Latest / Houston County Football Coach's Show Jeremy Edwards / 2026 | Ep. 4 | Houston County Returns to Action Against Jones County

Transcript

2026 | Ep. 4 | Houston County Returns to Action Against Jones County · Houston County Football Coach's Show Jeremy Edwards

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, welcome in to another Hoco Bears conversation
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: with the head coach of the Hoco Bears. Of course,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: it's Jeremy Edwards, and it is our weekly Houston County
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Coaches Show brought to you, of course, by State Farm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: agent Ryan Lyons. Remember, protectedbyryan.com is the website you can
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: go to and check out all the things that Ryan Lyons,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: all the services that he offers. So, well, Coach, welcome
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: into the show, man. Always look forward to these Monday
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: conversations with you.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Phil.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: It's good to be here on another Monday, and we
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: actually got a game this week, so we got something
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: to look forward to at the end of the week.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Seems like it's been forever since you guys have played.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, the way we started out in the season,
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: we had a scrimmage, then sort of an off week,
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: and then we played our first game, then another off week,
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: and so we've got a lot of built-up rest, I guess.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: You know, we're going to have to play three in
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: a row here, and then another off week before we
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: start region play. So we've got to stay healthy for
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: the long stretch, but certainly our guys are chomping at
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: the bit to get back on the field and play
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: under the lights.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and talk about that. Obviously, you've got to play
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the schedule the way it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Comes about, but how does that work in terms of rhythm? Because,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you know, the season is about a rhythm. You know,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: it's about playing, practicing, playing, play practice, but you know
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: what I mean? So, so how does that work? How
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: do you try to balance that with having such a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: long time off since that, that game, that first game,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: you know, way back when?
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, luckily for us, you know, we've had
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: two weeks to kind of lock in on our next opponent,
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: which is, that's a luxury. So we certainly had a
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: week off as far as competition on Friday, but we treat,
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: you know, the off week, no different, especially this early
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: in the season where, you know, we still got our
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: legs underneath us. And so we still went, you know,
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: full bore is like we always do a normal practice week.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: We gave them Friday off, but Monday through Thursday, we
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: got after it and still, you know, gave them the
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: picture that they're going to see Friday night of what
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: Jones County is going to do. And so we were
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: able to kind of, I guess, steal a week when
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: it comes to that to get ready for them this
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: Friday night.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So, 1-0 on the season.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Of course, that one win coming as part of the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Corky Kill Classic, Corky Kill Dave Hunter Classic. And, again,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: all this time off, and now it's time to get
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: back to it. You mentioned it's Jones County, the opponent.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Tell us about the Greyhounds.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, they're a talented team.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we've obviously seen them on film leading up
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: to last week, and we were able to kind of
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: see them live. um you know at their place they
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: played peach county and you know you can tell they've
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: got a ton of talent they've got some speed uh
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: very talented at the uh running back position um you
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: know d line's a strength for them and uh you
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: know they they play hard you know they they've uh
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: definitely um chose to have a pretty tough schedule to
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: start the season with, uh, opening up with Valdosta and
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: then Beach County. So, I mean, they, uh, you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: but that, I think that's good. It just depends on
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: what your philosophy is. And, um, certainly I got a
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: lot of respect for coach Montgomery. He does a great
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: job there. Um, you know, trying to build a culture and, uh,
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  Speaker 4: he's got a history of success being at Carrollton, even
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: dating back at, uh, coach at Warner Robins.
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  Speaker 3: And, um, spent some time in college.
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  Speaker 4: So I know a little bit about him, but I
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: certainly respect the job that he's doing and trying to
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: get that place going. But, you know, he definitely didn't
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: schedule easy to begin the season with those two back-to-back.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: No, he didn't. And, you know, talk about that for
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: a second.
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  Speaker 1: I've noticed that's kind of become a strategy, if you will,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: with this new PSR formula that you guys are playing under.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't know that we ever talked about that.
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  Speaker 1: Did that go into how you put together the schedule
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: for these next two years, knowing that you're going to
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: be rewarded, obviously, for winning, but you're also going to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: be rewarded for playing good teams who play good teams?
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  Speaker 2: And, again, I don't know that we ever talked about that,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: but talk to that point if you would.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, putting together a schedule becomes a little
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: bit more difficult when you have success, I think. Yep.
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  Speaker 3: Everybody's looking for wins.
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  Speaker 4: I think everybody this year is trying to figure out,
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  Speaker 4: you know, what does the PSR look like?
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  Speaker 3: You know, how's that going to shake out? And, you know,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: obviously if.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: We had it our way, um, you know, we would
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: like to play our in-county rivals, um, you know, the
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: ones that are not in our region. Unfortunately, we weren't
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: able to make that happen this year. Um, so I'll
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: leave it at that, but, uh, we had to go
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: elsewhere and find some other games, you know, obviously we
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: got Jones County. They're not far from us. Coach Montgomery
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: and I talked and we were able to kind of
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: work that out. Um, the Dave Hunter classic with the
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Corky Kell. I mean, that kind of took care of itself.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: So we had to find two more games. Um, and so,
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  Speaker 4: you know, just kind of going through my phone and
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: looking at people I had contacts with, started reaching out
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: to folks and, uh, You know, we came up with Westlake,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: and I knew Central Carrollton was looking for a game,
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: and so we were able to make that work. Because
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  Speaker 4: for us, it's a little bit more of a challenge
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  Speaker 4: than most because, as you know, we share a stadium
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  Speaker 4: with veterans. So we've got to really puzzle together. It's
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: not just, hey, we'll be home this year, you know,
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: we'll come to you next year. It's like, will it
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: work out that we can be home? You know, if
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  Speaker 4: veterans has already got their game scheduled.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 4: So it really– It's nice for it to be a
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: two-year deal because so now we can kind of just
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: go with it for the next two years. Obviously, the
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: Corky Kell game, we'll play another opponent there. But these
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: other ones, Jones County, Westlake, and Central Carrollton, we'll play
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: for the next two years. So, you know, it is hard.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: But I think, you know, one thing I know is that,
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: you know, we were able to beat a really talented
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: and well-coached West Versailles team that knocked off Norcross Friday night.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Got to help, I imagine.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: That does. That does. Yep.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: You know, Norcross beat Mill Creek week one. So, at
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: any given day, anybody can win.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: We know that.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: But certainly that win feels a little bit better. Not
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: that we take any wins for granted. You know, we
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: appreciate any time we can be on that side, on
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: the winning side. But seeing what they did to Norcross
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: was– was pretty impressive for West Forsyth.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: It really was. And I noticed that too.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And so obviously the, the, the here early in the season,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the things that you just explained are going to go
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a long way, you know, towards benefiting, benefiting you guys
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: with the formula as it worked out, because again, West
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Forsyth beats a good team. You guys beat them and
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: so on and so on. I'll tell you another thing too,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: just the fact by default, being in this region, and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: being in this classification that you guys are in, I
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  Speaker 1: know it's not lost on you, but you know, that's a,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you know, arguably the toughest, toughest region, in my opinion,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: in the state from top to bottom.
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  Speaker 2: So that right there, just, just again, just by virtue
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: of playing the region schedule.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: And then you mentioned the, the non-region schedule that you got,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's going to benefit you just, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just out of default.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I've said it before and, uh, kind of
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: sound like a broken record, you know, probably, but, uh, it, it's,
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  Speaker 4: it's like playing in the sec and in high school football,
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: you know, once we hit region play and you got,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: excuse me, you got Tiff County who I saw just, uh,
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: knocked off Effingham, who I know is a well-coached, very
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: good football team. So, you know, you got Tiff County,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: you got Thomas County central, you got Lee County. I mean,
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: you've got, uh, veterans and North side and, you know, it,
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  Speaker 4: it's just, uh, It's a bit of a gauntlet. And,
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  Speaker 4: you know, mentioning our schedule, you know, we're going to
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: have to play six in a row once we hit
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: the region. So, you know, we've got to pray hard
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: that we stay healthy. I think that there's a lot
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: of luck that goes into winning the last game.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: You got to have some luck. You got to be good.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: You got to be talented. But you got to stay healthy.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: And, you know, that's going to be a challenge for
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: us is can we stay healthy because, you You know,
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: the level of ball that we play, especially when you
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: hit region, is super physical. So if you're not ready
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: for that, it's the last man standing. And so we've
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: got to do a great job of taking care of
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: our bodies, getting our rest, recovery, and kind of just
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: evaluating our players on things that they need as we
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: progress through the schedules.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Wrapping things up with Jeremy Edwards, head coach of the
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Hoco Bears.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure, too, that I got the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: backdrop covered either way.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: We got the Bears.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Nice shirt and hat, Phil.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It really is. Somebody sent that to me,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: and I really appreciate that. That would be you, man.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Thank you for that.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem. No problem.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, obviously– You know, you guys, I guess the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: one good thing about all this time off, if there
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: were any kind of bumps, bruises, I don't think you
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: guys have had anything serious. anyway, but guys certainly should
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: be well rested in. Where is the game at? Tell
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the fans how they can get to the game. Where's
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the game going to be at? When's kickoff?
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: All that good stuff.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we'll be at home at Freedom Field at 7.30.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: We do a bear walk at 6.15. We'll have, you know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: the Fans come out for that. Our kids really enjoy that.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: The band is there, cheer, and a lot of our kids,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: our families, our coaches' families. It's a pretty special deal
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: how we enter the stadium. I think it makes it unique,
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: something we've done for the past. Now this will be
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: our fifth year doing it, so it's pretty cool. So
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: I encourage people to come out for that. I think
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: that gets our guys going when they arrive to the stadium,
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: kind of gets them some juice. I don't know if you've, uh,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: I know you haven't been there since we've had it done,
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: but they put a sound system in at our stadium.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Second to none.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: It is. It's like being at a, uh, they say
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: it's the same thing that's over at Sanford and places
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Um, almost like being at a, like a Metallica concert
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: or something. Hey, look out super loud. But, uh, I
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: think that just adds an extra element to it. You know,
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: we don't have all the flashing lights and all that stuff, but,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: you know, it's football, you know. We're just trying to
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: put the ball down and make plays.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Three yards in a cloud of dust, baby.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Or throw it.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Or throw it. Yeah, I got to remember who I'm
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: talking to here.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, I did want to point out, too, obviously we
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: like to salute superfan Ronnie Brown, and I love what
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the team did. I saw that online where the team
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: went over and I guess saluted Ronnie Brown in the stands.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Very cool.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he had a birthday last week.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: He's, you know, him and a couple other gentlemen will
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: come watch practice every morning. We're a morning practice team
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: right now. Our kids like it. Um, obviously we do
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: it for weather purposes, but our kids really, really enjoyed it. And, and,
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: and us as coaches, we've enjoyed it too. You know,
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: I got a, uh, daughters that are involved in extra
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: extracurricular activities. So I'm able to go watch them play
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: in the afternoons, which has been really cool. Watch our
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: middle schools, um, uh, watch them practice, go to their games.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: And so, but yeah, he was over there in the
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: stands and I knew it was his birthday. And so
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: I thought, wouldn't it be cool to go over there
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: and sing to him? So probably embarrassed him a little bit,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: but our team sang happy birthday to him. And, and,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: you know, it's things like that, that, you know, I
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: think makes our program special. You know, we, we understand
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: the type of servant leader that he is for our
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: program and our kids know that. And so it was
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: a no doubt deal for us to go over there
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: and honor him on his birthday.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I am 100% sure that made his day brother.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: He was, Like I said, he was a little bit embarrassed,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: I think, because, you know, it's like any time you
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: go out to eat, you know, and they come sing
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: to you, you know, especially if you go to like
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: a Mexican restaurant, they put the sombrero on you and
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: all that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm talking about.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I like to join in the song, man. Even if
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: it's not my table.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I'll start clapping and singing. It's all about having a
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: good time, enjoying life, right?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: And you got to have joy. You know, that's something
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: we talk about a lot in our program is yes.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: It's having joy in the process. You know, I mean, yeah,
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: we're here to work. We're here to, you know, we've
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: got to put the work in, but we're going to
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: enjoy the moments. And, you know, especially when you talk
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: about guys that are coming to the end of their
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: career seniors, you know, that the clock's on, the clock
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: is on them now. I mean, they've got 10 guaranteed games,
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: but after that, nothing's guaranteed. So, you know, As soon
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: as you start taking days for granted and you don't
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: make days count, you know, it becomes a problem. You know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: you don't go hard in practice. That's how injuries happen.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: And so we're always going to try to create energy
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: for our guys.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: They create energy and have joy in the process.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: All right. Bears get back to it this week.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: After only having the one game under their belt. It'll
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: be game two against the Greyhounds of Jones County. come
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: calling to Freedom Field. Get out there and enjoy the game.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Support the Bears. I know you guys will, all of
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: you that are watching this. And, again, we salute downtown
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: super fan Ronnie Brown as well as our show sponsor. Man,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: what a great supporter. Ryan Lyons is State Farm Agent
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Ryan Lyons. And if you see him, let him know
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: how much you appreciate him supporting the Houston County Coach's
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Show with Jeremy Edwards and myself here at ITG Next.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Coach? Best of luck Friday night.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk all about it next week
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: on next week's House and County Coaches Show.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Phil. I'll talk with you next week. Okay, Jeremy.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Have a great week, brother. You too. There he is.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: That's Jeremy Edwards checking in with us here on the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: House and County Coaches Show.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Come back next week. We do it every week, guys,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: right here at ITG Next.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: We are your one stop when it comes to high
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: school sports coverage.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: See you next week, guys.