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Conversation With Bruin Head Football Coach Matt Hennesy · Tailgate Talk - Bartlesville Radio

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  Speaker 1: Evan Faarbach with newly hired Bartlesville head football coach Matt Hennessy,
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  Speaker 1: recording this interview on Tuesday morning, the day coach Hennessy
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  Speaker 1: was announced. First off, coaching grats and thanks for stopping by,
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  Speaker 1: And how's the last twelve hours or so open for you?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's been a WorldWind, but it's been a good warwind.
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  Speaker 2: We're super excited, my wife and I'm my kids. We're excited,
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  Speaker 2: you know. I of course had the worst part, which
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  Speaker 2: was having to tell my kids at POSCA this morning.
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  Speaker 2: It's always hard, and those some great, great kids, but
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  Speaker 2: they understand sometimes, you know, you've got to make decisions
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  Speaker 2: based on other things what's best for your family. And
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  Speaker 2: we just really feel like God's leading us this way.
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  Speaker 2: This is the next stop. And in my career, I
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  Speaker 2: mean I've had a few stops and that's probably the
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  Speaker 2: last one. You know, I'm at the point where not
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  Speaker 2: too far off from retirement, but I want a chance
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  Speaker 2: to turn them one more round. We've we been able
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  Speaker 2: to do it with Skogie, were able to do it
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  Speaker 2: Locus Grove, we were able to do it at POSCA.
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  Speaker 2: We want one more shot, and I just think the
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  Speaker 2: timing is right after meeting the fat that had called
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  Speaker 2: more to meet, and so we met Saturday night and
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  Speaker 2: uh then met with mister McCauley on on Monday night.
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  Speaker 2: And the timing is right. They want to do things right.
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  Speaker 2: They want to get after it. And I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I see some of the talent coming plus the coaches
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  Speaker 2: that I'm gonna be able to bring it. The process
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  Speaker 2: doesn't change. I mean, it's still the same process. You
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  Speaker 2: got to you gotta find players to develop them. You
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  Speaker 2: gotta find coaches and develop them. They let me bring
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  Speaker 2: in some really good coaches and bring them offsive line
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  Speaker 2: coaches where Coach Snyder told me you always start. And
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  Speaker 2: then I've got some other guys that I'm not gonna
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  Speaker 2: say their names right now, but they'll probably be with
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  Speaker 2: me too. And then there's good coaches around staff as well.
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  Speaker 2: And then you gotta have great administration and you got
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  Speaker 2: a great, great teaching staff and all that, and Bars
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  Speaker 2: is one of the best schools in the state, and
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  Speaker 2: their administration is solid. They love their football. They want
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  Speaker 2: to do that. Then you got to parents that are
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  Speaker 2: willing to dial in and allow me to have their
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  Speaker 2: kids trust me with their kids because I'm gonna be
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  Speaker 2: with their kids more than they are, and you've got
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  Speaker 2: that here. I've had a bunch of parents reach out
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  Speaker 2: that that they're excited about this move. And then the
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  Speaker 2: last thing is you gotta have a community because it's
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  Speaker 2: it costs a lot of money to be a successful
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  Speaker 2: football program. And and there's a community in Bartolestoll that's
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  Speaker 2: hungry to win. They want to win football games and
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  Speaker 2: they want to be known as a football town. They
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  Speaker 2: don't will just be known as the country club sport town.
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  Speaker 2: It's a we want to be great in football. And
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  Speaker 2: I just think the timing is right. I've seen the
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  Speaker 2: younger kids, I've seen you know what they've got. I
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  Speaker 2: think coach Wright did a great job. I think he
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  Speaker 2: did a good job of developing a lot of things.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna try to build on a lot of
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  Speaker 2: things he did and then do a lot of things
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  Speaker 2: my way too as well as we go along.
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  Speaker 1: You kind of answered this question a little bit and
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  Speaker 1: some of what you just said, but things in particular
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  Speaker 1: that kind of drew you to this opportunity and made
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  Speaker 1: you think that it was the right fit.
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  Speaker 2: You know, just location is a lot you know we
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  Speaker 2: don't have to move immediately. We will because I think
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  Speaker 2: it's important to be a part of the community. So
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  Speaker 2: we will move since we get the household and find
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  Speaker 2: a house over here. But there's a lot of things
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  Speaker 2: that just God just put things in place. You know.
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  Speaker 2: My brother lives in Bartlesville, my my wife's both her
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  Speaker 2: sisters live here. My brother in law is a new
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  Speaker 2: basketball coach, you know. So it's there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: things right here that us bliss. You know, We've we've
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  Speaker 2: developed so many relationships and close friends in Puhsco. We
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  Speaker 2: don't have to be too far from them. And and honestly,
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  Speaker 2: for me, it's a chance to get back in six
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  Speaker 2: A and uh you know six A two, which is
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  Speaker 2: really really intriguing to me. And so we just all
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  Speaker 2: the all the green flags. You know, other jobs I've
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  Speaker 2: looked at in the past where people have called me
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  Speaker 2: and a red flag would pop up here, red flag
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  Speaker 2: and pop up there, and it just you know, it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't paraly There's been zero red flag so far. It's
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  Speaker 2: just we're super excited to be here. We're super excited
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  Speaker 2: to get the talent excited, and you know that's going
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  Speaker 2: to be my goal, you know, before Christmas break. I
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  Speaker 2: want to be with as many people as possible, shake
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  Speaker 2: as many hands, hug as many people, kiss as many babies.
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  Speaker 2: Whatever I got to do and get people excited again
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  Speaker 2: about brewing football.
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  Speaker 1: Talking with Bartlesville head football coach Matt Hennessy again kind
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  Speaker 1: of recording this interview right after coach was announced earlier today.
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  Speaker 1: And and you you spoke about it just then. But
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  Speaker 1: what does the next couple of weeks look like. I know.
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  Speaker 1: One nice thing about having you just down the road
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  Speaker 1: is we've made hires before and sometimes they weren't here
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  Speaker 1: tell almost spring ball. Sometimes they were traveling up here
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  Speaker 1: when springball started. Obviously that won't be a problem this time.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's super important to me to get started immediately,
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  Speaker 2: you know. And you know, and it was hard telling
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  Speaker 2: the kids this more. I mean still we're still stinging
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  Speaker 2: from the defeat last week, and so I told my
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  Speaker 2: wife we could wait a week, or we could wait
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  Speaker 2: till after Christmas break, but then I'd be lying to
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  Speaker 2: the kids if I know I'm leaving, you know when
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  Speaker 2: we're talking. And we built our whole program on trust.
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  Speaker 2: I trust them, they trust me, and so we felt
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  Speaker 2: like that was not the right thing to do. But
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  Speaker 2: also there's so much to do. I mean, just today,
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  Speaker 2: you know, with meeting, I meet with the I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to meet with the players here in about an hour.
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  Speaker 2: We've I've met with a bunch of the school staff already.
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  Speaker 2: Tomorrow we're coming in. I'm meeting with the coaching staff
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  Speaker 2: at seven am. After that, I'm going to meet with
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  Speaker 2: all the middle school staff and meet with admin downtown.
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  Speaker 2: I've got a meeting set with the Boucher Club tonight,
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  Speaker 2: start meeting with all the community members. We've got a
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  Speaker 2: parent meeting set up. We've got all these things of
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  Speaker 2: people that we need to get meet to meet with,
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  Speaker 2: and I don't want it to linger. I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to go into Christmas break, and so the next two
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  Speaker 2: weeks are going to be a whirlwind. And then after
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  Speaker 2: that it's get to work. You know. We can talk
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  Speaker 2: about it all we want, but at the end of
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  Speaker 2: the day, we've got to get to work in the
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  Speaker 2: weight room. We've got to do what we do. It's
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  Speaker 2: too late probably for me to do it right now,
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  Speaker 2: except you'll probably seeing track. I'm a big believer in
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  Speaker 2: multi sport kids. I don't want my kids in all season.
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  Speaker 2: I want to lift weights with them. I want to
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  Speaker 2: do what footwork, skills work, whatever I got to do
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  Speaker 2: in the morning. I want them in another sport in
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  Speaker 2: the afternoon. And Jake and I have already talked about it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, next year, these kids are gonna be playing basketball,
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  Speaker 2: They're gonna be wrestling. There's something that do wrestle right
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  Speaker 2: now and then in the spring, I want to be
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  Speaker 2: the playing baseball or running track. And I think it's
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  Speaker 2: important and it's important for me to develop a relationship
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  Speaker 2: with the other coaches so we can trust each other
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  Speaker 2: to share these athletes. But first of all, there's not
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  Speaker 2: enough in Bartlesville not to share them. You need to
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  Speaker 2: share your best athletes if we really want to be
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  Speaker 2: that team that goes and beats Sands Springs goes and
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  Speaker 2: beats I'm not I didn't come here to go five hundred.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't come here to make the playoffs. I mean, heck,
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  Speaker 2: everybody makes playoffs pretty much in six A two. We
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  Speaker 2: came here to win a state title and that's gonna
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  Speaker 2: be our goaling. We're not gonna talk about anything else,
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  Speaker 2: and we're gonna try to get there and we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: do everything we can to make it awesome.
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  Speaker 1: You got a chance to look around and obviously you've
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  Speaker 1: been in the area, but your impressions of Custer Stadium
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  Speaker 1: and the facilities so far today it's nice.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the top of line, everything's of
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  Speaker 2: the weight room. We get the wait from fixed. They
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  Speaker 2: know they know my opinion on that that there's some
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  Speaker 2: improvements that got to be made and that'll be something
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  Speaker 2: that we reach out to the community on that we've
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  Speaker 2: we've got to get done if we want to compete
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  Speaker 2: in this in this era of nil, well we'll have
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  Speaker 2: nil here this era of transfers. You know, my number
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  Speaker 2: one priority is kids to quit transferent out. I don't
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  Speaker 2: want to lose any kids. I want to keep all
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  Speaker 2: our kids. But then my second priority will be getting
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  Speaker 2: some kids that want to move here because the culture
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  Speaker 2: we bring, because of our facilities, our stadium is beautiful,
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  Speaker 2: the town. You can't pick a more beautiful town to
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  Speaker 2: live in, a better community, a better school system. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, there's just the little things like the weight
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  Speaker 2: room needs to be done. So let's go get the
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  Speaker 2: weight room done. Say, it's pretty simple and just but
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  Speaker 2: on that everything's part of the setting, is right. You've
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  Speaker 2: got everything you need to win now you just need
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  Speaker 2: to get to work.
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  Speaker 1: Bartlesville head football coach Matt Hennessy with us and you
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  Speaker 1: kind of talked about this. But the schedule for this one,
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  Speaker 1: I guess you'll you'll meet with some of the coaches
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  Speaker 1: on staff and some of the players. What are some
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  Speaker 1: of the specifics.
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  Speaker 2: On that, uh, you know, today today's meeting with players
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  Speaker 2: is basically just to get them excited, and which is
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  Speaker 2: basically my gonna be I'm pretty good at that and
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  Speaker 2: that's gonna be my message to everybody right now. But
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  Speaker 2: let's get excited about this, but with the players, especially
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  Speaker 2: today meeting them, but also make them understand how I
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  Speaker 2: do things and my demands and my and then get
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  Speaker 2: them to recruiting. The hallways, I mean, just walking the hallways,
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  Speaker 2: I saw four or five kids. Man, man, what what
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  Speaker 2: do you I don't play football anymore, I used to.
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  Speaker 2: I don't you know. That can't happen. We got it,
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  Speaker 2: but get these kids, getting kids out. But at the
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  Speaker 2: same time, that kid may not want to do it
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  Speaker 2: our way and so you may not make it. But
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  Speaker 2: also I've got a little leadership quiz that I do that,
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  Speaker 2: I let them tell me about the program. I let
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  Speaker 2: them tell me what they think. We know what's good,
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  Speaker 2: what's bad. But more than that, about the kids. You
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  Speaker 2: know whose guys you can trust, whose guys you don't trust,
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  Speaker 2: who's It lets me develop a lot of I've found
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  Speaker 2: by using that it really allows me to know the
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  Speaker 2: players before I even really get to know them. So
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  Speaker 2: we'll hit that and then in the morning with the
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  Speaker 2: staff meeting with the coaches, it'll be a group staff
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  Speaker 2: meeting to where I'll basically tell them what I do
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  Speaker 2: and how we practice and my demands and if they
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  Speaker 2: want to be a part of it. And then I
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  Speaker 2: will meet with each of them individually and we'll we'll
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  Speaker 2: interview and see if it works out.
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  Speaker 1: And then you've done this obviously at a handful of
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  Speaker 1: places you just talked about that, what are you know,
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  Speaker 1: the main thing or the main two or three things
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  Speaker 1: that you want to see out of this offseason the
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  Speaker 1: first few weeks here out of the community whatever. What
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  Speaker 1: are some things that you've got in the back of
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  Speaker 1: your mind as you start, since you've been through this before,
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  Speaker 1: that you're kind of looking for.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just the buy in is everybody believing in me,
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  Speaker 2: trusting me, and buying in the players, the administration, the community.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody's got to buy in and trust the direction we're going.
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  Speaker 2: And that's how we're gonna build this culture. I mean
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  Speaker 2: to me, cultures everything I think you saw it. You know,
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  Speaker 2: last Friday night we're playing Rejoice. There's a big difference.
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  Speaker 2: There's a big difference in the level of players they had,
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  Speaker 2: probably than we did, but there's a big difference in
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  Speaker 2: our culture compared to theirs. And you know, our kids
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  Speaker 2: played hard every down, They loved each other, they played
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  Speaker 2: all forty minutes, and that's the things we're going to demand.