Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / a111325 Carl Lee Lets Talk Show May 2025 Update_01_mixdown
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta work. You gotta work, ry Shine. It's
- 0:13Speaker 1: mine gotta show. Everybody is my time. Can't you gotta work?
- 0:17Speaker 1: Cry Shan another mile Saga Dogs.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Welcome to Let's Talk with carl Lee and frequent guest
- 0:22Speaker 2: hosts Hollis Lewis and Lisa Odie, where sports culture and
- 0:26Speaker 2: community intersect. Join the crew as they dive into engaging
- 0:30Speaker 2: conversations with guests from all walks of the sports life.
- 0:33Speaker 2: Let's Talk as proudly presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real Talk,
- 0:37Speaker 2: Real Experience, Real Results, Frank Walker Law dot com and
- 0:41Speaker 2: by the all new historic Choyer Diner in downtown Charleston
- 0:45Speaker 2: one line at Choyerdiner dot com. Let the conversation begin
- 0:50Speaker 2: on Let's Talk.
- 0:51Speaker 3: All right, ladies and gentlemen, This is Curl Lee with
- 0:54Speaker 3: Let's Talk. And we have uh my co host Lisa Odie.
- 0:59Speaker 4: In the building.
- 1:00Speaker 5: We have my other co host, Hollis Lewis in the building.
- 1:04Speaker 3: And we have the head coach for South Charleston High School,
- 1:07Speaker 3: Coach Donnie Mays.
- 1:08Speaker 5: Coach.
- 1:08Speaker 4: How you doing doing well?
- 1:10Speaker 5: All right? So I'm going to open up with can
- 1:15Speaker 5: you give us a kind of a.
- 1:17Speaker 3: Viewpoint of where you kind of feel you are right
- 1:21Speaker 3: now with South Charleston as a football program and how
- 1:24Speaker 3: you know, and maybe a little bit more about the
- 1:27Speaker 3: progress of moving forward.
- 1:29Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 1:30Speaker 6: You know, first of all, when we met with the
- 1:32Speaker 6: team the very first day, we talked about we are
- 1:35Speaker 6: this is gonna be a war, not a battle, right.
- 1:38Speaker 6: We kind of adopted the name War Eagles. You know,
- 1:41Speaker 6: we're the Black Eagles. We're gonna you know, hashtag war
- 1:44Speaker 6: Eagle everything. So it's it's it's about the long term.
- 1:47Speaker 6: It's not about the short term. It's about building. And
- 1:50Speaker 6: we talked to the seniors about laying a proper foundation.
- 1:55Speaker 6: So what we tried to do was improve in every category,
- 1:59Speaker 6: whether we wins or losses, which we we did that.
- 2:03Speaker 6: You know, it's not to our standard, but we we
- 2:05Speaker 6: did what we wanted to do as far as like
- 2:09Speaker 6: improving that area. We scored more points this year than
- 2:13Speaker 6: the last three years combined, and defensively, we we performed
- 2:18Speaker 6: at a level where statistically it was improvement over the
- 2:23Speaker 6: last three years. So like we looked at that stuff.
- 2:27Speaker 6: We still failed in our turnover category. It was like
- 2:30Speaker 6: if they were another Jersey. We we found a way
- 2:33Speaker 6: to put it right on the the court. You know,
- 2:36Speaker 6: quarterback play was a little tough at times. We went
- 2:39Speaker 6: through four different quarterbacks and in as Hollis knows that
- 2:44Speaker 6: that position is so integral to your success.
- 2:47Speaker 3: And particularly the offense, in the in the style of
- 2:50Speaker 3: play that you want to play, having that good quarterback
- 2:53Speaker 3: is vital. So like just you know, being in a
- 2:58Speaker 3: position where you've had You had ultimate success in South
- 3:02Speaker 3: Charleston prior we won a championship, You had great success
- 3:06Speaker 3: at Hurricane. You always had been on a part of
- 3:09Speaker 3: a winning program or at least teetering. So come into
- 3:13Speaker 3: this and I don't think you've had a season like
- 3:15Speaker 3: this maybe in your career. It's been a long time
- 3:18Speaker 3: since you had this week.
- 3:19Speaker 6: We had a couple couples where it was like, you know,
- 3:22Speaker 6: four and six or something like that.
- 3:24Speaker 4: But I think perspective is the big thing.
- 3:27Speaker 6: You know, some people will schedule themselves into the playoffs.
- 3:30Speaker 6: I mean, when you look at when you look at
- 3:33Speaker 6: what you what you have, if you and you know,
- 3:36Speaker 6: I don't call out anybody, that's not who I am.
- 3:39Speaker 6: But if you look at the playoffs and you look
- 3:41Speaker 6: at teams that might be ten and ozer or something
- 3:44Speaker 6: like that, and they're getting an eight or nine seed.
- 3:46Speaker 6: You know, those are those are teams that you're probably
- 3:49Speaker 6: looking at like maybe they're just uh, you know, scheduling
- 3:51Speaker 6: their way in. But there are also a lot of
- 3:53Speaker 6: things that go into play too, like where we did
- 3:55Speaker 6: the recalculating of class vacations and all that stuff too,
- 4:01Speaker 6: so they might have got stuck with that schedule. So
- 4:03Speaker 6: but you can see that as a coach, I mean,
- 4:05Speaker 6: and one of the big things is that you want
- 4:08Speaker 6: your kids to play good teams.
- 4:13Speaker 4: It only makes you better.
- 4:14Speaker 6: Unfortunately, you know, sometimes people locally will not play you,
- 4:18Speaker 6: and it forces you to do things that's out of
- 4:20Speaker 6: your comfort zone. We signed a four year contract when
- 4:23Speaker 6: I was at South Charleston and took on for a
- 4:26Speaker 6: Johnson Central team for four straight years and they beat
- 4:29Speaker 6: us every single.
- 4:30Speaker 5: Year school from Kentucky. From Kentucky.
- 4:33Speaker 6: And when I was at Hurricane, we couldn't find a
- 4:36Speaker 6: tenth game. And before I say what I'm gonna say,
- 4:39Speaker 6: you know, we played de whitp Michigan. We had to
- 4:41Speaker 6: go six and a half hours up, went up there,
- 4:44Speaker 6: lost seventy to sixty three, had the ball to tie
- 4:48Speaker 6: it to go and you know at the end, but
- 4:50Speaker 6: we got right back on the bus and went home.
- 4:52Speaker 6: But the point that I'm trying to make is it's
- 4:55Speaker 6: so important for these kids to be able to play
- 4:58Speaker 6: ten football games. So we're going to anyone that wants
- 5:01Speaker 6: to play a tenth game, and we're going to make
- 5:02Speaker 6: sure that our kids do it because we were part
- 5:04Speaker 6: of this COVID time. We were part of where we
- 5:07Speaker 6: were fighting for these kids to play the game of
- 5:09Speaker 6: football and be allowed to play more than one or
- 5:12Speaker 6: two games. And I stand by that. I mean, like
- 5:16Speaker 6: I know that some people didn't do that. They might
- 5:19Speaker 6: not been in the coaching profession then and they're getting
- 5:22Speaker 6: into it now and they will duck and dodge all
- 5:24Speaker 6: these games being offered out there. But the reality of
- 5:27Speaker 6: the situation is these kids deserve an opportunity to play
- 5:29Speaker 6: ten games. So we'll play about anybody, but we also
- 5:32Speaker 6: want to play within our class. I mean, I think
- 5:34Speaker 6: it's fair for our kids at South Charleston, and you know,
- 5:37Speaker 6: and now you can say the same thing for other
- 5:39Speaker 6: local schools to play people in their class. Playing up
- 5:42Speaker 6: sometimes is not a benefit, and it's not a benefit
- 5:45Speaker 6: for a four A school to play a three A
- 5:47Speaker 6: school because they get no strength to schedule points.
- 5:49Speaker 4: So it is what it is.
- 5:53Speaker 6: So sometimes yes we will end up being you know,
- 5:55Speaker 6: four and six or whatever, but we played such a
- 5:58Speaker 6: tough schedule that we would end up getting to the playoffs.
- 6:01Speaker 6: I think it's only this is probably the worst record
- 6:03Speaker 6: that we've ever had. But if it's all about perspective,
- 6:06Speaker 6: for me, it was not the standard. Two and eight
- 6:08Speaker 6: is not the standard. But for a lot of people
- 6:11Speaker 6: going back to Sow Charleston, they saw improvement and parents
- 6:14Speaker 6: were like elated that we were improving. So like, it's
- 6:17Speaker 6: all about a mindset of perspective.
- 6:20Speaker 3: Now, now is that to sell? Because again I'm not
- 6:23Speaker 3: we don't recruit and we don't do that, but you
- 6:26Speaker 3: had with transfer rules and everything like that. So when
- 6:29Speaker 3: you're talking to kids, when you're talking to their parents,
- 6:31Speaker 3: and you're saying like, look, we've had constant improvement in
- 6:34Speaker 3: all these areas we're willing to go play ex schools.
- 6:37Speaker 3: Is that the sell to the kids who are trying
- 6:39Speaker 3: to come to South Trampo.
- 6:40Speaker 6: You're really in today's world, you don't you don't have
- 6:43Speaker 6: to talk to any parent, you don't have to say anything.
- 6:46Speaker 6: You do your job and we've done. We've we've we also,
- 6:50Speaker 6: like the other thing is too, we've we put We've
- 6:53Speaker 6: got five scholarship offers already into them or Division one
- 6:56Speaker 6: A on a two and eight football team. So it's
- 6:58Speaker 6: about the point sure that these kids are getting an
- 7:01Speaker 6: extra opportunity. We're we're gonna go above and beyond.
- 7:04Speaker 4: I mean, my.
- 7:05Speaker 6: Position coaches grab up some of their guys and go
- 7:08Speaker 6: travel to the University of Virginia just like yesterday or
- 7:11Speaker 6: whatever Saturday to go watch a UVA play, but have
- 7:15Speaker 6: a kid being on campus in the facility with their
- 7:19Speaker 6: head coach and as an invite. And then you know,
- 7:22Speaker 6: we had a couple get offered from Akron. So like,
- 7:24Speaker 6: I think that's important that we expand who we are
- 7:27Speaker 6: and the parents see that stuff, like you know, I
- 7:30Speaker 6: don't need to call a parent, like that's not even
- 7:33Speaker 6: in my vocabulary. You know, they see that stuff and
- 7:36Speaker 6: they want the best opportunity for their kid. That's what's
- 7:39Speaker 6: going on with your with your transfer portal, which is
- 7:42Speaker 6: you know, it's we didn't set that rule the you know,
- 7:45Speaker 6: the legislature did, and we just have to live in
- 7:48Speaker 6: it and we have to find the best way to
- 7:49Speaker 6: do it, and I think the best way is to
- 7:51Speaker 6: make sure that your program as a coach, you're doing
- 7:53Speaker 6: everything right for the.
- 7:54Speaker 5: Kid nice and see.
- 7:56Speaker 3: And I think, and I'm curious about what you say
- 8:00Speaker 3: to this, like those kids that are getting those offers,
- 8:06Speaker 3: and they're getting those offers and in part because of
- 8:12Speaker 3: your work, your work with them, the coaches work with them.
- 8:18Speaker 3: Is that something that you put out that's that that
- 8:21Speaker 3: people are aware of, like just the general public. Are
- 8:25Speaker 3: they are aware of these kids that are getting these offers?
- 8:29Speaker 3: Because I think, to me, that would that would make
- 8:32Speaker 3: me like, look at it, And I don't have to
- 8:34Speaker 3: look at the record. I don't even care about the
- 8:36Speaker 3: record at that point. When I see that or I
- 8:38Speaker 3: hear that, I'm thinking, in my mind, oh, well, he's
- 8:41Speaker 3: doing a great job.
- 8:42Speaker 5: He's getting these kids into college.
- 8:45Speaker 3: It is Are you in that space of wanting that information.
- 8:50Speaker 4: To get out Personally?
- 8:53Speaker 6: I get a lot of my assistant coaches saying I
- 8:55Speaker 6: need to put out more. But the reality of the
- 8:58Speaker 6: situation is we have people who run our social media
- 9:01Speaker 6: on the staff and they do that stuff. Because I'm
- 9:04Speaker 6: not that guy. I'm not a social media guy. I
- 9:06Speaker 6: don't really sit in there and do all that stuff,
- 9:08Speaker 6: but like Coach Canada does and he'll put out graphics
- 9:12Speaker 6: and stuff like that. And literally I hired an offensive
- 9:16Speaker 6: line coach from the state of Florida who's a friend
- 9:18Speaker 6: of mine who has also put a.
- 9:20Speaker 4: Lot of kids in college.
- 9:23Speaker 6: So he and I kind of sat down and he said,
- 9:25Speaker 6: all right, make a list of all the schools that
- 9:27Speaker 6: you have put kids into. And I'm gonna make a
- 9:30Speaker 6: list and then let's compile our lists and see what
- 9:32Speaker 6: we have.
- 9:32Speaker 4: And that's penned at the.
- 9:34Speaker 6: Top of our Twitter or whatever they call it X
- 9:37Speaker 6: page or whatever, because because I think that is important
- 9:41Speaker 6: because it's not just about going to West Virginia or Marshall.
- 9:45Speaker 6: It's about where can they be And right now, you
- 9:48Speaker 6: know you have Zychi Lawton play at that Sam Houston State,
- 9:51Speaker 6: so you know, it's about making sure that these kids
- 9:54Speaker 6: have opportunities outside of just being an in state kid.
- 10:00Speaker 7: So coach, I want to ask you, tis the season
- 10:02Speaker 7: for the playoffs?
- 10:03Speaker 5: Correct?
- 10:03Speaker 7: So we have the high school playoffs, you know, looming
- 10:06Speaker 7: in the in the near future. And I was just
- 10:09Speaker 7: kind of glancing at the brackets today and I just
- 10:12Speaker 7: wanted to throw some examples out at you and see
- 10:14Speaker 7: what you thought. But and you kind of touched on
- 10:16Speaker 7: this a minute ago. But we'll go back to this.
- 10:18Speaker 7: So I was looking at Quada, and you've got a
- 10:21Speaker 7: number sixteen Buckhannon Upshore team going to Morgantown. You know
- 10:25Speaker 7: Buckhannon Upshire has a two and eight record. Morgantown has
- 10:28Speaker 7: nine and one, so it's, you know, sixteen against one.
- 10:31Speaker 7: I looked at Triple A similar. You've got a Robert S.
- 10:34Speaker 7: Bird going to Fairmont Senior there five and five facing
- 10:37Speaker 7: a eight and two opponent, double A four and six,
- 10:40Speaker 7: Lincoln's going to nine and one Independence, and you've also
- 10:43Speaker 7: got in single A. This was the probably example the
- 10:47Speaker 7: point I'm trying to get at Man's at three and
- 10:49Speaker 7: seven facing a ten and oh Wahama. In your opinion,
- 10:53Speaker 7: what do you think about the number of games that
- 10:58Speaker 7: are in place for each classifiction? Do you think there's
- 11:01Speaker 7: enough too many? Do you think it needs to.
- 11:03Speaker 4: Be between games played? Yes?
- 11:05Speaker 7: Yes? Well no, no, I meant.
- 11:06Speaker 4: Like wins or losses?
- 11:08Speaker 7: Well, like too many? Are there too many playoff seats?
- 11:11Speaker 7: Is what I'm saying. Like sixteens, I.
- 11:12Speaker 4: Actually think that we're I think we're on point right
- 11:15Speaker 4: now with four classes.
- 11:18Speaker 6: And the reason I say four class I used to
- 11:20Speaker 6: be like, shoot, our states not large enough, we should
- 11:23Speaker 6: have two or whatever. But yeah, I think I've kind
- 11:26Speaker 6: of come to the realization that the more opportunities that
- 11:31Speaker 6: kids have, but the better it is. But I think
- 11:34Speaker 6: that what that what needs to be done instead of
- 11:36Speaker 6: looking at we used to do it this way, instead
- 11:39Speaker 6: of having like cut off points of like students or whatever,
- 11:45Speaker 6: you can equal this thing out and say the first
- 11:47Speaker 6: twenty I think I think the number that comes out
- 11:49Speaker 6: is like twenty four or whatever. Yeah, twenty four in
- 11:52Speaker 6: each class. You know, That's what I thought is everybody's got.
- 11:56Speaker 4: A one and twenty four chance.
- 11:57Speaker 6: But what's going to happen then, is like when you
- 11:59Speaker 6: were named in some of those schools like two and A, yeah,
- 12:02Speaker 6: three and seven and stuff, you're gonna have more opportunity
- 12:05Speaker 6: within your class to schedule four a opponent. You're gonna
- 12:08Speaker 6: have more opportunity to schedule within your own classification. Well,
- 12:12Speaker 6: we have in triple A, which is another reason that
- 12:16Speaker 6: you would take another job, you know, like South Charleston,
- 12:19Speaker 6: is that you have so many more.
- 12:20Speaker 4: Opportunities because you have more teams exactly.
- 12:22Speaker 6: But I was in quae A for quite some time,
- 12:25Speaker 6: and it was difficult because you couldn't get people to
- 12:28Speaker 6: play you because you only had sixteen teams and you
- 12:31Speaker 6: don't want to sit there. We scheduled Martinsburg when I
- 12:33Speaker 6: was at Hurricane, so we played them so if we
- 12:36Speaker 6: would win, guess who you're gonna see in the championship.
- 12:39Speaker 7: Right right exactly. And that's kind of what my point was,
- 12:42Speaker 7: maybe like like taking instead of having those sixteen teams,
- 12:45Speaker 7: maybe shortened it to just like eight teams.
- 12:47Speaker 4: And then you're you're talking about within the playoffs.
- 12:49Speaker 7: Within the playoffs itself, like maybe not having quite as many.
- 12:53Speaker 4: It's that's a that's about my page.
- 12:55Speaker 7: I I just wanted they will put.
- 12:58Speaker 3: You out something.
- 12:59Speaker 5: What you both were saying was the same thing.
- 13:00Speaker 3: You mean, just expanding the teams within the division, and
- 13:05Speaker 3: you're talking about if we're going to keep it the
- 13:07Speaker 3: current format and just having less playoffs, less playoff teams,
- 13:10Speaker 3: which makes.
- 13:11Speaker 6: It of piggyback off of what you're saying there, like
- 13:15Speaker 6: give us one of the schedules that have a team
- 13:19Speaker 6: that's finishing an eight and Noine seed, and South Charleston's
- 13:22Speaker 6: probably looking at an eight and two or possibly ten
- 13:24Speaker 6: and zero record. So like sometimes scheduling puts you where
- 13:28Speaker 6: you are absolute. It's hard for me to look at
- 13:31Speaker 6: a team that's three and seven or four and six
- 13:34Speaker 6: and kind of say they don't deserve it when they may.
- 13:37Speaker 4: Have played a very difficult schedule throughout the year.
- 13:40Speaker 3: That's another fact that that's true. Yeah, I think everybody
- 13:43Speaker 3: has to. I think when you when you're when you're
- 13:45Speaker 3: looking at a record, you can see it as one thing,
- 13:49Speaker 3: but you got to also understand who who they played
- 13:54Speaker 3: or who they didn't play, because I think that matters
- 13:56Speaker 3: more than anything else.
- 13:57Speaker 6: Out of our ten opponents this year, eight were playoff
- 14:02Speaker 6: teams going into the last week until I think Capital
- 14:07Speaker 6: beat Riverside sixteen to eight, and so seven of our
- 14:11Speaker 6: eight losses were Oregon's playoff football teams.
- 14:14Speaker 4: Go all right, cats the kittens? Have you heard?
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- 15:42Speaker 2: Now back to the conversation.
- 15:44Speaker 5: All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back and joining us.
- 15:48Speaker 3: Now. In addition to coach Madyes, we have Malcolm Brown.
- 15:50Speaker 3: He was running back for South Charleston High School this year,
- 15:54Speaker 3: in the last couple of years. First thousand yard Russia
- 15:57Speaker 3: is twenty fifteen, also a running back.
- 15:59Speaker 5: How you doing today, brother? I'm doing good, sir. How
- 16:01Speaker 5: you doing?
- 16:01Speaker 3: And you got that deep voice, very white over here,
- 16:08Speaker 3: So I wanted to open there and ask you, like
- 16:11Speaker 3: you know, you played, you moved from Virginia to West Virginia.
- 16:15Speaker 3: Like I said, basketball player, football player, athlete. You know,
- 16:20Speaker 3: one of the things I admired about is how tough
- 16:22Speaker 3: and how hard you played offensive defenses, particularly defensive You
- 16:25Speaker 3: was out there hitting. So in this era where you
- 16:29Speaker 3: know it's fluid, kids go from school to school, why
- 16:33Speaker 3: did you choose to stay at South Charleston even though
- 16:36Speaker 3: things weren't looking good?
- 16:37Speaker 5: Far as just strickling the record.
- 16:39Speaker 10: Side, there was a couple of reasons I stayed. The
- 16:42Speaker 10: main reason I stayed because like, I'd already built like
- 16:45Speaker 10: a bomb with my teammates and the family, and I'm
- 16:48Speaker 10: not just gonna leave them when times get tough. And
- 16:50Speaker 10: also my dad was also pushing for me to stay
- 16:53Speaker 10: at See too, so we ended up making that decision
- 16:56Speaker 10: to stay Nice Nice.
- 16:58Speaker 3: Just to even hear you say that gives me like
- 17:02Speaker 3: chills because like, in my in my mindset, and I'm old, okay,
- 17:07Speaker 3: So in my mindset, I can't imagine like walking away
- 17:12Speaker 3: from a coach that's been coaching me a team that
- 17:16Speaker 3: I have played with teammates.
- 17:18Speaker 5: And and like I can't, I can't. I can't envision that.
- 17:23Speaker 3: But I would also think that it's probably it's probably
- 17:26Speaker 3: been a tough has it will let me rephrase it.
- 17:30Speaker 3: Has it been a tough challenge to make that stance
- 17:33Speaker 3: and say, Hey, I'm staying here at South Charleston. Have
- 17:35Speaker 3: people try to get you to go? Now, I'm not
- 17:38Speaker 3: talking about the illegal stuff. I'm just talking about people
- 17:41Speaker 3: wanting to have you play at this place, play at
- 17:44Speaker 3: that place.
- 17:44Speaker 5: And you're rooted in South Charleston. Have you had to
- 17:47Speaker 5: deal with that. Oh yeah, I've definitely had to deal
- 17:50Speaker 5: with that.
- 17:50Speaker 10: It's definitely tough, you know, with a losing record because everybody,
- 17:53Speaker 10: of course wants to win. So with that, and you know,
- 17:55Speaker 10: being a good player, you'll hear from other teams, you know,
- 17:57Speaker 10: they want you to come there. But you know, you
- 17:59Speaker 10: just got you got stay with where your family's at,
- 18:01Speaker 10: where you started, you know what I'm saying.
- 18:03Speaker 3: Yeah, and even being like I said, even like just
- 18:05Speaker 3: dealing with the adversity of you know, winning wins and losses.
- 18:09Speaker 3: You have great individual success there. I think you you
- 18:12Speaker 3: were on an all state team last year.
- 18:14Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I was second team, second.
- 18:16Speaker 3: Team All State, and I would imagine you'll probably be
- 18:18Speaker 3: first team All State this year.
- 18:20Speaker 5: What like?
- 18:21Speaker 3: And I know you're a basketball player at heart, but
- 18:23Speaker 3: I think you're a football player.
- 18:24Speaker 5: That's just my opinion.
- 18:25Speaker 3: But what what what what do you think of? Like
- 18:29Speaker 3: as far as what do you envision yourself for the
- 18:30Speaker 3: next level? Do you want to play collegiate sports? What
- 18:33Speaker 3: do you think of that?
- 18:33Speaker 10: I want to play collegiate sports. Honestly, I would love
- 18:36Speaker 10: to play both in college. I have played basketball football
- 18:39Speaker 10: FI had that chance, but really I'm just going to
- 18:41Speaker 10: see my options with the offers and see coaches and
- 18:44Speaker 10: and look at my different schools and see where it's
- 18:46Speaker 10: best to go for either basketball or football.
- 18:48Speaker 3: And I say that just because like I was a kid,
- 18:50Speaker 3: Like my senior year, we finished one and one and nine.
- 18:54Speaker 3: You know, we were uh, we never got blown out.
- 18:56Speaker 3: We in every single game. It's like we would lose
- 18:59Speaker 3: in the fourth court order or it just wouldn't make it. Uh.
- 19:02Speaker 3: I think we lost the last game to these guys
- 19:04Speaker 3: you know, want that money, want that money much five
- 19:11Speaker 3: inches of water on it. But and I and I
- 19:13Speaker 3: say all that just to say, you know, you can't
- 19:17Speaker 3: go to the next level. It's not necessarily all about
- 19:20Speaker 3: like just being at the glitz and glamour. If you
- 19:22Speaker 3: if you work hard and if you play hard, and
- 19:25Speaker 3: if you show and prove, then there will be opportunity
- 19:27Speaker 3: if that's what you aspire.
- 19:28Speaker 5: To do, right correct.
- 19:30Speaker 10: That's like, uh, at our team, we have this model.
- 19:33Speaker 10: It's one percent better every single day. If you have
- 19:35Speaker 10: that mindset, you're gonna come in and get better every
- 19:37Speaker 10: single day. You just gotta you gotta want it or
- 19:39Speaker 10: you gotta love it. You gotta love the game. That's
- 19:41Speaker 10: what keeps your mindset and motivates you to keep pushing
- 19:44Speaker 10: through every day, no matter the winner the loss.
- 19:46Speaker 2: Wow.
- 19:46Speaker 7: So, so Malcolm Coach tells me you have a nickname,
- 19:50Speaker 7: So what is your What is it you like for
- 19:51Speaker 7: people to call you? B? E? Brown?
- 19:54Speaker 2: Right?
- 19:54Speaker 7: Na?
- 19:55Speaker 10: Actually, uh, it's a couple couple like to it.
- 20:00Speaker 3: Okay.
- 20:01Speaker 10: My cousin his name was Lawrence and his nickname was LB.
- 20:05Speaker 10: So I kind of got it from him. Okay, my
- 20:07Speaker 10: middle name is Lawrence. Oh, okay Brown, So my initials are.
- 20:11Speaker 7: MLB, and so you prefer LB. Right, Okay, so.
- 20:14Speaker 10: Gave me that one I was younger.
- 20:15Speaker 4: That's awesome.
- 20:16Speaker 7: So I have a question for you. My name is
- 20:17Speaker 7: Lisa by the way, So LB. You played multiple positions
- 20:22Speaker 7: at South Charleston High School during football season to include
- 20:25Speaker 7: running back, wide receiver, and defensive back, right and quarterback
- 20:29Speaker 7: and quarterback. Oh, I need to add that to the list.
- 20:32Speaker 7: So that that just kind of showcases your your you know, versatility,
- 20:35Speaker 7: your athleticism. How difficult was it for you to be
- 20:39Speaker 7: playing both sides of the ball all season like that?
- 20:43Speaker 10: I would say it was It wasn't too difficult because
- 20:46Speaker 10: there was times where I would get breaks too, so
- 20:48Speaker 10: I will. And plus we get in shape during practice,
- 20:51Speaker 10: so coach May has made sure he's in shape so
- 20:53Speaker 10: it wasn't too difficult.
- 20:54Speaker 7: So you were you were conditioned well for all that.
- 20:56Speaker 4: Yes, Wow, that's awesome.
- 20:58Speaker 3: What what what was position do you like the most?
- 21:04Speaker 3: If there is one that you particularly like and why?
- 21:09Speaker 10: Honestly, I feel like I feel like running back. I
- 21:11Speaker 10: mean that's my main position.
- 21:12Speaker 5: I like running.
- 21:13Speaker 10: I like running back because all the contact. I play
- 21:15Speaker 10: football for the contact. That's that's what I like about
- 21:18Speaker 10: football is the contact. So being able to run even
- 21:20Speaker 10: if I'm just getting hit, I like the contact. You know,
- 21:23Speaker 10: That's why I play football.
- 21:24Speaker 3: Yeah, and shout out to LB. He was a great
- 21:30Speaker 3: basketball player at Capitol High. I won a championship, played
- 21:33Speaker 3: at Virginia Union. Was an awesome, awesome kid, So shout
- 21:36Speaker 3: out and RP to him. Now, as far as what
- 21:39Speaker 3: would be your message to you know, kids like you know,
- 21:45Speaker 3: entering schools and they're just looking to transfer from they
- 21:49Speaker 3: just want to go to the team that's winning, Like,
- 21:51Speaker 3: what would be your message to them? As far as
- 21:53Speaker 3: like stand down where you're at, representing your community and
- 21:56Speaker 3: and playing hard through that.
- 21:58Speaker 10: I would say trusted said trust your team, and trust
- 22:01Speaker 10: your coach most and poorly. And like I know, coaches
- 22:05Speaker 10: aren't recruiting the whole team for winning. They're recruiting you.
- 22:08Speaker 10: So you don't necessarily have to move to the winning
- 22:11Speaker 10: team just because they're winning.
- 22:12Speaker 5: You can.
- 22:13Speaker 10: You can turn your team into a winning team, you know,
- 22:15Speaker 10: and practice, if y'all work hard, come together, play as
- 22:18Speaker 10: a team, you could turn that team into a winning team.
- 22:20Speaker 10: You don't necessarily got to move to the better team.
- 22:23Speaker 3: And I'll say this, and I'm not just saying this
- 22:25Speaker 3: because you're here. I watched a lot of high school
- 22:27Speaker 3: football over the last two or three years, and I
- 22:29Speaker 3: don't know if I've seen a kid play harder than you.
- 22:33Speaker 3: And I mean special teams, offense, defense, whether you's playing
- 22:37Speaker 3: wide receiver, running back, lineback, or whatever. So I think
- 22:41Speaker 3: that's a testament to like your mentality. But I also
- 22:43Speaker 3: think to that point that you just made, you're going
- 22:46Speaker 3: to stand out if you play hard, if you go hard,
- 22:49Speaker 3: no matter what, you know, the win the.
- 22:51Speaker 5: Lost record is correct. And to your to follow up
- 22:56Speaker 5: on that.
- 22:58Speaker 3: As a as a former player, and who I ain't
- 23:03Speaker 3: have no offensive skills, so that I didn't. I played offense,
- 23:07Speaker 3: but I ain't have the offensive skill set like you have.
- 23:09Speaker 5: But you can't you and the packers are gonna get
- 23:14Speaker 5: fired to get you know.
- 23:20Speaker 3: The thing that I like about like you just sitting there, calm, collective,
- 23:28Speaker 3: comfortable in being who you are and what you are.
- 23:35Speaker 3: I wonder if you've ever actually had a chance to
- 23:39Speaker 3: sit and evaluate actually like how good you are and
- 23:48Speaker 3: how great you want to be, because I think that's
- 23:52Speaker 3: I think that's a critical that's a critical thing when
- 23:56Speaker 3: you are, when you are good, Okay, there is a
- 24:00Speaker 3: space in there, okay, and I'm giving you this real
- 24:03Speaker 3: life now, Okay, Like there's a place in there where
- 24:07Speaker 3: you have to try to figure out like where am
- 24:11Speaker 3: I going? How great am I going to be? Because
- 24:17Speaker 3: if you can't say it to yourself because there's no
- 24:21Speaker 3: shyness in that, there's a place in there where you
- 24:23Speaker 3: have to think to yourself and know, man, I'm going there.
- 24:29Speaker 3: And when I went to Marshall, Marshall was not the
- 24:33Speaker 3: Marshal that you would think it was today. Marshall would
- 24:35Speaker 3: have been like, that's just where you that's just where
- 24:39Speaker 3: you fel you know, you just ended up there because
- 24:42Speaker 3: they weren't very good. I might have won three games
- 24:46Speaker 3: per season my entire four years there, but I played
- 24:52Speaker 3: and the coaches that.
- 24:53Speaker 5: I had were hard. They were yelling, they were screaming,
- 24:58Speaker 5: they were cussing, and they made you give everything.
- 25:05Speaker 3: I feel like I'm looking at somebody that has that
- 25:13Speaker 3: same kind of drive in them because you're comfortable, you're calm,
- 25:19Speaker 3: it's not excited, but you're on the field.
- 25:22Speaker 5: Coach, I'm thinking he is. He's a leader.
- 25:24Speaker 3: Probably he's trying to get every single yard, and there's
- 25:28Speaker 3: something to that.
- 25:30Speaker 5: There's something to.
- 25:31Speaker 3: That that you have to recognize about yourself, that your
- 25:34Speaker 3: greatness is in you.
- 25:38Speaker 10: See on what Tuffy said, I never really like thought
- 25:41Speaker 10: about how good I am or stuff like that, because
- 25:43Speaker 10: like I know I'm good, I hear it, but like
- 25:45Speaker 10: I know I could be better. So that's what I
- 25:47Speaker 10: chase for every single day is to get better. So
- 25:50Speaker 10: if I can get that extra yard with somebody on
- 25:52Speaker 10: my back, I'm gonna push for that extra yard. That's
- 25:55Speaker 10: just that's just my type of mentality. I don't want
- 25:57Speaker 10: I don't want somebody to feel like they're better than me.
- 25:59Speaker 10: I want to go in there and I want to
- 26:00Speaker 10: be the best player on that field.
- 26:02Speaker 4: Absolutely the court.
- 26:03Speaker 5: That's just how my mentality.
- 26:06Speaker 3: And then and again, So we got basketball season coming up.
- 26:09Speaker 3: So what what can we expect from the Black Eagles
- 26:12Speaker 3: this hoop season? Uh?
- 26:14Speaker 10: We lost, We lost pretty much our whole start in five.
- 26:17Speaker 10: But I still think we got a chance to compete
- 26:19Speaker 10: with any team in the valley. You know, I feel
- 26:21Speaker 10: like we gotta We're gonna be a small team, but
- 26:23Speaker 10: we're gonna be aggressive and a fast paced team.
- 26:25Speaker 5: We played.
- 26:26Speaker 10: We all play defense. We got some shooters on our team,
- 26:28Speaker 10: so as long as we spread the court, get some penetration,
- 26:31Speaker 10: drives and kicks, we can beat teams.
- 26:33Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, you lost a room. He's a tech now.
- 26:36Speaker 3: And are we still playing at the rec Center? Because
- 26:38Speaker 3: I know there was some issues last year as far
- 26:40Speaker 3: as the lighting and stuff. I didn't know if the
- 26:43Speaker 3: games were going to be moved back to South Charleston
- 26:45Speaker 3: this year.
- 26:45Speaker 5: Well as far as I know. Okay, we start the
- 26:48Speaker 5: actors today at direct Okay, all right, So.
- 26:50Speaker 7: Coach, while we have you guys sitting here together in
- 26:53Speaker 7: the same room, what was it like having him on
- 26:55Speaker 7: the field every single game and knowing that you know,
- 26:58Speaker 7: he could, he could make things happen and for your team.
- 27:01Speaker 7: I mean, just tell us about the kind of relationship
- 27:04Speaker 7: you guys had whenever you were in football season.
- 27:07Speaker 6: I always go back to everything from the beginning, like
- 27:09Speaker 6: the very first time that you meet someone, the impact
- 27:13Speaker 6: that they make upon you, the impression that they make
- 27:16Speaker 6: upon you. He walks in, and I've got I think
- 27:22Speaker 6: it was like seventy some kids, because some of those
- 27:23Speaker 6: guys show up and they don't play, but seventy some kids,
- 27:27Speaker 6: and like who stands out? And he walked right up
- 27:30Speaker 6: and shook my hand and then went over and sat down.
- 27:33Speaker 6: So like, I think that there was a real hunger.
- 27:38Speaker 6: And I'm not going to sit here and pat myself
- 27:40Speaker 6: on the back because I'm gonna tell you my coaches,
- 27:42Speaker 6: I think they did a great job of coaching. And
- 27:45Speaker 6: I think that LB would admit that there was a
- 27:47Speaker 6: hunger for these guys to be coached, but to be
- 27:51Speaker 6: coached really hard, like coach was talking about. So like
- 27:55Speaker 6: it was it was a little different, Like we went
- 27:58Speaker 6: at the kids a little differently than I've ever been
- 28:02Speaker 6: because I see the potential.
- 28:04Speaker 4: I see it all.
- 28:04Speaker 6: And and it started with him, like he was one
- 28:07Speaker 6: of the captains that was picked within the coaching group,
- 28:10Speaker 6: and uh and and and the leadership that he had
- 28:13Speaker 6: on the football field. Now, you know, with every with
- 28:15Speaker 6: every leader, you know, they have their own personality. And
- 28:18Speaker 6: he's the guy that can make a locker room crack
- 28:20Speaker 6: up laughing too.
- 28:21Speaker 4: So leadership always needs stuff like that you do.
- 28:26Speaker 6: But sometimes, you know, we we'd have to have that
- 28:28Speaker 6: conversations like time and place, and then he he that
- 28:31Speaker 6: he's the guy that would go I understand, you know.
- 28:33Speaker 7: So.
- 28:34Speaker 4: But what I loved about.
- 28:37Speaker 6: Him just as a just a person is just like
- 28:39Speaker 6: the like the maturation. You can see it in him
- 28:42Speaker 6: and how he how he responds with adults versus how
- 28:45Speaker 6: he is with his uh, you know, his peers. But
- 28:48Speaker 6: when he gets on the football field, he hits a
- 28:52Speaker 6: different switch. He flips the key to another level where
- 28:57Speaker 6: I was so impressed. We were learning football in our
- 29:01Speaker 6: first two scrimmages and I was like, man, are we
- 29:03Speaker 6: going to score a touchdown?
- 29:04Speaker 4: Like it was killing me in my head.
- 29:06Speaker 6: But when we go and open up our first football
- 29:09Speaker 6: game and I see Number one with about eight guys
- 29:12Speaker 6: on his back and he's carrying that load down the
- 29:15Speaker 6: field and I'm just like okay, So like the then
- 29:18Speaker 6: that's the expectation. So hey, you know, we better take
- 29:21Speaker 6: nine to bring you down the next time. So those
- 29:23Speaker 6: are the things that we would challenge the kids with
- 29:25Speaker 6: in the film room, and we spent a lot of
- 29:28Speaker 6: time going over stuff like this, like of you know,
- 29:31Speaker 6: how like we tie. He's a natural okay, but like
- 29:35Speaker 6: there are coaching points that can make you better, and
- 29:38Speaker 6: he took to it, just like when we ran inside
- 29:40Speaker 6: zone of where he needs to be chasing, like the
- 29:44Speaker 6: guy that he needs to be chasing, and how he
- 29:46Speaker 6: needs to get his eyes to the point of a
- 29:47Speaker 6: contact so he can read the gap that's gonna come open,
- 29:50Speaker 6: and how the backers are flowing and he naturally, he
- 29:53Speaker 6: naturally grabbed that because you see so many kids. I
- 29:56Speaker 6: see it all the time in middle school football. I
- 29:58Speaker 6: see it even in high school footb all teams running
- 30:01Speaker 6: inside zone and they want to bounce it out the
- 30:03Speaker 6: front side of the play and what is the first
- 30:05Speaker 6: thing that comes out of yellow hanky for official?
- 30:07Speaker 4: Because of the way the right.
- 30:08Speaker 6: Tackle or left tackles being taught to be blocked on
- 30:11Speaker 6: the front side, he was a kid that trusted the
- 30:13Speaker 6: process would press the hole, get vertical through it, and
- 30:16Speaker 6: even though if a linebacker would meet him at three yards,
- 30:19Speaker 6: that linebacker is not bringing him down by himself.
- 30:22Speaker 3: See I like this geeky football talk. Yes, right up
- 30:24Speaker 3: the alley. Because what pains me the most in watching
- 30:28Speaker 3: high school running backs is that what I think they
- 30:31Speaker 3: don't realize is that you run with your eyes.
- 30:34Speaker 5: It is not how fast you are. It's not even
- 30:36Speaker 5: how quick you are.
- 30:38Speaker 3: If you could be just an average you have just
- 30:41Speaker 3: average speed, but if you got elite vision, you're going
- 30:44Speaker 3: to find the hole where you're going to hit it
- 30:46Speaker 3: before it becomes open. And that's the mark of a
- 30:48Speaker 3: good running back versus a great running back. Because I
- 30:51Speaker 3: see a lot of kids, even at the high school
- 30:53Speaker 3: and even seniors, all they do is get the ball
- 30:56Speaker 3: and just try to out run everybody and eventually it's
- 30:58Speaker 3: not going to work until your point. It causes penalties
- 31:00Speaker 3: and you really and as a coach, I'm watching it
- 31:03Speaker 3: like coach, so you're seeing the lanes just like, oh
- 31:06Speaker 3: my god, why did he missed that miss?
- 31:09Speaker 4: Yeah we had to.
- 31:10Speaker 6: We corrected a couple of times, did we I mean
- 31:12Speaker 6: like early in the year, But like that comes with
- 31:14Speaker 6: with coaching, but it also comes with a kid that's
- 31:17Speaker 6: willing to learn stuff because like you're gonna have different
- 31:20Speaker 6: aiming points on inside zone as you would power, as
- 31:23Speaker 6: you would counter, you know, and all the different aiming points.
- 31:26Speaker 6: So he's got to grasp a whole new system in
- 31:28Speaker 6: one year. And you know, I told all the seniors,
- 31:30Speaker 6: I wish we had another year with you because they
- 31:33Speaker 6: started to get it, like, uh, you know, not to
- 31:35Speaker 6: flip another kid on our team, but like the Braden
- 31:37Speaker 6: Zuni could playing linebacker, like he's like I've we were
- 31:41Speaker 6: never taught to read a gardener life. We're just running
- 31:44Speaker 6: and trying to find the football and dear Lord, like
- 31:46Speaker 6: you know, like so by the time that we got moving,
- 31:50Speaker 6: you would agree because you played right behind him. Was
- 31:52Speaker 6: he not flying to the football? So like the that's
- 31:55Speaker 6: the key to everything is your eyes. Eyes, eyes take
- 31:58Speaker 6: you to everything. And him as a LB is a
- 32:00Speaker 6: running back, like the patience that he had already, that's
- 32:04Speaker 6: something that I could live with because we talked about
- 32:07Speaker 6: patients as a running back, he had that that was
- 32:09Speaker 6: his thing. Now he's getting to play with his eyes
- 32:11Speaker 6: a little bit, and we were getting on those linemen
- 32:13Speaker 6: getting hat for hat, and I challenged the offensive line,
- 32:15Speaker 6: and there were locals, you know, but people in you know,
- 32:18Speaker 6: other communities just saying that that that offense, it doesn't
- 32:21Speaker 6: matter what we do.
- 32:22Speaker 4: The offensive line is not going to be good.
- 32:25Speaker 6: And they did a good job of blocking for him
- 32:27Speaker 6: because they were going against eight and nine men fronts.
- 32:29Speaker 6: I don't think people realize how critical that is. We
- 32:32Speaker 6: only have five linemen plus a tight end, so that's
- 32:34Speaker 6: six hats that can block six. A quarterback can carry
- 32:38Speaker 6: out a fake and maybe hold that seventh through that,
- 32:40Speaker 6: but there's another guy that's an unblocked defender right there.
- 32:43Speaker 6: So then when you people figured out, hey, I said,
- 32:45Speaker 6: I said it one time after the ball game until
- 32:47Speaker 6: we got beat. I was like, everybody knows the blueprint
- 32:49Speaker 6: to beat this right now is go cover zero and
- 32:51Speaker 6: just bring the extra hat the ball how to tackle him.
- 32:55Speaker 6: But the biggest problem was, you know, we struggled in
- 32:57Speaker 6: the passing game. Yeah, so they're going to get the
- 32:59Speaker 6: extra hat down in the box. That I challenge anybody
- 33:04Speaker 6: and any sports writer that's listening to this, like this
- 33:07Speaker 6: kid's a first team O stater, he's probably even with
- 33:10Speaker 6: a two and eight record, in my book, a captain
- 33:12Speaker 6: type material. But at the same time, like he will
- 33:16Speaker 6: not go down by one man. He was patient, he
- 33:19Speaker 6: learned how to play the game of football. So when
- 33:22Speaker 6: college coaches call and ask me questions, it's a real
- 33:24Speaker 6: simple self.
- 33:25Speaker 3: Let me ask you this too, because we coached. I
- 33:27Speaker 3: coached for a few years, and what I always was
- 33:30Speaker 3: impressed by your coaching ability was your ability to learn.
- 33:35Speaker 3: You were constantly going to coaching clinics, constantly just trying
- 33:39Speaker 3: to learn what was new. We were constantly tinkering, just
- 33:42Speaker 3: trying to make things more efficient, make things better. Can
- 33:46Speaker 3: you just talk about, just like being a coaching the education,
- 33:49Speaker 3: continual education that has to happen.
- 33:52Speaker 6: In the most underpaid position in the history of West
- 33:55Speaker 6: Virginia High school.
- 33:56Speaker 5: So it's ridiculous. Yes, that is true.
- 34:00Speaker 4: We can spend.
- 34:01Speaker 3: Money constantly to go get better because we're going to
- 34:04Speaker 3: can't we going to coaching Clintic's all over the country?
- 34:06Speaker 6: To me, like, at the end of the day, you know,
- 34:10Speaker 6: it would be nice to be paid a little bit more,
- 34:11Speaker 6: But it's never about the money. It's always about the
- 34:13Speaker 6: relationships that we build with the kids. But that's really
- 34:17Speaker 6: like football's football you get a lot of people out
- 34:19Speaker 6: here saying, like, you know, they need to run in better.
- 34:21Speaker 4: Plays and stuff like that. Not like football's football.
- 34:25Speaker 6: At the end of the day, as long as you
- 34:26Speaker 6: can get a hat for a hat and you can
- 34:28Speaker 6: get your guy to be patient and get vertical through
- 34:30Speaker 6: a hole or whatever play you're running, like football's football.
- 34:33Speaker 6: Like what you need is you need that that team cohesiveness,
- 34:37Speaker 6: that that bonding, that culture, Like that's the big thing.
- 34:41Speaker 4: That's that's the biggest.
- 34:43Speaker 6: Thing in any locker room is culture. You can run
- 34:46Speaker 6: a midget league offense as long as you have culture.
- 34:50Speaker 6: So what we tried to bring to the kid is
- 34:52Speaker 6: that to the kids is our culture is gonna be tough.
- 34:55Speaker 6: We're gonna be hard on you. We're gonna get you know,
- 34:57Speaker 6: we're gonna yell at you, and we're gonna we're probably
- 34:59Speaker 6: gonna ge.
- 35:00Speaker 4: A little bit upset at you. But at the end
- 35:02Speaker 4: of the day, when you.
- 35:02Speaker 6: Walk off that football field, we're going to tell you
- 35:04Speaker 6: why we love you and how we can get better
- 35:08Speaker 6: because we we want to see you be successful. So
- 35:12Speaker 6: our success is being driven through these young men. And
- 35:17Speaker 6: there's nothing more prevalent to a kid than winning a
- 35:21Speaker 6: football game, and I'll never forget the hell Mary at Ripley.
- 35:26Speaker 6: It's like forever ingrained in me. And I promise you
- 35:29Speaker 6: Coach May's ran a four to forty on that head
- 35:33Speaker 6: to get down to the end zone, to get to
- 35:35Speaker 6: that official to tell him he caught the ball. That game,
- 35:39Speaker 6: there were so many flags, I mean, I don't I
- 35:42Speaker 6: think they were just falling out.
- 35:44Speaker 4: Of the sky.
- 35:45Speaker 6: And uh, I think it was raining flags that day.
- 35:47Speaker 6: But on that one, I was going to make sure
- 35:48Speaker 6: they didn't make their make the wrong call. We had
- 35:51Speaker 6: We had six or seven different views of that catch,
- 35:55Speaker 6: and even Ripley sent one from their wrestling room and
- 35:58Speaker 6: it was a catch and I saw it clear. Of
- 36:00Speaker 6: course I did right, So I spread it down and
- 36:03Speaker 6: I made sure. But that that is going to be
- 36:04Speaker 6: forever ingrained in my and and you know what, you
- 36:08Speaker 6: know how and of all football that I've ever coached,
- 36:11Speaker 6: and being a part of state championship teams and being
- 36:13Speaker 6: runner up teams and having quarterbacks who have done things,
- 36:19Speaker 6: that moment just to watch these kids who have not
- 36:24Speaker 6: won a game since you played, since you coached them,
- 36:28Speaker 6: to watch them win and to see that release of
- 36:32Speaker 6: just like anxiety leave that system. It was a moment
- 36:37Speaker 6: I'll never forget nice.
- 36:39Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know I can I can relate to
- 36:42Speaker 3: that with with State just trying. Once I got down
- 36:46Speaker 3: at West Virginia State. One of the things that was
- 36:50Speaker 3: was the challenge was to win, to just to win
- 36:53Speaker 3: a game. And I'd even say that it's probably be
- 37:00Speaker 3: even bigger for the players to when they realize that
- 37:04Speaker 3: they're going to win that game and.
- 37:06Speaker 5: They haven't won in a long time.
- 37:08Speaker 3: That's the probably the greatest moment I think for the
- 37:12Speaker 3: coach to watch the players be excited over that.
- 37:16Speaker 6: Just seeing them and the and the parents, yes, and
- 37:20Speaker 6: and the students who came to watch them, and the band,
- 37:23Speaker 6: the cheer, all the people who show up to the game,
- 37:25Speaker 6: and just to see the excitement upon we as coaches
- 37:29Speaker 6: we step away. It is a lonely world. Guy, there's
- 37:32Speaker 6: a lonely world. You've got everybody and their brother out
- 37:35Speaker 6: there on social media telling you how you can do
- 37:37Speaker 6: something better. But the reality of the situation is as
- 37:40Speaker 6: a coach, the most important thing for us is to
- 37:44Speaker 6: watch our kids be happy, and whether that be with
- 37:48Speaker 6: a victory, whether that be getting to a college or university,
- 37:51Speaker 6: of their of their choice, whether it just be going
- 37:54Speaker 6: to the workforce and coming back and cheering for you
- 37:56Speaker 6: on Friday nights. We get a lot of that too,
- 37:57Speaker 6: so are we We try. I try to tell them
- 37:59Speaker 6: we're gonna treat this. We're gonna treat South Charleston High
- 38:01Speaker 6: School like Jimmy Johnson did the Miami Hurricanes, and we're
- 38:05Speaker 6: gonna draw a circle around Dunbar and South Charleston.
- 38:07Speaker 4: But once you play for us.
- 38:08Speaker 6: You're forever a Black Eagle, and we're you're gonna be
- 38:11Speaker 6: on our sidelines. I can't tell you how many kids
- 38:13Speaker 6: have just come back just to watch us this year,
- 38:15Speaker 6: and even kids who you know are in college. You
- 38:19Speaker 6: know we're playing right now. The phone messages and just
- 38:22Speaker 6: the elation they had when we beat Ripley and they
- 38:25Speaker 6: were so happy for the kids. I kind of read
- 38:27Speaker 6: I read out a couple of them on that Monday
- 38:29Speaker 6: meeting with the boys, because I always meet with the
- 38:31Speaker 6: kids Monday before we go do anything. And uh, I
- 38:35Speaker 6: just all the excitement of that game alone. It kind
- 38:38Speaker 6: of it helped us become a better unit, helped our
- 38:43Speaker 6: culture and.
- 38:44Speaker 3: I and my hat's off to you about allowing former
- 38:50Speaker 3: players to come down on the sideline, be it practice,
- 38:55Speaker 3: all of that kind of stuff, because I think it's
- 39:00Speaker 3: something for and I'll say us, if there's something about
- 39:04Speaker 3: being able to be down there to watch the kids
- 39:07Speaker 3: that are representing the school that you've played at, and
- 39:10Speaker 3: you're like happy and excited to be down there and
- 39:14Speaker 3: watching whether it's successful or not, whether they win or lose.
- 39:20Speaker 3: You just want to be part. You want to realize
- 39:22Speaker 3: that you are down on this sideline where you used
- 39:25Speaker 3: to be as a player and watching these young players play.
- 39:29Speaker 3: When loser draw, you're happy, You're proud of them, you know.
- 39:33Speaker 3: And I think that's I think that's the that's the
- 39:35Speaker 3: biggest thing for I think anybody who quotes an alumni
- 39:40Speaker 3: player for South Charleston, if you're able to get on
- 39:43Speaker 3: that sideline, a coach is letting you on the sideline,
- 39:46Speaker 3: letting you be that personal to his team. Man, I
- 39:51Speaker 3: think that's the greatest thing going.
- 39:52Speaker 6: That's the relationship part of it. But the second part
- 39:55Speaker 6: of it is it also puts a little bit of
- 39:57Speaker 6: a pressure on the kid who's wearing the number that
- 39:59Speaker 6: that guy I may have gone like.
- 40:02Speaker 4: That's we talked about that at.
- 40:03Speaker 6: The beginning of the year, you had to earn your number,
- 40:06Speaker 6: like you remember that, and then and I gave out
- 40:09Speaker 6: certain numbers to kids, like he wore the number one for.
- 40:13Speaker 4: A reason, like a lot of great players have warned
- 40:16Speaker 4: that number.
- 40:16Speaker 6: It's how Charleston, including our our very own dryk Pits
- 40:19Speaker 6: who played Tampa great Buccaneers, you know. But you know,
- 40:23Speaker 6: also like another kid, the Zuniga kid that I mentioned,
- 40:25Speaker 6: like like he wore number five for a reason.
- 40:28Speaker 4: I don't even know what number he wore the year before.
- 40:30Speaker 6: I didn't care, Like I wanted to let them know
- 40:33Speaker 6: how important these jersey numbers were to this the two program,
- 40:38Speaker 6: and like how that's going to carry over. So when
- 40:40Speaker 6: those guys stepped foot on the field where they may
- 40:42Speaker 6: be coaching on another team and see you whearing it,
- 40:46Speaker 6: they're they're gauging that kid, and they're saying, Okay, that
- 40:49Speaker 6: guy wore that jersey right and or he didn't, you know,
- 40:52Speaker 6: So like that, that's how we can challenge the kids.
- 40:55Speaker 6: But that's a culture thing. I mean, it's all about culture.
- 40:57Speaker 6: It's it really is. And these kids maybe one day
- 41:01Speaker 6: they'll understand what it was and what it meant to them,
- 41:04Speaker 6: But they're always welcome back.
- 41:06Speaker 4: So it's gonna click one day for them.
- 41:08Speaker 6: They're gonna be able to stand down there on the
- 41:10Speaker 6: sideline and maybe watch a nephew or cousin or somebody
- 41:13Speaker 6: play the game. And that kid may be wearing that
- 41:15Speaker 6: number one jersey. And I'll tell you right now, if
- 41:18Speaker 6: there's a kid getting tackled one on one in the whole,
- 41:21Speaker 6: Malcolm Brown's gonna look at that kid and say, you're
- 41:23Speaker 6: wearing number one.
- 41:23Speaker 4: You don't get down.
- 41:26Speaker 3: So Malcolm, where do you have any prospects to where
- 41:30Speaker 3: you would like to go to school?
- 41:31Speaker 5: Do you have any offers? What's what's going on in
- 41:33Speaker 5: that end?
- 41:34Speaker 10: I did see my first football for congratulations man, big
- 41:38Speaker 10: thank you.
- 41:39Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean some schools I would love to go to.
- 41:41Speaker 10: I mean, you know, any any kid want to go
- 41:43Speaker 10: to a power five school, you know, like Miami. You know,
- 41:47Speaker 10: I don't know USC, you know, just a big time
- 41:49Speaker 10: D you want school. So any type of D one school.
- 41:51Speaker 10: But you know, any school is good school for me.
- 41:53Speaker 10: I just get the opportunity to play the football, basketball,
- 41:55Speaker 10: I'm gonna take that opportunity.
- 41:56Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all about opportunity now, it don't matter where
- 41:59Speaker 3: you start at now you started anywhere.
- 42:01Speaker 5: If you if you.
- 42:03Speaker 3: Play well at the level they're looking, they're going to
- 42:05Speaker 3: be trying to pull you up.
- 42:07Speaker 7: So so LB, I'm going to ask you the question
- 42:09Speaker 7: I just asked Coach Mays because he kind of described
- 42:11Speaker 7: things about you that he admired and liked. And so
- 42:14Speaker 7: you're a senior, so you've got a little, you know,
- 42:16Speaker 7: a little leeway here. Tell us tell us your favorite
- 42:19Speaker 7: favorite things that you love about Coach Mays and things
- 42:22Speaker 7: that probably weren't your favorite parts of Coach Mas's personality.
- 42:26Speaker 4: Remember you're a senior, all right.
- 42:33Speaker 5: That sounds like act.
- 42:37Speaker 10: I think we might have to leave it the things
- 42:39Speaker 10: we dislike out, But really there's really nothing to dislike.
- 42:43Speaker 10: I really I likes he holds us accountable. I mean,
- 42:48Speaker 10: like if you take a look at the way we
- 42:49Speaker 10: practiced last year, in the way we practiced this year
- 42:51Speaker 10: is so much different. Like there's we're more we're more focused,
- 42:54Speaker 10: we're more what's the word organized, So we have more
- 42:58Speaker 10: organized practices and we get stuffed down and it's more
- 43:00Speaker 10: of on a set schedule and we're learning things at
- 43:02Speaker 10: that Because like he said about the reading the guards,
- 43:05Speaker 10: I had no idea what reading the guard even meant.
- 43:07Speaker 10: Because this is my first two years of playing football
- 43:10Speaker 10: since Little league, so I had no type of football
- 43:13Speaker 10: football information or college you know, so him teaching us
- 43:16Speaker 10: that that was great. You know, I learned how to
- 43:18Speaker 10: read a guard pulling it. I know which way the
- 43:20Speaker 10: ball is going, so that was great. So pretty much
- 43:22Speaker 10: I like everything about Coach Made. It's a great coach,
- 43:25Speaker 10: you know, Like he said, I wish I had one
- 43:27Speaker 10: more year. I feel like one more year we could
- 43:29Speaker 10: turn it two and eighteen to eight and two team.
- 43:31Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying exactly?
- 43:34Speaker 5: All right, man, when when is uh coach Makes? When
- 43:36Speaker 5: When is weightlifting start? When does the offseason training start?
- 43:39Speaker 6: So right now, we just we give the kids a
- 43:41Speaker 6: little bit of a time, like it's a decompression time.
- 43:45Speaker 4: Usually January is when we.
- 43:47Speaker 6: Start weights where you need to start being in there
- 43:51Speaker 6: if you're not playing another sport. But right now, we're
- 43:54Speaker 6: just gonna take a few weeks and and I have
- 43:56Speaker 6: a couple of coaches that'll leave the weight room open
- 43:58Speaker 6: for them so they can get in there and get
- 44:00Speaker 6: some free lifts in to get some acclamation going. But
- 44:04Speaker 6: you know, I've got some plans to make our place
- 44:06Speaker 6: a lot better and and getting the right people in
- 44:09Speaker 6: place is very important to me. And uh and like
- 44:13Speaker 6: once again that'll build just more of our culture. So uh,
- 44:17Speaker 6: that's that's the side that I feel like our program
- 44:20Speaker 6: is going to take steps forward in as in the
- 44:22Speaker 6: off season program. But you know what he said, we
- 44:26Speaker 6: you can tell on the teams out of shape if
- 44:27Speaker 6: if game one or game two or even like late
- 44:30Speaker 6: in the season, kids are cramping up everywhere.
- 44:33Speaker 4: And I can say this with the most happy coaching
- 44:39Speaker 4: face on.
- 44:39Speaker 6: We had zero cramps in in the season because we
- 44:43Speaker 6: we really got after Now we'll say during the camp
- 44:47Speaker 6: we had guys going in an ambulance a whole.
- 44:50Speaker 4: Lot of cramps because you know, we got was supposed
- 44:53Speaker 4: to have.
- 44:54Speaker 6: It was not easy and uh, but but I think
- 44:56Speaker 6: that you know, if we went if we went easy
- 44:58Speaker 6: on these guys and tried to be their friend. I'm
- 45:01Speaker 6: very close friends with Carlos Lochlan, the wide the running
- 45:04Speaker 6: back coach at the Ohio State Locke and I have
- 45:06Speaker 6: known each other for a long time and he he's
- 45:09Speaker 6: he's got a great sound SoundBite on where he was
- 45:13Speaker 6: being interviewed. He's like, if if you want to be
- 45:15Speaker 6: my friend. Go score a touchdown, you know, then I'll
- 45:18Speaker 6: be your friend. That's how we want to be as
- 45:20Speaker 6: a coach. You know, like you do things right, then
- 45:23Speaker 6: we're going to be your be your friend. But then
- 45:25Speaker 6: you know, if you can't do the things right, we're
- 45:27Speaker 6: not friends right now.
- 45:28Speaker 4: You know that. That's how camp is.
- 45:31Speaker 6: That's how the two week window of getting ready for
- 45:33Speaker 6: that first scrimmage is.
- 45:34Speaker 4: It's tough.
- 45:35Speaker 6: It's in your face, and it's it's it's all about business,
- 45:38Speaker 6: and it's that if we went easy on these guys,
- 45:40Speaker 6: we probably don't hit a hell mary at the end.
- 45:42Speaker 6: We probably are not even even remotely in the game.
- 45:45Speaker 6: We probably don't score the touchdowns that we did this year.
- 45:49Speaker 6: But I think that we challenged our guys enough. And
- 45:52Speaker 6: I watched him, like you he lb had what twelve
- 45:56Speaker 6: runs last year or something that they didn't even get
- 45:59Speaker 6: the ball in his So, like when you're breaking down
- 46:01Speaker 6: your film and you're watching each kid, I'm like.
- 46:04Speaker 4: That's a kid that's got to touch the football.
- 46:05Speaker 6: Yeah, And I think you had one hundred and seventy
- 46:07Speaker 6: seven touches this year just as a just as a
- 46:10Speaker 6: running back or taking off with the quarterback, you know,
- 46:14Speaker 6: and then I just can't count how many times he
- 46:16Speaker 6: had pun or kick returns.
- 46:18Speaker 4: But he also had some how many catches did you have?
- 46:21Speaker 6: I was like twelve or thirteen catches for one hundred
- 46:26Speaker 6: and eighty eight yards on a touchdown or two. But
- 46:30Speaker 6: as a coach, it's our job to get the ball
- 46:32Speaker 6: to the right players, and that camp you can figure
- 46:35Speaker 6: out a lot of things because the guys who want
- 46:37Speaker 6: to back down a little bit or step aside and
- 46:40Speaker 6: they're just like, you know, this is too tough. The
- 46:43Speaker 6: guys that step forward, that's him. So that's praise for LB.
- 46:46Speaker 6: Like stepping forward. We're in a we're in an orange
- 46:49Speaker 6: and black scrimmage on a Saturday afternoon, and he got
- 46:53Speaker 6: an eighty yard run.
- 46:55Speaker 4: I'll never forget it.
- 46:56Speaker 6: And kids are cramping and trying to get off the field,
- 46:59Speaker 6: and I'm grabbing them and throwing them up and just
- 47:01Speaker 6: trying to be not him, but other kids and trying
- 47:03Speaker 6: to get them just get set and let's go like
- 47:05Speaker 6: we're just trying to go as hard and fast as
- 47:07Speaker 6: we can because it's that mentality. And eventually it just
- 47:11Speaker 6: took over and it was contagious and I'm so blessed
- 47:14Speaker 6: we had zero cramps and I and if we ever
- 47:17Speaker 6: have a cramp on the football field, the whole team's
- 47:19Speaker 6: gonna pay on that money because they're not working well.
- 47:22Speaker 5: Coach, Like I said, man, we appreciate you.
- 47:25Speaker 3: And you know, it's just like when when the valley
- 47:28Speaker 3: is good in football, basketball, baseball, and I'm talking about
- 47:32Speaker 3: Knaw Valley, Kanah County, the state is good in football, baseball.
- 47:36Speaker 3: It's just it's something that when we got our GW's
- 47:40Speaker 3: and capitals in South Charleston and Riverside and their bikes compete,
- 47:43Speaker 3: it just makes the whole state better. So I just
- 47:47Speaker 3: look forward to the next couple of years when we
- 47:49Speaker 3: get back on track.
- 47:50Speaker 5: Now not only is South Charleston, but just so around
- 47:52Speaker 5: the valley.
- 47:53Speaker 3: All right, well, coach, we appreciate you guys being here,
- 47:57Speaker 3: and uh.
- 47:58Speaker 7: We shall be the best of luck whatever whatever school
- 48:02Speaker 7: he pursues. Oh and I have a question for him.
- 48:04Speaker 7: He's kind of kind of like, so you watch NFL
- 48:07Speaker 7: football correcked, Okay, So who is your favorite pro football team?
- 48:12Speaker 7: And why is it the Packers?
- 48:19Speaker 3: We got we gotta, we gotta, we gotta cut that
- 48:22Speaker 3: out of the show.
- 48:24Speaker 5: We do not like there you go, there you go?
- 48:27Speaker 5: So who do you like?
- 48:28Speaker 4: We like the cowboys that.
- 48:34Speaker 3: Just because.
- 48:37Speaker 7: And you would get along great.
- 48:38Speaker 11: You know, we gotta talk rings. I might not have
- 48:41Speaker 11: seen any, but we gotta talk ring. Why go glud
- 48:49Speaker 11: for punishment?
- 48:50Speaker 5: We just gotta take taking.
- 48:52Speaker 3: Just take a look at at the guys in purple
- 48:54Speaker 3: and watch them a little bit, and you might find
- 48:57Speaker 3: you might find you might like him.
- 48:58Speaker 5: I'm just saying, I don't know, and I know it does.
- 49:05Speaker 3: But but that purple man. You can't beat that purple
- 49:09Speaker 3: So I don't want to again. I don't want to
- 49:12Speaker 3: end this on a somber note, but I think we
- 49:14Speaker 3: have to address it. You know, recently we had a
- 49:16Speaker 3: speaking of the cowboys because Marcel Marcel Kneeling.
- 49:21Speaker 5: I don't want to mispronounce his.
- 49:22Speaker 7: Names, Marshwan marsh Marshan.
- 49:25Speaker 3: Kinglan excuse me, I did pronounce it now, but he
- 49:29Speaker 3: uh he, he could be suicide it. And I think
- 49:33Speaker 3: it's just an important talking point that when we're talking
- 49:35Speaker 3: about athletics, we often overlook the mental health side of that,
- 49:41Speaker 3: and particularly and it's not just wrolving around CTE and
- 49:45Speaker 3: different things of that nature. I think it's a pathology
- 49:48Speaker 3: in which we spent our whole lives doing something, prepping something,
- 49:52Speaker 3: dreaming about something, and whether that ends in high school
- 49:56Speaker 3: or college or even ends in the pros, oftentimes that
- 49:59Speaker 3: can havoc on our mental health. So I just want
- 50:02Speaker 3: to encourage all athletes out there to not only do
- 50:05Speaker 3: what you do athletically, love your sport, but also have
- 50:09Speaker 3: a variety of interests, have other things that you're interested in,
- 50:13Speaker 3: and also don't let the machoism, particularly in male sports,
- 50:18Speaker 3: deter you from seeking help that you may need to
- 50:21Speaker 3: deal with any mental health issues that are plaguing you.
- 50:25Speaker 3: So there's avenues. There's nine eight eight, there's a the
- 50:28Speaker 3: West Virginia Helpline. Nine eight is a national line, so
- 50:32Speaker 3: anywhere you are in the country you can call that
- 50:34Speaker 3: if you need to talk to somebody, talk to your parents,
- 50:37Speaker 3: talk to a counselor. Like I said, if you're feeling
- 50:40Speaker 3: any sort of issues that are that you can't control
- 50:44Speaker 3: what's going on mentally, please take the time to address it.
- 50:48Speaker 6: Scripture as well. I mean, yeah, thank you, and we
- 50:51Speaker 6: we put fc A with our football program and I
- 50:54Speaker 6: try to as much as I can. You know, give
- 50:57Speaker 6: some type of word throughout the week for the kids,
- 50:59Speaker 6: because that we all have a purpose here that we're
- 51:02Speaker 6: trying to serve and and if we lose track of
- 51:05Speaker 6: that focus, that, you know, unfortunately things like that happen.
- 51:09Speaker 6: So as long as we keep, you know, our faith first,
- 51:13Speaker 6: I think that a lot of times those things will
- 51:14Speaker 6: take care of themselves.
- 51:16Speaker 3: And I think too, in closing out the awareness of
- 51:24Speaker 3: that player who might not be aware that he or
- 51:28Speaker 3: she is in that place, I think the awareness of
- 51:34Speaker 3: from the coaching staff, from the teammates, from maybe even
- 51:38Speaker 3: from parents or whatever seeing where that.
- 51:44Speaker 5: Child is, or because I can I.
- 51:47Speaker 3: Can remember a young man who played in Minnesota and
- 51:54Speaker 3: he was a he was an amazing player, and he
- 51:58Speaker 3: just had a ton of issues and it was it
- 52:02Speaker 3: was basically it was just kind of overlooked, you know,
- 52:05Speaker 3: and he filled it with drinking and his career died
- 52:13Speaker 3: out on him, and it was it was, you know,
- 52:16Speaker 3: And to to this point, I don't even know, like
- 52:18Speaker 3: I don't know where he's at, what he's doing.
- 52:21Speaker 5: I'm hoping that he got help.
- 52:23Speaker 3: I'm hoping that something was somebody helped him somewhere, and.
- 52:29Speaker 5: And I think.
- 52:31Speaker 3: You can't overlook that you cannot overlook that because if
- 52:36Speaker 3: you if you don't do anything, if you don't say something,
- 52:42Speaker 3: that person's life could could go anywhere, you know. So
- 52:47Speaker 3: finishing on that kind of on that kind of a note, coaches, coach,
- 52:52Speaker 3: I appreciate you guys being here. Uh, Lisa, I'm enjoying
- 52:56Speaker 3: you being here. Holler as well. Okay, I appreciate everybody
- 53:01Speaker 3: being here, and we will be back again next.
- 53:02Speaker 2: Let Me Talk with Carl Lee as presented by Attorney
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- 53:11Speaker 2: On our Facebook page, search forard Let's Talk with Carl
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- 53:27Speaker 1: If you fall, does it, don't for get back up
- 53:29Speaker 1: for your feet. Anything will be a win, yup, even defeat.
- 53:32Speaker 1: The say shits a bath for you? Whis villyy sweet?
- 53:35Speaker 1: Couldn't play with big kids. I had to sit in
- 53:37Speaker 1: the street and watch from a distance. But nover time
- 53:40Speaker 1: I grew. If I put in the work. In no time,
- 53:43Speaker 1: I'm doing everything that I worked and prayed on Moka.
- 53:46Speaker 1: If you ask me, how did I do? What I'm
- 53:48Speaker 1: gonna say. You gotta work, ry Shane, it's mine gotta
- 53:52Speaker 1: show everybody is my time here. You gotta work, cry Shan.
- 53:56Speaker 1: You never mind who's talking time this day line. Don't talk.
- 53:59Speaker 1: You gotta work. You gotta work. You gotta work. You
- 54:08Speaker 1: gotta work. You gotta work. You gotta work.