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Carl Lee's OT - Team Memories: High School Through Pro · WCHS Network Podcasts

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  The opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of w VRC
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  Media, It's management, employees, or sponsors. This is Overtime, a
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  weekly moment of Off the Cup commentary on everything from sports and politics to observations
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  about everyday life from NFL all Pro Curl Lee. Welcome to Overtime. Hello,
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  ladies and gentlemen. This is Curl Lee and I have this is my
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  overtime segment, and I have my guest with me, Hollis Lewis. And
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  this weekend, Hollis, I I was with my guys. Man, Like
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  you know, guys from Marshall. Our experience at Marshall pretty much is the
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  same. You know, didn't win many games, Darnelle Richardson, Stefan Blackwell,
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  Greg Jones, Kenny Lindsey, Leon Simms. We spent literally like the
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  whole weekend together just hanging out, laughed and reminiscing and and and all of
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  that. And I bring that up because that's the bond that you have that
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  you grow that you that you don't know from high school, you know,
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  the guys that you played with, you don't know that. Then you get
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  to the college level, you know you're with these guys like every day,
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  like you're you're you're going through You're eating with them, sleeping with them,
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  practicing with them, like you're you're around them all day. You're in the
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  same dorm, you're rooming with some of them. You know, you don't
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  ever get away from them. And over thirty plus years, like, we're
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  still that group. And regardless of how good you were, or whether you
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  played or started or any of that kind of stuff, none of that matters
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  today. And one of the things that I think we're missing, whether whether
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  it's a hear an issue, whether it's a coach issue, whether it's a
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  player issue, or a combination of all of them, that's the piece that
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  you miss when you start talking about you know, because it seems it seems
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  personal. Now, my journey is personal. It's me. I don't have
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  anything to do singular. Yeah, that's the better word. It's singular.
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  And you know me and you can be cool now, but man, I'm
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  not staying here because you here. You know, I'm going for what's best
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  for me. And I just don't know if that's if that's if that's sports,
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  Like I don't think that's how sports was meant to be. I think
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  it was meant to be a bond to where you you know, kind of
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  almost like the boy Scouts, Like you get into boy Scouts and you bond
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  with those groups, with those other kids, and like you stay there like
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  you're in that with them, and you build that lifetime bond. I mean,
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  yeah, and what you speaking on Tom Brady recently, he was on
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  the podcast and he made the exact exact same point. He said, the
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  problem with kids today in sports is that it's all about them. And you
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  know to that point, I mean, I had bonds of guys to play
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  like little League baseball with, you know what I mean, little League football,
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  high school, college, So it's very valid and very important. And
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  I think it's you know, building those lifetime friendships and bonds across these different
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  sports for different reasons. Like you said, whether you're college and you're just
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  spending all day together, or you had a great season in high school or
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  something to that effect, these are lifetime friendships, lifetimes, memories, lifetime
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  are reminiscing, you know, and you've missed even and not saying that that
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  me and you can't still be cool because I left and went somewhere else.
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  It's not the same. But it's not the same because if you didn't go
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  through the same experience as I had, us winning two and three games every
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  season and understanding what that what our bus rides were like, we only flew
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  like maybe once. I think that might have been the Mississippi State. We
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  drove everywhere else we went those long bus rides coming back home, you know,
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  sitting in the car, sitting on the bus and can't say anything,
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  no music, no like, you know, you couldn't have fun on the
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  bus. Sonny would think like, like you ain't. You ain't have no
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  emotion in the game if you if you having fun on the bus, I
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  don't care how long of a trip it is. You ain't laughing and joking
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  and all that kind of stuff. Yeah it is, But but if you
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  didn't go through that, you don't understand that. You know, if you
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  go through to a days with some guys, I mean you you you bonded.
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  I mean because you there like you're with them like all the time,
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  days for two and three straight weeks. We them for four weeks. That's
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  crazy. I mean, that's what it was. It didn't seem strange,
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  it was it was what it is now today, I can't even do that,
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  You can't do it. But what a bond though, Yeah, And
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  I think that we talked about like sort of the comparison between women's sports and
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  men's sports, particularly on the basketball side, and I think that's what's being
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  had, right. They're developing those bonds. They're playing with each other for
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  two, three, four years and we're getting to know them, they're getting
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  to know them, and those bonds and that those relationships are felt even watching
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  it as a fan. Absolutely, And when you start talking about those those
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  top teams, and I know they had some that had transferred in and all
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  that kind of stuff, but for the most part, those those players,
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  those ladies have been around each other for a couple of years now or at
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  least coming in at least coming in together. And yeah, and they and
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  they have a bond that that bond is different. And then you're winning a
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  championship and you're on a team, Yeah, that's a that's a that's a
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  different thing losing on a team that you are tied to, believe it or
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  not, And I know it for a five It creates a bond that because
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  it's yours, you have to live in that, you know, and I
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  and I think even to the point to that point, I think even when
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  you have a successful coach like Kyler Parry formerly at Kentucky now to Arkansas,
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  I think as far as when the administration was looking at him, they're looking
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  at it from maybe your perspective, like, man, we don't want all
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  these just one and done. We don't want people who don't care about Kentucky
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  basketball, right. We want to build a legacy. We want guys who
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  want to be here. We want those two three four year guys, and
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  we want to build those type of teams as opposed to doing it his way
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  where it's kind of you know, it's it's it's the fast food version of
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  college basketball, where you just in and out in and out right and out
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  right. So I think even even to take a successful, great coach who's
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  won championship and he can almost I don't know if he was fired, but
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  he can you know, be let go or however the transaction went, I
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  think that college teams across men and women's are starting to see like this is
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  just not the way to do business anymore. And we have to build legacy.
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  We have to build teams and we have to build those bonds. That
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  question to valid point, and I agree, I only have one. I
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  think I have one issue with it. The great coach that's that that is
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  there or or go somewhere. I'm chasing that coach because that coach it's been
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  great. Yeah, and I think that's you know, that may be different
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  than just chasing success, but that too can sometimes create a situation. Now
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  as you can call Sonny Randall whatever you whatever, you wanted him to be
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  successful, just a hard nosed guy, military kind of guy. I was
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  fine with it. Yeah I didn't. I didn't. I mean, I'm
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  not like, oh, yeah, run me again, you know, but
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  if it was if it was good enough, if it was going to get
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  me to where I wanted to go, and it was harder than anything I
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  had ever been through, but I'm satisfied. You know, winning, winning
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  is important to me, But it ain't. It ain't it ain't. It
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  ain't the end thing. But but I think, from like a university standpoint,
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  winning is critical. Oh it's critical, you know what I'm saying.
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  But I think it's always been like that. I mean, I think even
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  if we if we look at Alabama for example, or we can stay in
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  Kentucky. When you look at Kentucky, when you think of Kentucky, you're
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  not necessarily just thinking of Cola PARTI. You're thinking about a legacy of you
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  think of Alabama, a legacy of winning. It helps those brands, It
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  helps recruiting, and it helps that bringing the money to student bodies. So
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  it has a you know, sort of a downhill effect the winning at Marshall
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  get Marshall, Yes, and that crew, that crew was and it was
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  a crew before him, Peyton and Pedro and those guys who won those Double
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  A championships like that was that was important for Marshall. The interesting component to
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  that is is the group that I was in kind of got left, kind
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  of got left out. And you know, I love the thing about we
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  are you know, I love that, you know, I can appreciate.
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  But when you say that you have to include us, you know, and
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  sometimes we feel like it's not it's not that our group is not included because
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  we didn't win. Yeah, but every and again that comes that comes on
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  us to depend on I'm gonna feel like I'm included in but but no,
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  But I think to your point, it's exactly what we talked about earlier.
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  Everything. It's like the the I forget what they call it, but it's
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  like the effect if if this doesn't happen, and then this doesn't happen.
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  Right, So for example, if Carl Lee doesn't come out and be a
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  draft pick right after the or close to the plane crash and kind of in
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  that first class of guys that's going to the NFL, then maybe we don't
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  have a success in the late eighties moving up to the Randy Moss area and
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  currently. So you have to include everybody because everybody had a part to play
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  in it, you know. And and I'll close on this and say that,
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  you know, one of the one of the most important things to me
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  is have played at Marshall. And again, I knew of the plane crash
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  where we did the ten year reunion when I was there, but it didn't
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  it never really actually got to me until I saw the movie. Yeah,
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  I still haven't seen it. Now, you're crazy. I'm just I like
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  Marshall and I don't want to get emotional. Sorry, but I'm gonna watch
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  it eventually. Bright Now you need to watch it before the next week.
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  You need to watch before next week. Yeah, you need to you need
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  to go home and sit down and watch it. Yeah, because it's it's
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  it changes the dynamics of what Marshall is. And I think that's what was
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  so big for me. And I think being one of the being part of
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  that legacy of after the plane crash and still trying to get to some winning
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  seasons, trying to re establish the team. I didn't get that until after
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  the movie. I didn't appreciate that until after the movie. Yeah. And
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  see, that's the thing I'm saying, like, if if you know all
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  that that happened, and then if you're not drafted, then who knows what
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  happens to the program? Because even though we weren't winning, what they can
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  always say during their areas like hey we had an NFL NFL player, we
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  had a player drafted and he went on to have this illustrious career. So,
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  like I said, it's all part of the puzzle. All right,
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  ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna get out of here, and we appreciate your
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  listening, and we'll get back with you again soon we're out. The opinions
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  expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WVRCN, its management,
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  employees, or sponsors. Follow us on Facebook at let's Talk carl It.
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  Visit wcchsnetwork dot com slash let's talk for more