Latest / Desert Valley Blitz / EP#20-How A Coach Turned Loss, Grit, And Innovation Into A Winning Program-The David Palmer Story

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EP#20-How A Coach Turned Loss, Grit, And Innovation Into A Winning Program-The David Palmer Story · Desert Valley Blitz

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: It is executed, it is welcome everybody to Desert Valley Blitz Coach's Corner Edition.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: And on this show, we like to talk to the best and brightest football minds that we can find.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_04: And today is no exception because today we have head football coach, Mr.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_04: David Palmer.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for coming in, man, and joining the show.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks for inviting me, guys.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, awesome, man.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: So we on this show we like to get, you know, kind of coaches' backstories and and how they got into the game, right?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_04: So um, are you a native of Coachella Valley?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_04: How did you how did you kind of find your way out here?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_04: This is kind of the first question we had for you.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: I was uh born and raised in Fontana.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: So my high school days were in Faux High, and then I came down here my tenth grade.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um we transplanted down here and it's a different eye opener in come come being competitive and you know, like wow, everybody's small down here compared to what we were used to.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it was it was different.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but you know, roll with it and the heat was different, but you know, we just you know did my thing and you know played football, played whatever sport we had at our school.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: We played basketball, football, baseball.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: So multi-sport athlete, yeah.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, I was sports were my thing.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I like I like being competitive.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: I was competitive.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of well, yeah, you know, I had a lot of anger, so you know, I was for Fontana.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: It was hard.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, putting it in the way.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely, definitely.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tough area, yeah, especially back then.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, the 80s were it was rough.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Inland Empire in the 80s, man.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_04: If you guys don't know, Google it.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_04: It was a tough, it was a tough time in the Inland Empire.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: But uh coming out here, Coach, where where did you uh finally decide you're gonna play ball and what high school did you attend?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh actually, you know, our my parents had a retirement home in uh Salton Sea.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: So I ended up in World Shorts High School.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: That was a small school and it was getting used to hard to get used to, but we had an eight-man football team.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Eight men?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: So you've been in eight men?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, my friends coached there back in the day, Jonathan Ingram.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh yeah, that's right.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was this were back in 88 and 87.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, but you know, it was it just it was easy.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, just run people over, and you weren't it was not as competitive as I was used to.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: So right.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: What position you play?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: Back then, it was an outside linebacker.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I played that and then offensively, running back, you know, because I had a little wheels on me at the time.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_04: So get a little score a couple touchdowns, right?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_04: Here and there.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, um, yeah, you know, it was kind of hard in eight man football, though.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Only only a couple guys to beat, right?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: So it was different, but you know, it it got me out of trouble.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: I had to admit, if I didn't end up down there, I'd probably be in Fontana, I'd be definitely in trouble.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: Somewhere, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: You're talking about a school that had 5,000 kids.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, wow, five thousand kids.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: It was five thousand.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, when we literally practiced on our first summer, it was three levels.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: You had varsity that had a, b, and c team.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: Then you had the JV that had A, B, and C.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I was down in the the sophomore where it was A, B, and C.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I only made the B part.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: Three sophomore teams?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: Might even get back to that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: That is crazy, man.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was crazy.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and my whole family went to that school.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: So my main sport, though, during that time was wrestling because my whole family wrestled.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: So that my passion was wrestling.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: So my wrestling coach, because I went to older junior high, ended up going, taking over the varsity program at um Faux High.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: So, but we only had three junior highs.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: So we all went to one high school in Fontana.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's changed as of now, right?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: There's like three or four high schools there now.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, kind of like 5,000 people.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: They needed another high school, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so you're in high school, West Shores, kind of getting towards the end of your career.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: What kind of what kind of path did life kind of take you on after that that football career, the eight-man football career?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, at that time, you know, it was graduation was coming up, and uh, you know, my family was all during my all my dad's dad and everybody was in the military, so I my dad was in the Navy, so I decided to get go to the recruiter and go to the Navy.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I went to the Navy, uh, graduated uh that week, and that week that we were off after graduation, my dad was down visiting and he went home and I ended up in Count Pendleton to do my recruiting and get, you know, physical and get all my paperwork done and get see where I was gonna get shipped out at.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um fortunately, when I was there uh second day, um my recruiter came and got me and told me my dad died in an accident.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: So that's tough, man.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was it was a it was a shock because he was my life.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to do my time and then get out and go live with him because I didn't get to see him because unfortunately I had to end up in Salton Sea.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: My parents got a divorce, so I ended up going down there.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um so at the time I had the ability to get out and I just decided to get out.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I had to go take care of all that, go to his place.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: My dad lived in Texas, and I spent my summers in Texas working out with you know schools by him in Dallas, you know, summer.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I went there, took care of all his business, and uh got paid to go to college because of the accident.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I went to COD for three years.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um didn't want to pursue football anymore.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: It was kind of like just kind of India rope.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, you know, I just move on with life.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: But I still had the edge.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to do something, so I you know, I went for the basketball team.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't cut, it was too short.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of guys were bigger than me, tall.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: I had some friends that were really tall, were you know, six, six and all that, so I wasn't gonna make it.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: A little white boy ain't gonna make it, so um, but I stood still played uh adult basketball there and uh did that forever because it was fun, you know, just had to compete.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's something that was always been in me is competing, yeah, regardless.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I did my three years, got where I wanted to go, and moved on and um went career-wise, did what I wanted to do.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: I was a mechanic, got certified, and did some time different places, and then I opened up my own company for new company.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: Entrepreneurship, huh?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: So that you talk about competition, man.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, you know, you're talking to two entrepreneurs right here.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: That's the most competitive thing you can do, man.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I just I got married, um, had a wife, and I wanted to, she supported me.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: And um, we went and opened up our first shop, and then we did that for a while.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: And the next thing you know, we like, hey, there's another avenue.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: We opened up a collision shop too.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: So we had two shops going.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, that's a lot, man.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: I had my first kid, then I was on my second kid, and third kid came.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: But they were all boys, so I was just like excited.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, when you have boys, you're just like, you know.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: In the firstborn, you're just like dived in, unfortunately.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, that's when it all started for me.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Coming back to the sports, yeah, and then with the books out, coaching them up.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we start with flag, you know, and you drop them off one day, and you're just like you see the coaches out there and they're like doing this.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: You're just like, really?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's all you got.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: We have Josh talking about this extensively.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, uh, you know, you're you're trying not to be that dad.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, you don't want to be there.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: We all know those dads out there.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're they're out there and you you know, hey, thanks for just being out there for the kick.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: You're not being paid to do this, thank you.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and so I, you know, hey, do you need help?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like, yeah, okay, I'll go help him.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: And um, guy was really nice.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I I'm so sorry, I don't remember his name.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: He was a great guy.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: He was good with his kid, he was on the same team.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, he coached us at the YMCA uh flag.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: They were the Steelers.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they still do it there.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: I remember Dallas was running it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um that dad, uh, the next following year died on an accident.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: He was killed in Cathedral City on a motorcycle by a UPS truck.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: If anybody remembers that.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: So his son, you know, was upset.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so I kind of took it over and wanted to keep it together.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, stepped in and was like, I'll do the good right thing here.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and we did it for four years with Steelers just keeping it running for him.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: So um, we did that, and then you know, my son started going to the middle school and he was doing flag, and then I had my other son in flag, and I was doing him, and my little one started doing flag for the little ones, and it's like, okay, well, now we gotta start, you know, it's getting more invested.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: Now we're like, okay, well, we gotta evolve, do things different.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then my son went to shadow.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, no, I'm sorry, but let me scoop back.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: He didn't go to shadow, we went to Little Knights.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: So he's in Little Knights.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: He started to play tackle.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he's starting to play tackle.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um he uh was too big to play on the middle league, the um junior midgets.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: So he had to move up.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: So we moved him up.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: He wasn't big enough yet, so but he had to go there.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: So he went there, and there was only one coach and he needed help, and I'm like, I can help, I can do whatever you want me to do.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: All right, so like do the DVs, and I'm like, excellent.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so you know, and that's when I had Shipley, my kid, Hunter, all the So you had some dudes.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: We had some dudes.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: Make you a much better coach.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: So we're like, we're able to coaching, and you know, that's when I met Shipley.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Shipley would come over and talk to the guys and you know, do those things.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, we had a great year and then we moved on, and uh they went to the high school, and my middle kid came up, and I got to coach in the uh little peewees uh for my call.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: He needed an O-line coach, which was like something I wanted to try because you know he does a lot of passing, and my favorite thing was I hated teams that pass because it's so hard to defend.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I'm like, okay, cool.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: I want to learn more about that, you know, even at this level, it's okay.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we go there and we coached.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: I coached the linemen, and you know, hey, we're gonna be a passing team.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: So how what about if we do a pass set?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, instead of being a three-point, let's put them in you know two-point.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: It worked great.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: We went to Florida to nationals.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, you got to the Super Bowl.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we won our ring and then we went to the Super Bowl, and you know, we got smacked, but you know, hey, it's an experience.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: The kids are just oh, that's a whole nother.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's the South.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's the South, man.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's different down there.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's a great experience.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome, man.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: But what I like about it was you you got all these kids playing, and then you see them go to different high schools.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: The Howards and all them during our time, and it's like, God, you get you get the experience how good these kids are.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Then you see them across the field, and it's like, eh, it's cool.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was there when you were little.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like you have a little part of that, yeah.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's a cool, that's a cool little experience.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: So, how do you so we go from the coaching the pee-wee's how how do we how do how does our week progress into high school?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_04: Because you're at the top level of high school now.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it hasn't been that long.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: No, how does how does that progression kind of how does that journey go for you?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, my last year at the Little Knights, I did the midgets, and that's before you go right into high school.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: Right before high school.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we had a good success on doing that.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: And um, offense-wise, eh, but defensively, you know, we were pretty good because I was stacking them, and you know, we were doing different things because I'm an odd front guy.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: I just sum about the odd front.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Three-four?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love the two.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, at that time we were doing a four-four stack, and we were playing against Brawley and all that.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: And we had success.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I guess uh Escabel or somebody noticed me and asked me if I go to the freshman level and help out and call defense on freshman.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, gone.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Let's do it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Let's do it.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I got kids coming there anyway.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: So we did that, and uh, I did one year with Shipley and um, you know, got to learn some things from everybody, and then school was in transition with a lot of people, so you know I just kept doing my own thing involving everybody was moving around, and Esquel became head coach, and then I got to become the JV head coach, and then we did our thing.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: Then COVID hit and kind of destroyed everything.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was a horrible time, man.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, horrible time.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: But at the time, Will Martin, um, I don't know if you guys ever heard of the case.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Great coach.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: I know that guy's he was a great Escobel got him for the defense quarter for varsity.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:18
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• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I was with him doing the linebackers for varsity, and that was a learning experience because if you know anything about him, he came from New Mexico State.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's what he's doing.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: He's a college-level coordinator coach in high school, basically.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: You've learned so much from that guy.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, man.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: Great defensive.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I learned a lot from him, picked everything up.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and uh I took some twists on everything because he's a bend don't break kind of guy, and me, I'm more I'm gonna be aggressive.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna pressure and I'm gonna keep her umbrella over the top of me.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's my protection.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I twisted it my way, and then everybody left, and then the next thing I got DC for Escabel, and I then I became the head coach for this is my third year now.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: Been there nine years, this will be my third year as head coach.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, so it's just been success, right?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's ultimately you've been your career path, right?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: Every level you've kind of succeeded and succeeded and moved up.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, got the call, got the call, you know.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: You have to invest, but you know, it it takes um you don't know everything, and you gotta find people that know more than you.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I try to teach that to the kids too.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's like if you don't know, you gotta find out from somebody.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: You can learn something from anybody.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: So just learn, pick up, take something from somebody.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I learned a lot from Escabel, I learned a lot from Martin, I learned a lot from Shipley, I learned a lot from my days.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we actually had um a couple other good coaches at our school, and I picked some stuff off of them, Coach Black.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you know, you just take tad bits and you just inject it, you know.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Put little pieces in your pocket, yeah.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and you and then you see things that don't work, and then you're like, okay, we need to change things like that and not do stuff like that.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Or you get to try some things that you want and then it didn't work and then go.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, you're like, oh well, that didn't work.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, we'll try that.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're getting a little too experimental.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: We'll never do that one again.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: That just left me wide open.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, yeah, but it's fun to try that stuff that you you know you envisioned, you know.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, you want to do something that you know the kids like.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and if you're not doing something the kids don't, I mean they like, you have them.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: You're doing stuff kids don't like, you start losing kids.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, you lose their attention.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: And especially these days, man, attention it seems like attention spans are getting shorter and shorter on your players, man.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's just getting hard.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's getting harder.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: You got to find a way to uh reach the kids that each kid has to be reached differently.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: You just gotta figure out what how how can I reach you.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Or you know, maybe I got someone that can reach you.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, maybe I'm too out of it.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe this person coach can reach you.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Or you just gotta find people, and you gotta surround yourself with good people too.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Don't get me wrong.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: You can't be can't do it all yourself.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: You can't do it all yourself.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: I don't there's nobody that can do it all myself.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: You have to surround yourself with great people.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_04: So you've done a good job of building out that staff.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_04: I know when you kind of took over, it was kind of all over the place when you first you had to come in and clean up some things when you're yeah, you know, we had some stuff, and the biggest thing when I took over is I I wanted to get the ball in the air.
• 16:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because as a defensive coordinator, you're like, what am I scared of?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: Throwing the ball on me.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Especially if you got choice routes.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta teach these young kids how to defend zones and choice routes.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, okay, well, you gotta find ways that are different.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I saw success at CV.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, Coach Davis is a great guy, he knew what he was doing.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and so I was like, well, hey, the run and shoot works.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: Let's let's let's get that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: At least if we're in spread the first year, I can get the ball in the air and we can work from there.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and then we just twisted it and got people that actually knew how to run the stuff.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And takes time.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it takes time.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then last year we're like, okay, it took a little bit.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Almondo Diaz.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, he is a good guy, he knows what he's doing, he's still green, but you know, he is good.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Good product on the field.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then we got Coach Canela back out of retirement, and he knows how to coach an O-line.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, we I've been trying to fight for that guy for a long time to get him on, and we got him, and you know, we still got some good guys on our staff.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we got a lot of coaches that had experience at the upper level of college, and you know, when you finally get like last year, we finally got that group, and then you see the kids just and when they do things they like, like run and explode, and everything's explosive and fast and thinking thing, and it starts working.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_03: Then you build off this year where we can throw the ball, we can get points scored.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: And we see it.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because when you took over, Shadow Hills was known for that Will Martin defense.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, defense, defense, defense.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: And you kind of are a defensive guy, so you fit that mold, and you know that your hiring kind of enforced that.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_04: But now I think if you talk to people that know in the know, have seen you guys play, that offense is explosive now.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I don't think I've seen a Shadow Hills offense that can put points on the board that can be.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: No, we broke records actually last year.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we had Pedro um the first year when we ran it, and um he his arm was a little bit weak.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: But he can extend a play.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: He wasn't scared, he was very smart.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that kid made plays.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, great plays.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: So it worked for us.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: He did a great job, got us, got the door open for the school.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: We broke records, and then this year um Jesse definitely he already broke school records in the passing just into Indio game, I think it was.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Kid was throwing the ball everywhere.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_04: I was at uh I was at as an Indio grad, unfortunately, I was at that game.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, you guys have definitely changed your you've changed your look as a football team in the last couple years.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're still good on defense.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean well last year I was focused on offense.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I totally kind of gave up defense to my other coaches.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think whoever's coaching that up is doing such a good job because that safety, he he stays back when he needs to.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: On run, he's making plays at the line of scrimmage.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, every year, though, it's not just one kid.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's yeah, I got uh Egypt coach.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: We call him Coach E.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: He is definitely shout out to him, man.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: He's doing a good job.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: But uh Coach Red got it started for us last year.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um good coach.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um he had baby, he's got little ones too, so he had to like took a lot of time last year.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Take step, yeah.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Take a step back.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: So those two got him going.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Coach E was on the receiver side working with them, but now he's doing both this year for us.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: And he's just he used to coach at COD for the DB.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so he knows that yeah, and he he still plays.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: He actually is on the travel team for the team that plays behind you guys.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he traveled, he's just got done playing, he was in Texas and all stuff playing ball still.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: 29.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh huh.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: He's still trying.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Getting up there, getting up there, but he knows, you know, and we introduced it like, you know, and that goes back to evolving, you know.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's a whole nother subject.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: We um if you don't evolve your defense, because I'm on off front, so we started with a three four.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: We did that when we started the year after COVID, when I was like, hey, you know, Martin, we were a During COVID.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, hey, we don't have the dudes.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go 3-4.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, can they do it?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, we should be able to do it.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, I love 3-4.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, you know 3-4.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, yeah, I do love it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, coach, go to go to town at 3-4.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: Please show me everything.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: And he did.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: And we went 3-4.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I started seeing everybody adjusting to the 3-4 after, you know, after three years.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, okay, you know.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: And you look at the game, I'm like, okay, what's everybody running?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, everybody's running an RPO spread option, everything.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, you know, 3-5 beats a 3-4 is a 3-5, depends how you look.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why I was about to find I can be anybody.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: And that's like I tell the kids, you can you can be a 5-2.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: We could be a 3-5.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: We can be a 50.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_03: It could be a heavy set.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: You could be a 3-5-3.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then against this game, we learned how to do a 3-3-5.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, hey, five safeties over top.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: We got an extra guy on the back.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: You were stacked up a little bit, a little close.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we were in a 3-3-5 and we were down.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like a moving amount, right?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_03: Extra guy on the top comes down and messes with blocking schemes too.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the thing with us, is like, you know, that's my favorite thing.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's my blitzes are never coming up from the same direction.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'll never blitz you from the same direction.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: I've got like a hundred blitzes in my pocket for that.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: You guys do a good job of blitzing for depth too.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you don't show it and you just blitz from depth and go.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: I got safety's blitzing.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: I got a stealer blitz.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: I got an outside free safety blitz.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Got a cat.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody's got a cat, but you know, we just you know, we we do a double cat sometimes.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean, you just gotta, if you're being red, you gotta get rid of that read.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have to beat the coach, I gotta beat the cat on the field.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's the only thing I worry about.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's true.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_04: True that true that, man.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_04: Well, speaking of coaching, what what would you tell somebody, a young cat, getting into the game, thinking about maybe making this a career, you know, and trying to get to the highest levels like you.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_04: What advice would you give somebody coming into this game?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know, um be patient, first thing, you know, it it it gets there and definitely be a student of the game.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: You have to be a student of the game.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: You can't stop being a student of the game.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: You can't think you know everything.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Even at my age, I'm like, hey, there's gotta be, in which way I did this week, you know, we learned how to be a 335, but be a sponge.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: Learn from everybody and anybody around you.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, someone has something to offer in life.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I tell the kids there's there, you gotta learn something from somebody every day.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you just have to be a sponge.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, study the game.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: Study, you don't be just like, okay, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna master it.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: The game evolves.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: You have to evolve with it.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: Offenses change, people try new things.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: You have to figure out a way to stop it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: So just study the game.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: There's so we're never inventing anything new.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: No, we're stealing things from somebody, taking pieces of everything, right?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: And then if you think you created something new, I bet you if you go back 30 years, someone already did it.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's a lot of great minds out there.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: We're not reinventing the wheel out here.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, study, get involved at the lower level, be patient, because it's not easy.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, there was money.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's not about money, guys.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: If you think it's about money, you're in the wrong game.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_03: You're losing money.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: If you're a teacher and you're coaching, you got some money.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: If you're just coaching, you're you know, siphon stipend teacher, you're coaching.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: You're losing money when you're losing there.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's more about you know, kids and giving them something to be proud of and like, hey, I'm excited about this.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: So you're there for them first.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um so be there for them.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's got its high moments, it's got its low moments.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta roll with it.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: You're not gonna win every game.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, it takes time to change things.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, my principal's pretty good at that too.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: He says, Hey, you know, you can't change a program in two years, it takes three years.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna do it in one.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Now you push my button.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna do this in one.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: I got something to go for, but yeah, learn.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, study.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there is not a night that okay, I'm looking at someone's film and I'm like, what's someone's got something for this?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: I know someone did something for this at some college level or something, and I'll start going through the internet, like you know, like, hey, what's that?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's uh that's a different type of uh split field coverage, and you know, you're adding more to the box, and right there's there's something always there's an answer to solve a problem.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: You have to find the answer.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so don't just think that oh, I'm gonna run a 425 and I'll just shift.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: And no, there's always more answers.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: Don't be scared to change things.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, don't be scared to you, you may fail, but come back at it.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: Keep trying because you know, and once you get skilled enough, then people notice, and then you can someone will bring you up.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's never gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna go straight to varsity.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it doesn't work like that, guys.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta work your way up, you gotta prove to yourself.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, you do with the freshman, and the freshmen love you, and the freshmen are joining you, and you're putting stops down or you're scoring, someone's gonna notice them, you're gonna start moving up.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, or someone's gonna notice another school and grab one of the two because we do that too.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, you're doing good over there.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: Why don't you come over here?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you got a good coach, you want to keep them.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but you know, it's just it's work, it's it's you know, there's no money in it.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: There's sometimes there's not even you know a thank you or anything.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: You can't be right with the parents sometimes.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_03: So they don't understand sometimes.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: When you get to the varsity level, parents just don't understand.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: This is varsity.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a business.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's it's a business.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the best guy gets the job.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's a business.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: And unfortunately, sometimes when your kid isn't, you know, and we try to do our best, you know, the kids getting bad grades or something doing, hey dude, you're not playing this game.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you gotta do your part.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: If you're not doing your part, I don't need you.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need you with a bad attitude, I don't need you with a negative attitude because that's just cancer.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_03: We've had that before at Shadow.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: We had a lot of cancer, and we had to eliminate that.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta cut it out, right?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: Gotta cut it out.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta get rid of it because it spreads.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's exactly you know, we've we've tried to make a big difference on that.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I've you know, our principal says we've we made a change in that.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm you know, I'm glad he sees it.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: And it's ongoing.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: Boys are boys, man.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, come on.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah you can't we we want the fire in the dog, but you just can't take that out of the dog.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, come on.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want a totally new to the dog, especially, you know, we're a small school.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: We gotta go big toes with some big guys, and we gotta get fire out of little guys.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you're doing a good job, coach.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think uh, you know, people see around the valley the the change in your program, and it's pretty evident that you know you at the helm is a big reason for it.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_04: So thanks for coming in and talking to us, man.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: You were a you're a great knowledge of wealth, and we'd like to talk to you again in the future, man.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_04: Appreciate being here.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, it's all about the kids again.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's what we do.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's what we're here for, man.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_04: So thanks for coming in, Chris.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_04: All right, thanks, guys.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_04: All right, all right.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_04: So if you guys found some value in that, you guys know the routine.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like, subscribe, and follow.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: And we'll see you next time on Desert Valley Blitz.