,
so let me let me back up. Okay again, love
Steve divorce. I think it's probably gonna take him a
gear uh to just to get things right. You know. Again,
it's just it's tough right now in Houston County. I
don't mean what the Houston County Bears, I mean just

(21:33):
the county itself, the football. Is there enough talent to
go around there? Sure?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
You know that's a big question up there.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Well, here's the thing about it, Okay, Veterans has got
therein I think the most explosive school district, meaning room
to grow now, I think they've got more growth now.
Is that part of your territory up there? It used
to be a few years ago. I don't go up
there anymore. Okay, So what do you know from one?
Everything I've been told the Houston County School District is
one of the more are fastest growing areas.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
It is, that's the believe it. You know, most areas
grow to the north, but Houston County is not quite
that way. Houston County, the south end of the county.
Perry High School. Yes, yes, you know that. You see
the explosion in their talent.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
That's a great point, by the way, Larry, Houston.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
County, that that that whole area, that road that BUCkies
is on, that entire corridor is exploding with growth.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Right, absolutely so, And Larry, that's a good point. You know,
look at what Perry has done. I can remember listen,
just like Veterans has been, I can remember Perry being
and also ran. They were the step kind of the
red headed step child, for lack of a better phrase.
I don't know why that's always been redheaded, stepped. I

(22:49):
don't know, you know whatever, I mean, everybody deserves to
be loved and so anyway, y'all know what I'm just making,
trying to make the point of the sort of the
odd ball, if you will. And Perry was that, Okay,
they were the school that you know, I didn't I
didn't even realize Perry was in Houston County for the longest,
they were kind of stuck down there, like, yes, they

(23:12):
really were. They really were, and so it didn't really
occur to me until they started having a little bit
of success. Now, again, this kind of answers your question somewhat,
and I know it's not directly related, but you're asking,
you know, which coach is going to have the most impact.
Had we answered you asked that a decade ago, you know,

(23:33):
it would have been Kevin Smith. Imagine the job that
he has done. Would we have seen this coming anybody
up there in that area? If you can answer this
for me, did anybody see Kevin Smith being able to
take Perry High School and lead them to a state championship?

(23:56):
I'd love to hear your answer, because I don't think.
I mean, it caught me completely out of out of
the out of the bloody Okay. I think, what when
their first region championship in years and now they've won
the first back to back to backs. I'm a state
champion region championship, is what I'm meant to say. So

(24:18):
you want to talk about an amazing turnaround, but again,
catching lightning in a bottle, being able to capture that growth,
the timing nowhere to give it up, so all the
elements kind of took hold. I think in Perry, I
want to hear y'all thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
You know, to me, one of the top hires in
the state is a Parkview High School. Sure, Adam Klack
good turning to age of high school football, great.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Hire, good point, Larry, what do you what do you
think about that? Give us, give us some background, give
me some something to support, you know, or took a
decision there. You know, he was the first, if I'm
not mistaken, he was the first high school football coach
at Milton High School, the new Milton High School. I think,
is that right, boy, that's a good question because Milton

(25:07):
was a brand new high school where the growth had
started going out to the end of Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Oh,
that's that's exactly. So we're gonna bring Sly on here
in about five forty five and we'll ask him that.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
I think there was a coach before him, but coach
Clark brought Milton out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
He and Sly together. Sure.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And if you don't and if you guys recall you
should recognize that because that was in the heyday when
Rush Propes was down here. And was the head coach
at Cauqwood County and Milton met Cauquitt in was it
a state championship game and Milton beat him? Isn't that right?
Isn't that right? Didn't Milton beat Cauchwood County first day

(25:49):
championship semi final game?

Speaker 1 (25:52):
I think it was a semi final game? And was
that the game that Caulquitt kept shooting themselves in the
foot with all the penalties back back to back to
back fenalties. Was that was it against Milton? No? I
think that was against I can't remember. I can't remember anither.
But anyway, so coach clak Adam Clyyk did lead Milton

(26:12):
to its first ever state championship in twenty seventeen. I
believe it was. And that's Rickey Moss says, yes, in
twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
It was a quarterfinal.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Okay, that's what I thought too. I thought what Mazzanie
was saying it was it was a quarterfinal win. But anyway,
so your point being though that they had really had
a long draft, Larry.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, So Rosster Sutherlands says Mill has been around for
a while. They have been around for a while, but
no one just heard about them well because they were terrible. Yeah,
so he says, Milton beat Cauquit in the twenty eight championship.
Twenty eighteen championship.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Okay, oh, there we go. I'm gonna go back and
confirm that. There we go. All right, So anyway, I'll
lot of folks checking in. We appreciate that. Let us
hear your thoughts on all this that we're talking about today.
Love to hear from you. Wait, what's what's up with Obada?
Oh no, okay, OBD brother h prayers for a full

(27:18):
and quick recovery. My man, you are my brother. You're
you're my man. You're right, you're my buddy. So this man,
this is why you better stood out. In twenty eighteen,
Milton beat my Vikings in the semifinals and then the
week after beat Cockwood County fourteen to thirteen for the
state championship. How about that? So there you go, Jo,

(27:41):
I love this com man, Joshua, Chase Guarantee it G
and a third of the Viking nation on the same
screen chases oh bye, Oh I know what he meant
to say. Oh be still my beating heart lol, l G.
Phil What was that was up?

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Josh Chase cheek about chck Yeah, Chase is another good
one I can tell. And if you ever open up
the phone lines for people to call in, Chase would
be a great calling calling guest. Okay, he's got a
little wealth of football knowledge point taking.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
So Chase brother, let's get you on the show at
some point. We really don't do a lot of call ins,
but based on what Larry just told me, would love
to have you join me and miss producer Okay with
the future show. D Smith checking in Houston County will
always be talent rich county. A lot of young talent

(28:34):
coming up. So there we go talking about the county
up there in Houston County says Houston County will always
be talent rich. The county has got a lot of
young talent growing up. D Smith. I don't think anybody
really disputes that. However, which school is going to be
able to continue to ride that wave of population growth?

(28:56):
In other words, we know the county overall is gonna
get it, but who who's gonna get it? In particular?
That is the question, right I agree? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Ricky Moss Brooks Carter, Uh, what do you think?

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Thing?

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I think Mazzani had mentioned this. I had read this earlier, right, Mazzanie,
What do you think will happen higherwise at Barrion, Erwin,
and Pelham By the way, Erwin County? That's another big
move that we really haven't talked about. Coach Soliday stepping
away from Erwin County? That really very much. So, yeah,
it shocked me, did me too? It did me too?

(29:35):
So you got coach is it Eric Holiday? No, Casey Casey,
Casey Soliday. So you got Eric Soliday who is at
tiff Area always get mixed up. But anyway, so coach
Holiday stepping down at Erwin. You've got Ken Eldridge who
stepped down at Burrion. Now, Larry, this is a school

(29:56):
you know a lot about. This is school close to
your heart, closer than what is the situation at Barrion County?
What's it gonna take? Who's it gonna take to bring
a winner there?

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Okay, So this is a difficult question. So I'm gonna
try to basically answer that question in a couple of
minutes or less. Okay, Okay, So Barrion is one of
those trade I don't want to say tradition, that's the
wrong word. Barrion is one of those schools that has
not had a long history of consistent winning at football.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
That is probably the most tactful way to say it. Yep.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Okay, Now we've had burst through the years where we
have a good season here there, that kind of stuff,
even make it to the playoffs, make it to round
one or two, and then it might be another decade
before we go to the playoffs again, or could be
another fifteen years. But so Barrion's problem consistently has always
been not enough players coming out year after year after year.

(31:01):
It's very difficult to build a program if you don't
have the Jimmy's and the Joe's.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
I mean, Barrion has never had an issue with getting
good athletes. I'm you know, just a couple of years ago,
we had an athlete that almost beat did he set
the state record for the number of kickoff return backs
for touchdowns? Do you remember that? I can't?

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Oh, yes, Josiah, Yeah, that's it right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
So we've had our number of athletes come through the program.
So athletes is not the issue, yep. The issue is
just the number of kids too. Because Barrion has if
you take a look at the history of playing even
some of the really really good programs. Barrion always will
always play a team kind of close to the first

(31:50):
half and then start to fade midway through the third
quarter because they just don't have the depth. They play
a lot of kids both ways, and with a school
that's you're going to have to play some kids both ways,
but they just don't have the numbers to do that consistently,
and that's why they fade in the second half. Burian's
issue has always been not coaching, not athletes, but just

(32:13):
the number of players, because even at the lower levels,
it takes a lot of athletes to build depth, right
and so and so, if you go back to phil,
my longtime, long term strategy for consistent can sustain winning
at the high school level is built on four pillars.

(32:35):
Remember one is administrative support. And I'm not talking about
just administration that hires a good coach. I'm talking about
from the school board to the high school principal to
the athletic dra everybody involved in the administration has got
to be rowing in the same direction with the football program.
And so, because those are the folks that bring resources

(32:57):
into the program. So that's one pillar. The second pillar
is community support. You got to have dollars that comes
from outside of the program. You can't just rely on
the school system because they have a fixed budget. That's
a lot of other sports programs to look after, too,
so you've got to bring in a lot of dollars
externally from the into the program. And that also requires

(33:20):
a lot of warm bodies in terms of volunteers. A
good sustained, winning program needs a lot of volunteers to
make it work.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
And coach, so you have administrative support community sport. You've
got to have a great head coach with good assistant coaches.
And the reason why I differentiate is because on that
staff you may have a lot of young assistant coaches
that are going to be great one day. They just
don't have the experience to be great yet, but they
are good assistant coaches. But if you have a great

(33:51):
head coach shepherding coaching his assistants, that makes a great combination.
And then the final piece is you've got to have
good athletes. You don't have to have great athletes, You've
got to have good athletes that are coachable. So you
put those four pillars together on a consistent year in
and year out basis, you will have a good, sustained

(34:11):
winning program. And Barrion has not done that consistently over
the years.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
So it's it's quite an enigma in Nashville and Burying,
which is kind of an unintended pun there, because there
is an enigma Georgia in Barrion County anyway, you know.
Just so that's just a mistake of brand those two
little cities together. But Barron County, like Larry said, for

(34:40):
whatever reason, just you don't have a lot of enthusiasm
amongst the younger crowd to come up for the football team.
Is that a fair statement.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
That's fair?

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Okay? Why that is a lot of people will talk
about this and talk about that, and you know, the
the mostly agricultural community families, right, Yeah, you just don't
have that incentive. They'd rather farm and you know, get
the big if ford whatever they're called, you know, get

(35:11):
their truck drive around. In other words, it's a status situation.
A lot of kids want to get up for go
out for football. Hend it's understandable. Yeah, young boys have
a lot of tystosterone. They want to go out and
make a name for themselves, and what a better way
to do it than being big man on campus, especially
if you're out of school like Barryon County. But you

(35:32):
just don't have to have that if you've got everything
else going for you, that's right, Okay. So I just
think that's part of the problem. And again, I don't
know if that's a fair comment or not, but you
would think at some point barry In County should have
their day in the sun. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
You know, the law of inevitability says that any program
will eventually get there. Sure, but there's no guarantee of
how long it will take to get there. So when
when when you have a program like a Burion or
let's let's let's not even use Burion. You know that's
near and dear to my heart. Let's use another fictitious name. Okay,

(36:10):
we'll call it terry in high School. Okay, Okay, So
terry In High School has this tradition of being a
good baseball school, right, yes, on occasion, we'll have a
good basketball program, really good softball program. So the athletic

(36:31):
UH programs are are getting funded, they're getting kids to participate,
but not so on the football side, because there is
a I'm gonna use this word loosely. There is a
tradition of losing.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Okay, okay, and no one, absolutely no one, whether it's
Phil Jones, Larry God or any of you watching, no
one wants to be part of a long term losing program.
You don't.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
That's just the way it is. So what so what
has to change? What comes first, the chicken or the egg.
So in the case of Terry in high school, right A,
you have to have a not just a great head coach,
but you have to have a charismatic head coach.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
And there is a difference between the two. Now it's
great if you can combine those together. A charismatic head
coach goes in and starts to sell not just the administration,
not just the getting volunteers in form of boosters, but
they're able to sell the community, and they're able to
sell the kids, generate a ground swell of excitement. That's

(37:32):
the spark that lights the flame that turns into a
raging forest fire. Right but you need a spark first,
and that's where the charisma from a great head coach
comes in and.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Plays the role of the spark. Because a place like
Barry and they see the communities around them win football games.
Even smaller programs like Lanear County that they have started
winning now. So and then smaller program is like Clinch County,
Irwin County, Brooks County, they have a tradition of winning.
So the fans up and the football fans up and

(38:07):
buryon because I just talked to soon earlier this week
because that's part of my sales territory, and they asked
me over and over again, Larry, what is it gonna
take for us to win? We want a winning football program, right,
so there is a hunger for it. So you're gonna
have to have.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
A coach with charisma that goes in there that basically
is a sales guy feel and not just a gray
head coach to sell the administration, to sell the boosters,
and to sell the community and to sell the players.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
So that coach that's gonna have to have a lot
of charisma that he basically creates his four pillars of success.
And that's what it's gonna take for that program to win.
Any program like Okay, fair enough, so.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I guess ed Pilcher, Yeah, was the last successful coach
that you had at Buryan? Is that right?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
That's right. Okay.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Look, and you got Ken Eldrich who came to Buryon.
He had been at coffee, he had had success. So
you gotta wonder if this coach can win that coach again,
those are two of the bigger names you'll find in
high school football. That's right in high school coaching. Okay,
as far as football goes. So it really is just
a baffling situation. You would think that. And I'm assuming

(39:18):
that Barrion plays well, I mean pays well, what do
you think?

Speaker 2 (39:26):
What do you think head coach at Barrion High makes
seventy k That's what I was going to be in
the ballpark with. Do you know how much we paid?
I haven't checked Eldridge, Ken Eldridge, but I want to
imagine he's in the same barb. Can you remember the
coach that came before coach Eldridge.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yes, I was just talking about Pilcher. No, no, no, there
was another one, Jim mally Goood. Yes, he was making
ninety five thousand dollars a year. Say what, Barry in
high school? Surely you can't be serious.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Well, his last year he took very into the second
round of the play state playoffs, yeah, so he was
getting there, but he hit a lot of good athletes
that kind of stuff. But just but just Siah Davis
was the kid's name, by the way, but pay but
pay is not an issue, okay, very nigh got you.
So I think what what Kim's issue was and what

(40:22):
Tim's issue was is they're they're really really good coaches. Yeah,
but they didn't have the charisma part to go out
there and sell the community.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Got you? And I do think, well, did Pilcher really
have that either?

Speaker 2 (40:34):
He did?

Speaker 1 (40:35):
He did?

Speaker 2 (40:35):
He did in his roundabout way he did, you know
how he did it with a history of winning.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Okay, but I don't see him as having that charisma.
But but again, a very suitable facsimile thereof charisma is winning.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Here's what the fact simile.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
By the way, slide hanging Ona say, anybody, We're coming
to you man, Here's what the fact simile for charisma
was for Pilcher.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
We have always viewed coach Pilcher as a burying guy. Okay,
why because he was a coach at Buryon for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Did not know that? Okay, so that that predates his
TCC days. That's Chris County Central Okay, So without further ado, uh,
let's bring in the man who is largely responsible for
a lot of the success that the Thomas that Milton
has enjoyed throughout the years. And of course I'm talking

(41:27):
about former athletic director coach sly who was on the
line with us. Now, Coach sly what's going on already?

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Hey, hey, we all doing tonight, doing great? You doing well,
doing well? I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Got LG in the house, Coach Slyde, Listen, we are
not doing as well as the Milton High School Eagles
because you guys are now, uh, the epicenter of high
school football. It just seems like, I mean, you guys
have built a fantastic program and it seems like the
tradition is already been set in stone. The foundation is there,

(42:02):
and it looks like going forward, you're going to have
another great program this coming season.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
Well we hope, so, you know, and you know, we
we say it all this past season on Amazani and
Phil heard me say numerous times, taking one at a time, right,
We're taking it one at a time. And now we
had ready to spring ball. Come up here Sorely, and
you know, see how we do A good thing about
springball is until you play that a little scrimmage game,
you can always beat.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Milton, right, Milton, coach, Like, listen, I remember I don't
know if you remember this conversation, but one of the
times that I was in here with Phil, you'd called
in and we had a pretty good robust conversation and
I'd asked you, I think this is right when the
playoffs were starting, I think, And I said, coach, you know,

(42:47):
most of the time a coach an ad has a
pretty good sense going into springball, especially after springball has completed. Yeah,
that you get a pretty good sense of what kind
of program you had, what time of kind of team
you're gonna have this season?

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Right?

Speaker 2 (43:03):
And you and and coach Lot you said we had
a feeling that we had a good team. It was
just unproven. But man, did you guys prove it this
past season.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Yeah, thank you, I remember that for sure. Actually, and
and and uh, it is true. You know, you you
think you have it, You got a good feeling you
have it, and then you got to go out there
and and incrementally prove it. And then once you start
believing it, then it's like, hey, we can do this.
Thing and to make the run for it. You know,
we've done now what plus twenty five in a row,
which is crazy and didn't even think that. So yeah,

(43:36):
it's it's one of those things where you have to
you have to believe in the kids. You have believe
in what you what you've built and what's been built.
And once again, culture is I said before somebody asked me,
how do you beat Milton High School? I figured out
who called in and asked that before during the playoffs,
said beat our culture. You know somebody Somebody's like, what

(43:56):
do you mean that that's not you know Ex's and
oo's no beeter our culture because culture is undefeated a
lot of times.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Absolutely, let's Uh. By the way, this, don't forget about
our folks that are checking out the show. I want
to go back to our folks that are watching the show,
see if anybody's got any questions for Sly as we
are talking about a lot of different things, and we'll
bring Sly into the conversation and uh into the topics
that we've been talking about. So we got Jose Badilla

(44:24):
who's checking out the show. Jose, what's up? My man,
b TCC fan Joshua Chase Garnto says, bearing has a
young running back, Christian Rodriguez, that is really good. Have
you heard of him, Larry, He's gonna be good. So
hopefully there's some hope, uh, you know, on the horizon there.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
If we can keep him in the county, he's gonna
be good.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah. Joshua also says seven on seven teams that are
representing well all over the southeast. Two to nine Elite
brought home some hardware this weekend, and the Baby Goats
fourteen and under had a semi finals exit in the
Road to the Crown in Flora. Uh. Stephen k Winn
is checking in. Stephen k Winn says, checking in late

(45:05):
from Trojan Nation. I was wondering where you are, Steven.
Thanks so much for being a part of the show.
Jose Badilla, Ever since LG said about the four pillars,
I back him up on that talking about same page.
What was that the four pillars of success that I
was talking? Oh, yes, I remember that.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Jose heard me say, because he's a long long time
Viking fan. Yeah, so he's heard me say this a
number of times over the years, and so that's what
he's referring to got you.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Uh, Jose Badilla says, hey, lg that wildcat yellow. Let's
get on you, man. Is there something wrong with Jose screen?
I was like, where the yellow?

Speaker 2 (45:39):
And I'm thinking, is he talking about the helmet behind me?

Speaker 1 (45:43):
What was he talking about? You think? Because there is
a a Worth County Ram helmet right behind me. I
bet they think you got that on?

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Maybe so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
I don't know, Jose, I'm not We're not sure what
you're talking about, brother. But if that's it, Robert, okay,
let me see here. Robert Tallard is watching. What's up? Robert?
Let's see here? Who else we got?

Speaker 3 (46:09):
So?

Speaker 1 (46:10):
It says the Viking nation is watching? How about that?
That is by the way I met you. I ran
into your son a good coffee the other day. He's
a good kid. He's a good kid.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
He graduated from VSU a few years ago, and he's
making his making a name for himself in the world,
in the world of sales. And extremely proud of him.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
And you should be absolutely very proud of our kids. Man.
You know, you worry about him, worry about them, and then
they go off and do My son living up in
New York working for NBC. Wow, Have I not told
you that?

Speaker 3 (46:41):
No?

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Yes, Yes, that's awesome. Ross is doing great man, absolutely
love it. Ross was on the Video Music Awards about
six months ago.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, yeah, I'm chee some pictures. But yeah, very proud
of Ross doing a great job living up there on
Long Island and enjoying living in the big city. Is
that where the ice teaser made? That's pretty that's pretty good.
Let's bring in the New York expert fly who can
tell us everything. I remember I went up there for
my son's wedding and Sly was giving me all the

(47:10):
tips I needed. You know, I said, don't dare get
on the train, and yeah, all this stuff. But Sly
answer that question, man, Long.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Island nice tea? You know what I'm assuming it has.
It was originated a.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Long Island gotta be with a name like that.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
There's a story behind it too. I think it was
on a food network. Actually, I mean when I was
up north, I didn't really know about Long on Ice sees,
but there's a story on Foodwork about that how originated
and how all those lifting liquors were in there at
one time, and it's pretty cool story. I have to
look it up and find out for you, because I
should probably know that being a New York You.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Know, yeah, coach coach Line, let me let me get
your opinion on something. You know, I'm gonna embarrass myself
in front of all these thousands of people watching. Okay,
so I have a drinking story.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Oh Lord, for you and coach you're about to say
you had a drinking problem.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
But anyway, So and anybody that knows me, Coach Lite,
knows that I just do not drink.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Now you don't.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
So I've just been that way all my life. So
you So several years my wife and I have been
married thirty one years. So several years ago, I think
it was our twenty fifth anniversary, Coach, we went out
and painted the town red, went out to a nice restaurant,
that kind of stuff, as nice as you can get
in the town of Valdosta. So we're sitting there and
we're getting ready to do our drink orders, and I

(48:27):
decided to splurge because it was our twenty fifth anniversary.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
So I said to the waiter. He said, hey, my man,
this is our twenty fifth anniversary. Will you bring us
a couple of glasses? Of the nicest wine that.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
You have, and they were pricey, so I didn't care,
so he said okay, So he brought us and I
guess it was a red wine coach, so I don't
know what it was to I just knew it was
dark in color. So if you asked me what legs
or feet was on a glass of wine, I would

(48:59):
have no.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
I okay.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
So anyway, I took a sip and Ellen, my wife,
noticed the expression on my face and she said, what
do you think? I said, I guess it's good, but
it tastes like gasoline. And she busted it out, laughing,
and I said, you know what will make it better?
I said, I bet you it would be okay if
it was sweeter. So what I did was, oh no,

(49:23):
I took a couple of packets of sweet, sweet and
load and poured it into the wine. Took a sip
and it's like, she said, what do you think? I said, now,
it just tastes like sweet gasoline.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
The waiter saw me do this, Coach, and after he
picked hisself off the floor because he was laughing so hard, yes,
he came over.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
He said, sir, is there a problem?

Speaker 1 (49:44):
And I told him he says, well, I figured when
you kind of tore into the sweet low and I
was trying to stop you, but it was like going
in slow motion, no, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
So he saw me do it, he said, I figure
you didn't know what you're doing. If you don't like it,
we'll just take the glass is back. We're not gonna
charge you for it, because that was worth the laugh.
And so that's my that's my one and only drinking story.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
Got you all right, So let's uh, let's obviously get
back into talking in high school football out of everybody
is wanting to. It's been a busy, busy time, man.
I got a lot to talk about.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Sly.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
I don't know. We had a Milton question earlier. We
were gonna ask Sly when he came on and Mazoga,
do you remember what it was? That's right, Clack. So
we were wondering, uh, Sly was, was coach Clack the
first head football coach in Milton?

Speaker 3 (50:40):
The first head football coach? Yeah no, no, no, no, no, okay.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Somebody had asked that, and I really wasn't sure how,
I mean, how many.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Well, we found out that Milton football has been around
since the fifties. Right, Yeah, so the first head coach,
according to the high school historians, was Gus Lechis.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Okay, in our hall of fame. Actually is it really,
he's in the he's in our high school. We started
a hall of fame when I was a d back do.
I don't know how long ago. It was probably eight
years maybe ago, because I was like, Bill has been
around in nineteen twenty one, and we have such great academics,
arts and athletics, and there's a hall of fame. So

(51:20):
we started it and Gus was in there. He's in there,
and it's amazing how the Lexis family's been involved in
Milton for a while. Yeah. Coach Clapp came to Milton
in twenty and seventeen was his first year at Milton
High School. We won it in eighteen. Then, of course
he run up in twenty one, left for college, and

(51:42):
then coach resed to.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Okay, Coach, let me let me ask you something. Being
I'm gonna use these in quotes. Okay, being a Northerner,
because you gotta remember, anybody down here considers anybody north
of Macon a Northerner. Okay, no doubt. Okay, So being
a Northerner that's you know, very experienced with the football

(52:04):
environment in the state of Georgia. There just seems to
have been a shift. You know. Back in the good
old days in the Valdosta back in the seventies, eighties, nineties,
the Southern teams really dominated the state of football in
the state of Georgia. But over the last decade maybe two,
we've seen a dramatic shift in the number of state
championships won by teams like Milton and Beauford and Grayson

(52:29):
and the like and Collins Hill. Why do you think
that is. Is it the sheer number of athletes in
the metro area. Is it better coaching, is it better resources,
better facilities.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
All the above.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
What do you think has caused the shift like that?

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Yeah, to Bill's point, I do think it's above. Now,
let's say this, if you go back to like the
uh two thousand and seven ish, when I got up
here from Florida. Yeah, it was a movement of Florida
guys up to Georgia. There was a movement of people
coming to Metro Atlanta, you know. More so, that's why
a lot of college recruiters come to Metro Atlanta because

(53:08):
they can snag a kid out of Georgia because he
doesn't have a bulldog stamped on him, right, Yeah, And
it's such a melting pot of people. So I think
that definitely helped with the just the sheer population in numbers, right.
And I think it just we started I think with Metrolanta.
I know we did at Milton and we talked about
this with a couple of local coaching. We gotta get

(53:28):
outside the box. We got to play the guys without
Georgia outside the playoffs. We got to play these teams
outside the playoffs and make our kids realize you compete
with these cats. Wow, that mindset took over and before
you know it, we would we didn't mind. I went
to Cambden in two thousand and thirteen and played them
in a prefeasing game and did pretty good. Now, that

(53:49):
year we weren't very good. I'm sorry. That was two
thousand and fourteen. That year we went to the third
round of playoffs, and I think it got our kids
manly ready, well play can we don't play? Anybody can.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
So so I'm reading between the lines, and what you're
referring to is before that, before when you were just
playing the Southern teams and the playoffs, and they were
dominant that kind of stuff. There was a mystique about
playing the Southern teams. And once you broke through that
glass barrier, that that that intimidation factor basically was gone.

(54:22):
That's what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
That's a great way of putting that. Sure, it's a
great way of putting you know, I got a really
strong faith and I tell people all the time. You know,
Jess wasn't born in South Georgia and football wasn't created
in South Georgia. But people think they was.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Yeah, good point. Good point. Really never thought about it well.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
And that goes back to you know, Region one six
A formerly one seven eight. It's always been the region
with Valdosta Lounge. And I understand that it's going undergone
some changes. Okay, but we know what we're talking about
here in terms of the core group of teams, right,
Valdosta Lounges, Tift help me out. You remember you had yeah,

(55:02):
you actually had the north side one of Robbins. Uh
that was part of the region. Yeah, remember that. Anyway,
you had a strong Thomas County Central, you had Cauquiock County,
you did. But now so, but let's just focus in
and come kind of the the core South Georgia group
of Calquood County, Tiff County, Valdosta, Lounges, Okay Coffee, coffee

(55:23):
that was really good and then part of our region
for a long time. It was so it was kind
of understood that that was and people still refer to
it today as ah, you know that region down there
in South Georgia, blah blah blah. Well, we've obviously seen
a changing of the guards to speak. You know, Lounge
has undergrowne undergone some some changes, uh, Tiff County undergone

(55:47):
some changes. Valdosta for the most part has held their own,
you know, being moderately good. I think that's a very
fair way to put it. Right. Sure coffee has has
been to maintain a consistency of winning. You know, my
my co brings to saying, my point being that you've
always had the I guess the perception real or not

(56:14):
that that South Georgia hub of teams. Again, you've seen
your changes, you know of names, schools, faces, but for
the most part, that South Georgia hub of five to
seven schools has always been considered the from top to bottom. Yeah,
number one region now, no offense here. But even though

(56:34):
you know Sly, Mazzani, Larry and everybody else watching, I
think that we can still boast from having the most
competitive region. And again, when I say region, you can
take it as singular or plural, because we know that
it changes from time time light. This year you had
Region two five A. Okay, you had one six A.

(56:56):
But you guys understand my point right that you've got
this core group of teams that enjoy success as a group.
Now with Milton Sly, how long has it missed as
you guys lost the region game?

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Been a while?

Speaker 3 (57:10):
What's the question?

Speaker 1 (57:11):
What's your question?

Speaker 3 (57:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (57:12):
How how long has it been since Milton has lost
a region game?

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Yeah? And I'm not really looking for an answer. We
all know it's been a long time.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Six years.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Wow, are you kidding me? Great?

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Dang years and three different regions, Yeah, two different head coaches.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Okay, So look, point being, probably gonna be a while
before you lose a region game. And I know slies like,
don't jenxus, but so help me out collectively and listen,
I'm not in any way putting down the overall quality
of teams. That's not what I'm doing. I'm just asking,

(57:53):
do you think that there's still that what's the word
I'm looking here for. I don't want to say disrespect
act because that's not yet, that's not right. But I
think as a whole that this year may have been
kind of the exception where you had Gainsville, Roswell, Milton,
who else?

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Lies those are? Those were the three top ones? Right?
You had second year, you had the New year, you
had you know, other schools in.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
There by far the most competitive region in a while, right,
I would say so, yes, yeah, So having said that,
still though, I mean, do we take in do we
take that into account in terms of do we still
look at yeah, the region of teams the same way?

(58:43):
Do we compare them to Like I said, that keeps
just going to tip. Do we compare it to the
South Georgia, the region one? Whatever? Yeah, I understand what
I'm asking. Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
I don't think that, dude. You know, I think back
in the good old days before the Metro as a whole,
I think, in my opinion, grew into a strength in
football across the board from it doesn't matter what class
I mean, the Metro Georgia area has just grown in
strength across the classes. So before that occurred, I think,

(59:19):
to slides point, back then, there was a mystique about
South Georgia football, and I think a lot of the
Metro teams, like the park Views and the traditionally stronger
programs up there, I think they compared themselves too, because
I think I've heard the coaches before saying when they
were trying to build their program, they wanted to fashion

(59:40):
it like compared to a South Georgia team like Allowance
of Valdosta or a Calquit that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yep, sly your thoughts. I'm interested to hear what you
have to say about that.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
Yeah, so Larry's point, I think a lot of people
did that. They want to model themselves after the those
some of those South Georgia teams. Even up here, there's
some teams up here to try to model themselves after.
You know, back in the day a Walton our a
park View. I said this to our guys when I
first came in here as Ad, I said, I don't

(01:00:12):
want to be model auf there anybody. I want to
make our own. I want to make our own template, right,
And what does that mean? We're gonna build an empire,
and we're gonna do it brick by brick, and we're
probably piss some people off on the way of doing it,
but the end of the day, we're gonna do it
our way. And I think, if anything, it's like, you know,
I think that's a way to do it. You know, Yes,
you've got to look at other programs, and you're gonna

(01:00:33):
look at I always said it's teaching, coaching and preaching.
Everybody's fealing coming with somebody in those occupations. But I
wanted to make it to where we built our own
and did our own way, because let's face it, you
can't redo what Lounds has done over the years. You
really can't. You really can't redid with what park you
did back in the day, even though I think Coach
clack is in actually coach Clapson to do it in

(01:00:55):
a different way, and I'm excited to see what happens there.
But you know, you have to have some owner ship
of what you want to do and build your old
culture right. And I always say it's gonna happen by
designer by default. If you don't design it, it's gonna
happen by the fault. If you want to design it.
So to your point, Larry, I think that's a great point,
but we always wanted to try to do it all
the way.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Yeah, good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Well you're very well put there for sure. Let's see
if anybody has any additional comments you want to share. Guys,
chime in. Let me get your thoughts. Let us get
your thoughts on what we're talking about the conversation at
hand today. Uh, Deshaun Suggs checking out the show. What's
up my man?

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Go ahead, hey, coach. You know, if we get outside
of lounge and get outside of Milton and and you know,
focus the discussion or broaden the discussion, I should say,
outside of our respective programs in the metro area. You know,
what are the teams that you're looking for to do
well this year?

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Well, great question. You know. I always think you're going
to see mckeach is on the growth right with kareem
up there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
I think we have to have the Games Bolle. I'm
gonna tell you is Games Bowl is like a secret weapon.
They they were really good and and coaches cranky from
last year and they got some cats and uh, they're
building it up there as well. So I don't look
for the games will be very good. Even though they're
our region. I give them props and credit. Look at

(01:02:22):
don't sleep on Roswell. Now they're always a good team.
And now they got that OC from Lee County coming
in there. A team. Uh yeah, a t Yeah he's
doing I'm trying to think quels up here. Grayson. Oh
my goodness, I think Grayson is still gonna be very
talented and loaded going into the next year. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
So it was Santavious Brian Is is just three loading
right now.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
You know, coach, I'm glad you brought up Grayson. Grayson.
It just seems like one of those teams where, let
me back up, it just from from year to year.
Outside of Milton and the like, you do seem to
have different programs that kind of sprout up, have a
good year or two, then then you have another one
sprout up. But Grayson has been one of those teams

(01:03:09):
that have kind of like been the anchor of Metro
Atlanta and and Gwinnette County. They just always seem to
have year in and year out, great athletes and great coaching.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
They really do. They have. They have a phenomenal talent
pool of athletes. Grayson great there for sure, and they'll
forget their basketball team is pretty salty too. Just a
hand in hand when you have a couple of your
bigger sports work hand in hand together and school sport
athletes that transfer over and that that that that wave

(01:03:42):
continues after the season, right, I think that's important.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
So I want to ask about, or kind of in
the same vein of the conversation, what what has happened
to Partview? And again we got Adam Klark going in there.
I think he's going to do a great job. I look,
I can't see Adam Clak not doing a great job. Okay,
Adam Klak gonna go into park View. However, as we
back up and look at the history, I don't know

(01:04:08):
how Parkview got to where it's at. And look, this
is no reflection because I'm the coach. Because I think,
uh coach Tournavent has done a wonderful job. Okay, he's
proven that he can coach football. Just so, I don't
really know what's happened at Parkview some you know, guys,

(01:04:29):
sometimes it's not the coach, Okay, you know, the players
have got to play. I mean, there's a lot of
moving parts to these programs, you know, the feeder system
the you know what I mean. It's by the way,
I just wrote a story that we should be posting
about that kind of ties in feeder systems. Players that
have come up, you know, through these feeder systems that

(01:04:51):
are gonna be the ones to watch. And I think
that really says a lot about the success or the
lack thereof, of some of these programs. Now, I can
tell you Parkview, now that I recall the story I wrote,
there was not a lot of park View young man
in there. Now whose fault, don't nut? Yeah? I again,

(01:05:15):
I'm not here to put follow on anybody. I'm just
giving you this the facts. For whatever reason, Parkview did
not have a lot of those grey, young whipper snappers
I'll call them. Sona tackle that Yeah, Phil, I think
you hit it right in the head.

Speaker 3 (01:05:32):
And it's kind of funny because you really hit it
right on the head. I think it's death by a
thousand cuts in Parkview, right, interest or death by interest.
Little things happen in the feeder system. Little thing has
happened in a booster club. Right, Maybe not show the
coaches now at all, but those other parts, Right, Maybe
there's some administrative on line that that wasn't where it
should have been before. You know it the situation where

(01:05:54):
the program is not like it ever was. And then
if people look back at it saying, well, we've never
been the old park View, well, okay, that's fine. Don't
be the old park view, be the new park View.
I think that's for coach Clak's taking it from here.
But to your point, I think it's death by a
thousand inches of a thousand cuts, and it's just a
matter of time before the wheel spell off and got
to where it is right now. But look for big

(01:06:15):
things down the road. But to your point too, well, Phil,
you know people don't realize Peter like our feet up program.
I think I'm not mistaken. I got to look it up.
But six seven eighth grade off the pets in the
state semifinals or the state championship with Peter. Okay, those
kids are coming through, right. That's important. When you start
losing that in certain programs, eventually you're gonna be a
down or a gap, right, and then that gap happens,

(01:06:37):
kids are like I don't want to be here, and
then you have an excedenus of kids leaving right, as personality.
I think you guys mentioned earlier. I was listening earlier
about the personality of a coach. You're a CEO, not
an exceson that was anymore, And I think that's more
important when I'm hiring a head coach. It's not the
EXO was. The CEO's a.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Great point, great point, and I tell you, I think
that's evident in what we've seen. You guys remember about
a decade ago when it was pretty much automatic at
your especially your bigger schools, that your head football coach
would be your athletic director as well. And I think

(01:07:18):
a part of that, maybe a large part of that
was to justify the six figure salaries. But you know,
I would say that was kind of the run of
the meal in the last decade. But let's chop that
in half. The last five years and maybe longer, I
think we've seen them move away from that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
Yeah, for sure, for sure. You can't look at when
I was ad and I was consistent football coach. My
principal came to me and says, you're not gonna have
to You can't coach football anymore. You know, we don't
want that to happen. We want you guys want you
to focus on athletics, and it hurt me because that
coach I'm been coach over for forty years. But I'll
tell you this, you can't serve two masters. I did

(01:07:59):
a better job, uh not coaching as an AD than
I did when I was coaching, not even a head coach,
just as a coach in general. Now moving forward, I'm
not being a d anymore. I love coaching again. Right, So,
I think to your point, Phil is a great point.
You can't do both directly. Uh, you can't less unless
you're at a school where you don't do anything administratively.
But in Milton, you have more than one duty and

(01:08:20):
it's too.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Well. And look, I think that we've seen a lot
of these these head football coaches have, by really no choice,
had to delegate all of their their football related responsibilities
to their head to their assistant coaches.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
Yeah, and so I coach. I don't know if it's
this trend is happening in the metro Atlanta area, but
it's definitely happening happening down here. So uh, you know,
these schools down here are starting to split duties again
and no longer making head coaches ads. But they are
still making them uh directors or administrative cause positions by

(01:09:00):
giving a new title called director of Football Operations. Yes,
and so a lot of times what will happen is
some of these head coaches now don't report to the
athletic director, but they report directly to the superintendent. And
so because the football program. I don't know if it's
this way in the Metro area, but I would imagine

(01:09:21):
it would be the case. But down here, the football
programs are so large. When you incorporate all the kids
that participate at the middle school levels as well that
that position head coach of the varsity program, you're really
directing a whole lot of bodies involved in that one program.

(01:09:41):
And so that's why I can see how it's justified
in having that head coach also be an administrative position. One,
it justifies the increase in pay, and two you actually
do these head coaches have to look at building for
the future, and by making them director of the entire
program formally, it gives them the resources to do that. Coach.

(01:10:02):
Do you see that up at Metro In the metro.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
I see it in private schools. I don't see them
public schools. And I'll tell you why. I think the
schools in the south part of the state up mostly
county one county schools right where you can do that
with the verd of elegnment.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
Mostly you correct, Now Lowes does. Lowes does it here
in Valdosta where we have a dual program, a dual
system program. But but you're right, most schools down here
are one one school county.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Yeah, right, and up here you have sixteen high schools
in full county.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
I see, very hard to do that. That's true, that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
You know. So the the football operations person is somebody
now loud schools don't have football braces people up here,
believe it or not. My wife's actually the want to
build the high school and helps out with coach Reeson
couple Coach Black prior in the operational part, the gistical part,
of all the moving parts, of all the all the
men traveling and stuff like that. So to your point,
I think it's a lot of private schools up here

(01:10:55):
doing it and looking towards it justify the salary because
then involved right well here our coach is little teeth,
if not three courses.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Wow, very interesting, we're talking to coach sly. It's myself.
Larry Godwin, miss producer, is here and again we're talking
to coach Sly at is extra point with Phil Jones
on this Monday turning dark outside but very much brightly
lit here in our ITG next studios as we got

(01:11:25):
about fifteen minutes left to go and the show, plenty
of time to get y'all's thoughts and talk a little
bit more high school football. That being said, Stephen K.
Winn as asking, and there's a row of questions here
we're going to get through get to you guys on
so if you ask these questions, hang with us coming
about to get some answers for you. Stephen, kay Win,
Phil and or Sly and we'll throw LG in here.

(01:11:47):
Do you know anything about the new head coach at Sprayberry? Honestly,
I don't. I don't even recognize the name. What is
the name?

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
So the name is a p Faminaya.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Bless your heart?

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
What about Jay?

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
You?

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
I do not.

Speaker 3 (01:12:06):
I was a great point because I don't recognize either,
and so you said it very well. By the way,
I might even try to pay it again.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Andrew Watkins, Yo, feel it's almost regional tournament time in
high school basketball. Wow, Yes it is, Yes, it is.
Andrew gives us the uh the once every six months
reference to high school basketball here on the show. We
appreciate that, brother. You know, one of the head coaches
that caught my attention, I mean it kind of surprised
me was Andy Dyer. You know, he was the head

(01:12:37):
coach at Archer for a long long time, had a
lot of success there, right uh Archer. Yes, yeah, how
do you remember that? Because we had to play those guys.
Okay that you're right. I just yeah, you're absolutely right.
So while there's a name out of the out of
the past.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Yes, so so he went off and did his own thing,
but he just got hired by Elbert County.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Really. Yeah, that's what I gotta tell you. High school
football makes for strange combination, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
So you go from the highest classifications to one of
the smallest.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
Exactly what I was thinking of, Larry when you said
that slide, what about you?

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
Uh look at I think with my mistake and he
was there. We played him in eighteen in the uh court.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
Yeah, yep, Andy Dyer, boys, But I forgot I used
to talk a lot with him. That's really odd that
you bring out his name. I love to hear that
he's back in the in the fold here. So by
the way we're talking earlier slide. Don't know if you
missed it or not if you uh were talking with us. Uh,
Mike chess Stain, who was the head coach at Warner Robbins. Uh,

(01:13:46):
he was really the guy that brought about a lot
of the success just prior to Maurice Westbrook coming on
board and taking over and really ride and continuing to
ride that wave of success that Mike chas Stain had
started at one of Robbins. I don't think enough people

(01:14:07):
really give Mike ch Juststin a lot of credit for
what Warner Robbins did. Not that Maurice Westbrook didn't deserve it,
because he absolutely does. Look at what he's done in
Peach County in what just his second year already got
Peach County back to the days of who was the
coach there? Chad, help me out who is it? Today?

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
Is not a good day for names.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Anyway, you guys help me remember who was at Peach County.
But anyway, Marie Westbrook has already got Peach County back
to their winning standards, But it was Mike chas Stain.
Jedd Cambell, you're right, but it was Mike chess Stayin
who really started the run of winning football at Warner

(01:14:52):
Robins sight of your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Well, you know it's so cool about this. As you
talk about these coaches people, we forget so quickly what
they did, right. We forget even what kind of Andy did,
right yep, And you forget what these coaches laid these foundations.
And we shouldn't, but we do. Why because it's all
about current relevance. Then when they come back to the
game like Andy is likely some of these coaches are,

(01:15:18):
and they come back even like coach Clack, you know Clack,
you know started this in seventeen. He's the only got
a couple of years and people like walking back like
he's been gone so long. But it seems like he's
been gone so long, right, So I think it's an
interesting point that we forget who's laid the foundation in
some of these programs.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
We got a question coming from Obada Farley got a
question for coach slaw. Coach slaw, but I wants to
know what advice would you give ex Langston Hughes head
coach heading into this new season at Norris side Warner Robins.
Of course, talking about Daniel Boone Williams.

Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
I just tell you the device I gave my text
him not too long ago. A few days ago we
were going back Worth. I said, just do you you
know what you're doing, You know what it takes you
keep doing. What you're doing is fake. This strong. He's
a very big family guy, and you know the temple
you to put in place to make it work over there.
He'll do it just fine. And I don't think he's
gonna try to go back to the old way, just

(01:16:16):
like Clack's not going back. You're not going back to
one Robbers. You give those guys their homage, and you
and you and you, and you give those guys there
there there they're due, right I Clack. Here's something Coach
Clack always said, And I think if ay thing Boon's
gonna do. You never say you're doing something, you're changing something,
You're gonna you just make us some difference, You make
us something different. It's just different than it was before.

(01:16:37):
That's all you have to say, right, Because if you
give somebody negative publicity or negative connotations what they had
prior to you. That doesn't look good in the community,
and you want to win the community over. So you're
gonna make some You're gonna make some differences a little bit.
You're gonna do things a little different than other people
have done it and then still broke grow off that.
I think that's what Boot will do there and do

(01:16:57):
just fine as well.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
So you don't invent the wheel, that's what you're saying,
but you do definitely put your own blueprint or your
own fingerprint on it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:07):
Yeah, So you know, let's face it, Warner Robins. You know, uh,
if you go down to those are houses built on stone.
We know that, right, But they need some new paint,
they need some new rugs, need some new curtains.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
That's you have to do.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
But the foundation has been there. We'll give the people
you want. You want to have those old guys come back,
meaning not old guys meaning coaches, but full of ye
want them back. You want par Few's got a history,
all those wins a history.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
You're not kidding, I mean, you know, standing on the
shoulders of giants there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:38):
Yes, bring them back, bring them back and have empower
them to help the community, help the program do that.
Look out, you got some You got some new power
houses on your hand.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Same thing with north Side Warner Robbins. They have a
pretty good history of winning as well. And so then
you know in the last probably decade or so, that
they fall on hard times and power seem to shift
to one of Robbins. But there is enough talent in
the Houston County community to go around for a lot
of different teams up there, no question, and Northside is
one of them. Yes, And so you know, coach Williams

(01:18:09):
may be one of those charismatic figures that we talked
about earlier Phil on the show to inspire that football
community to come back out and rejoin the team, if
you will. Now what I'm interested to see in that
situation is north Side one Robbins with all the success
they've had, they've been a run heavy, dominant offense with

(01:18:33):
very very strong defenses. That's what they relied on in
the pass to win. So with coach Williams, he's been
known to sling the ball around the yard a little bit.
So is he going to adapt his style and when
he shows up on campus say hey, this is the
talent they have or does he immediately say Hey, listen,
this is the program that I have. Let's see if

(01:18:54):
we can find the athletes to adapt to this style.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
Well, I can answer that, and sly you may remember this,
we had coach Boone on the show with us. In fact,
yours truly was the one to break the story and
later I think it's that same day we actually had
him on the show. Slide you remember that, Yes, I do,
And I asked him that question, Larry, to answer your question.
I said, wait, what are you gonna do in terms

(01:19:17):
of your your style of calling plays to tall of
football you like to run? Or are you going to
adjust it to the personnel you have? And his answer
was I'm gonna adjust it to the personnel. I want
to see what we got in there and got. You know, look,
I think that's the right way. That's a smart way
to do it. I think, you know, so many of
us focus on a certain coach and their style of

(01:19:41):
offense or defense. You know, what, do they like to run? Guys?
I think while that may still be the case with coaches,
I mean, you never are gonna go away with what
got you to the dance or whatever the thing is.
I think it's smart. We saw Randy mcpherrison do it. It
lounds when we never ever thought that he would change. Yea,
and he did.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
He adapted.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
Yes, yeah, So before we yeah, go ahead, Slain.

Speaker 3 (01:20:04):
I think you need to adapt. If you don't adapt,
I think you're gonna die in the vine or dine
in that hill, and it's not a good place to be.
I think you have to adapt to the personnelity and
and still keep your culture right. Boone's culture is tough,
tough from on both sides of bowline, d line physical defense. Right.
You can keep that, but you may have to change
it like we would. No one's doing his RBU right.

(01:20:26):
Running back to you, we had a great rush this year,
I don't know, almost two thousand yards, but we still
on the ball in the yard pretty good too in
the week. So I think you have to adapt to
your talent and adapt to your personnel.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Okay, So before we get out of here, and I
got to bring this up and when everybody's advice on this,
suggestions on this so well, I really had a power pack.
A couple of hours before the show started. I mentioned
the fact that I talked to Mike Jess Stain about
three o'clock though, I had a great conversation with the
GHSA executive director, Tim Scott, who was kind enough to

(01:21:00):
give me a call today, because there's a couple of
things that are making a lot of headlines right now.
I know we all were talking about it before me.
Lariyu and Mazzoni were talking about it. I think Sly
and I have talked about it, maybe a couple of
isolated instances, but talking real quick about two things. One
thing we talked about last week competitive balance. Okay, by oh,

(01:21:21):
by the way, I talked to Adam Lindsay this morning.
I'm telling you, man, I had the Who's Sue on
the phone today with me. Adam Lindsay. He is really
leading the charge to try to get this competitive balance
brought to the forefront at GHSA. What is that, Well,
we talked about it possibility that the next reclassification cycle

(01:21:42):
we'll see Georgia's schools reclassified, not based on school sites
or enrollment, in fact totally goes away, and it could
give way to a competitive balance model which is going
to state pretty much that the top five teams that

(01:22:04):
have had success. And again there's a lot of details
of this, so I'm kind of giving you the very much.
The cliff notes, but you're pretty much talking about the
five teams whose success will be defined by a lot
of different factors. Okay, it's kind of like this algorithm.
You're going to determine who the top five successful programs are.
Now that could increase to more. That's just their nast

(01:22:26):
round number. But you say the top five teams who
have had the most success in each classification, and they
go up a class for two years. Okay, but then
you've also got the five teams who had the least success.
They go down a classification. When I first read about

(01:22:47):
this idea, my first thought was football. But they're not
talking about just football. I think they're talking about the overall.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
Sports press absolutely, which could be a really good program
them with a not so good football program.

Speaker 1 (01:23:03):
So in that case, they wouldn't go up or down.
That's right. It's it's going to be an overall you know,
measuring stick, correct if you will, of all sports combined.
Uh and again, guys, just real quick, I'll give you
an example. Westminster High School. What are they like? Two
A one A Yeah, not very big at all. Well,
guess what they're the most by a long shot, the

(01:23:27):
most successful overall well rounded athletic program in the state.
Is that because of they have a lot of out
of zone kids.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
Is that what moved them up from two eight to
three O or someone?

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
That's a good question. I don't know anything about that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
I think I think it was the kids.

Speaker 1 (01:23:45):
Okay, well again, now you're you're you're you're still overall enrollment.
You're not talking about a very big school, correct, but
when it comes to winning championships, they're bringing it home.
That's why, by the way, the home of a Kansas
City kicker.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
Oh is that right?

Speaker 1 (01:24:03):
Yeah, Harris Butner boy guys automatic. But anyway, so that's
one part of the conversation that, according to doctor Scott,
has a very good chance of passing, could very well
serve as the basis for the next reclassification cycle. Yeah, okay,

(01:24:24):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Have a problem with that program that plan at all.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
Right now, and you're gonna want to get this out
and if we run a few minutes over, we're okay
with that. But we won't hold everybody around for very long.
But I want to get this out and let's talk
about it before we get out of here. So the
other the second big thing guys, is the possibility. And
Larryt actually brought this to my attention first, but I
talked with doctor Scott about it also today earlier, and

(01:24:47):
this has a lot less chances, says, I ain't to
you that talking about the possibility of GHSA reducing. Are
going from how many classifications is it now?

Speaker 3 (01:25:00):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Seven? We have eight? Six officially, all right, A D one,
A D two two, A three, A four, an five,
A six A seven.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
Yeah, all right, so I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
Gonna go from seven to a proposed four, doctor Scott
pretty much without saying it exactly, and I'm not quoting him.
It's not gonna happen, not right now. Anyway, I told
you earlier today on the phone that plan is d
O A. Yeah, it has been brought up, okay, and
doctor Scott explained to me, Hey, it's just been brought

(01:25:34):
up for conversation. But that's how things start. Somebody's got
to raise the idea. But I want to get y'all
thoughts on that. And the tricky thing is there would
be four classes but still be eight state champions crowned.
I want to get everybody's thoughts as we end the
show today, Sly.

Speaker 3 (01:25:52):
Yeah, I think they're overthinking it on that one. I
don't think that's something that's going to be effective at all.
And I feel v I don't mind the competitive balance.
That's why that's why we petitioned to stay up when
I was eight D all those years and we won
you know, seven A I think twice as six A school, right,
because I like to continue any consistency, So if we

(01:26:12):
bump up, as long as we stay there, I'm fine
with that. The back and forth stuff driving me crazy
because the end of the day, you learn the new
opponents every time, and it's just you can't get a uh,
you know, Cadence going that's my mom field B. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
So so, Phil, I don't really think there's a need
to contract the class sizes down from six to four whatever,
because at the end of the day, you're still going
to have eight state champions, and that means that they're
basically going to play in larger regions during the regular season, yes,
but magically in the playoffs now you separate. To me,

(01:26:48):
that doesn't make very much sense. But the reason why,
the rationale why they give of wanting to perhaps pursue
this course of action is you know, uh, the cost
of travel is a big deal. Sure, it really is.
So in the case of a school like a Valdosta,
Tift or Lounges which has where where there's only one

(01:27:11):
region in the largest classification south of Atlanta, that for
the large schools, and we have six schools, that means
that we have to fill a lot of our schedule
with non region opponents that are far away, true, right,
and we kind of go back to where we were,
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
So the so the rationale behind what they're talking about is,
you know, you have more teams in a region that
mean that are geographically closer together. That means less travel
outside of that region. That means cost savings and the like.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
So, but what the course that they're pursuing, I think
has no chance of passing. However, feel and coach, let
me get your opinion on this. I think they can
do this by a an easier thing that people can
probably accept, which accomplishes the same thing that they want.
Let me give you an example. You have Region one

(01:28:08):
six A down here, and you have Region one five
A as well, yep, which a little bit slightly smaller
schools in Coffee Lee Thomas County Central, and they have
the same problems that the larger classification has is they
have to schedule a lot of non region game from
far away teams. Why don't they come together as regions

(01:28:32):
and sign some type of an agreement that says, let
you know what, for the non region part of our schedule,
these two regions in two different classes will agree to
play each other as part of their non region schedule,
and then it doesn't affect region play at all. But
the de facto is you have these natural rivalries that
have sprung up again and that are a lot closer,

(01:28:54):
and you cut down on costs just by signing on
the dotted line saying during the non part a region
part of the schedule, we just agree to play each other.
What do you think about that, coach?

Speaker 3 (01:29:06):
I think that's a great thought process for numerous reasons.
The first one is, like you said, logistics, money, creating
natural rivals that are usually there anyway, you just got
to kind of get them going again. The only thing
I can think about is people don't want to play
some out of state games and may hurt you there
a little bit. But other than that, no, I think
that's a great thought process, And I think up here
trying to do that even though you're you know, they're

(01:29:29):
not done as far away, just to get the rivalries
going again. And let's stay for the five gates, right,
that's a business so great point.

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
Absolutely all right, guys, anybody have any We'll give you
time around for our final word over our Farley is
checking out on us. Michael Douglas, famous Hollywood actor, is
checking out the show today. Michael, thanks so much for
being in the house with us. Zach Maldon, need to
fix the regions. Traveling two point five hours two and

(01:29:57):
a half hours for reagion games is crazy, especially weekday sports, Zach,
great call there, Brother Carlton Jones admits, Hey, that's gonna
be difficult. Okay, so let's give everybody the final word. Mazzanie, Uh,
let's give you the final word. First off, what's your
final word today? Yeah? Great, great call. And for those

(01:30:27):
of you who don't know what I'm talking about, we
didn't have a third head set today anyway. Some miscommunication
my fault, but we'll get it fixed. Larry.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
Yeah, my final thought feel has nothing to do with football,
but it is this, Listen. We compete on the field,
we compete at our jobs. But we're still part of
one big earthly family, so let's be kind to each other.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
I like that, Larry, I really do. That's a that's
a great, great way to end the show. All right,
So why what you got?

Speaker 3 (01:30:55):
Man? How do I follow that?

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
I know? Right, Larry, today, I.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
Would just say, I'm gonna say retweet. That's the funnal word.

Speaker 1 (01:31:05):
I love it? Did a yes, sir, there you go, guys.
I want to close with this. There's a lot happening
in Georgia high school sports, especially Georgia high school football.
It's the very reason that we talk high school football
year round because we can there's always something that is uh,
you know, it's what's the word I'm looking for here?

(01:31:28):
I mean, it's relevant, Okay, even though we're what in
February just turned the calendar. Always something relevant that speaks
to the quality of high school football that we have
here in Georgia. And you may be saying, well, that's
nothing new. No it's not. But I've got an article
that's going to be coming out that talks about has
Georgia I think it's actually already out that has Georgia

(01:31:48):
become the new capital of high school quarterbacks? In the country.
And I know yeah, and I'll tell you. I encourage
you guys to check out our post on social media.
You'll see the story. Anna does a great job. She's
our operation director of I think we have the best
graphics of anybody, so pride of the work we do here.

(01:32:09):
But check out the story talking about and asking as
Georgia become the national high school headquarters when it comes
to the best high school quarterbacks in the country. And
I make a case of some pretty good examples many
of you, which you guys will know in terms of

(01:32:30):
Luke Nickel, Juju, and it just goes on and not
so anyway, this is what we do. Guys. Be sure
to join us every Monday. We'll be back with you
next Monday in the In the meantime, be sure to
check out all of our material. Itg Next Georgia, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
wherever you go there we are YouTube. Be sure to

(01:32:54):
check us out here. Itg Next Georgia. Engage with us, guys,
Engage talk with us, give us your thoughts on the stories,
good or bad. We can take it. Love to hear
from you. That's what matters. For misproducer Mazzanie for coach
sly remotely from up in Crabapple or somewhere thereabouts Kelly

(01:33:15):
Mill Road for Larry Godwin. I'm Phil Jones saying you
guys have a great night. Thanks so much, you had
a great show today. We'll see you next Monday, right
here at ITG next Georgia. See you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
Take care,