Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Mark Fairly at 2024 USTFCCCA LIVE interview!

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BONUS: Mark Fairly at 2024 USTFCCCA LIVE interview! · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Bonus time every year at the USTFCCCA convention down in
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  December, we do a live podcast event where we sit down with
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  coaches from around the country for 5:00-ish minutes and talk
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  about a certain topic. This year, December of 2024, we
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  sat down with coaches to talk about the NCAA, what's going on
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  with the NIL, transfer portal, roster caps, all those kind of
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  good things. And there's some interesting
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  feedback and tidbits from everyone who chose to sat down
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  with us. So here we are, the audio
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  version of that. You can catch the video version
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  over on YouTube. Just search up the GAL Athletics
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  podcast and look for our live events content and you'll find
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  the three that we've done 20/24/2023 2020 2 and we'll do
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  it again in 2025. It's a hard one to follow.
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  Are you sure? I love it.
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  I love it. All right.
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  Why don't you start by introducing yourself, please?
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  Yeah. I'm Mark Fairley.
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  I coach at Liberty University as an assistant coach and I'm also
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  the facilities and. Yeah, out Lynchburg following
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  Coach Sprecher. He's he's the man.
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  He yeah, yeah, I'm so dumb and scoop for scoop towards me just
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  a little bit just so we can get there on the Twitter.
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  So I went to through Lynchburg 'cause it was at Charlottesville
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  and Blacksburg book ends, right? So I was kind of doing a tour,
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  right? And so I was going to go stay
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  the night in Lynchburg and visit my buddy Sprecher and all that
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  kind of stuff. And as I'm driving in, I see
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  this sign, you know, home of Liberty.
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  And I was like, is Liberty in Lynchburg?
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  I knew it was in Virginia, but I had no clue.
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  And so I called my friend, our fellow friend Sean Van Novel.
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  And I was like, Sean, I was like, are you, are you in
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  Lynchburg? And he's like, yeah, it's spring
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  break, but yeah, I'm here. I was like, bro, I am here.
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  And I had no clue. And he gave me a tour this back
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  when the indoor facility was still being built, but gave me a
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  tour. And that's a campus, bro.
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  Holy. Yeah.
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  What a you know, I've known him for a long time and really love
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  him. And really the thing that just
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  I, I, I get the most is pride and grateful for him is his work
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  with coaches education. I'm a huge coaches education guy
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  and I'm not sure besides him maybe and Larry Judge who
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  teaches the most level ones and stuff.
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  So I love his servant leadership with that.
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  But we're here to talk about you.
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  So and you have a unique perspective.
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  That's why I really wanted you on the show.
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  And so super glad that you you joined us here.
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  So our topic this year is all the changes that are going on
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  with NCAA. You get to take that any Ave.
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  you want. What what's your opinion?
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  What's what do you think's going on and how do you see things
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  playing out? Yeah.
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  So I, I coach our bottom half of our women's team, we have 32
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  women on our distance roster and we kind of heard rumors of the,
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  the numbers coming out and kind of like, oh, that's, that's not
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  actually going to happen. And then?
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  Athletic directors met with us and kind of said, hey, it's,
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  it's most likely going to happen.
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  We're moving forward. If it's going to happen, your
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  numbers are 17 and 40. Five.
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  Wow. Wow, those 17.
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  Automatically have to count toward the 45.
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  Of the track, so you can't have 17 and maybe 10 of them are
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  because you know there's a difference between track and
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  cross country. 10 of them from the cross team move on to track,
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  and then the other 35, those 17 take 45 -, 17 if you're going to
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  carry 17 on the cross. The odds are we're not going to
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  be able. To carry 17 distance.
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  Right, right. That number one puts me out of a
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  coaching gig #2I recruited, we were, we were told to be for for
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  number wise for Title 9 to be at over 30.
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  Women. Yeah.
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  How does this affect Title Nine? Yeah, it's going.
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  To completely change. It right?
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  I honestly think it's it's going to ruin be a train ride for
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  women's sports in general. How so?
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  There's going to be a lot of missed opportunities even with
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  within our program we have, yes, the 17 girls in my group are
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  definitely not going to be a part of the team right we've
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  had. But, but don't they, I, I could
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  play a little bit devil's advocate and, and I do actually
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  believe in this next question personally.
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  And it's also easy for me to believe in these things because
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  I'm not in your, your seat either.
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  Right. But don't those 17 young ladies
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  have an opportunity to go to division two schools and
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  Division Three and junior college, depending on what year
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  they are? NEI, there are other
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  opportunities without. And by the way, you as well get
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  an opportunity to coach at other institutions.
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  Or, or is it, or do you think there's more of an immediacy to
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  the negativity that that's because there is going to be
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  some negativity. I'm not not Pollyannish here.
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  Yeah. No.
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  And I do think there are going to be potentially more influx in
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  division two programs, Division Three programs I ran at a
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  Division 3 institution. And so like, I love that.
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  What D3? Stands for right opportunities.
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  Right. I think what we're kind of
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  looking at is running club options on campus because
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  Liberty's a unique school and people want to be there.
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  Because there is that I agree. I agree with that So.
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  Even in my group of 17, the couple are on the transfer.
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  Portal. But I'd say the majority are
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  planning on staying at liberty. You know don't have the.
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  Opportunity to run on a on a. I didn't think about it this
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  way, but I know there is a I'll call it healthy because there's
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  a a national club, college club championship for Cross.
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  And yeah, I wonder if, if that organization grows, if you will.
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  Absolutely, yeah. I I.
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  Was actually able to start a running club on campus three
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  years ago. Yeah, the.
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  Cool part is like we're we're working with our athletic
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  department to see if we can possibly build up the running
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  club even. More, yeah.
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  And that's. That's so that's a question too.
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  It's like, is there a ability for coaches or maybe me who like
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  won't actually be a coach anymore to be involved in?
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  That right, right, right. And that's a pure, you know, a
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  lot of times on the Division Three side and then maybe it's
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  unfair to say Division Three, but in some schools it's a it's
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  a tuition driver, you know, have more kids on your team.
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  They pay more tuition. The the club is 100% well beyond
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  academic scholarships and such like that in grants, but it's a
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  a real money drive, you know, potentially, yeah, yeah, I would
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  think and the. Retention rate is is very
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  similar in club sports. Maybe better I.
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  Don't know about better. But I mean, intercollegiate
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  athletics have a higher GPA than non and higher graduation rate.
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  So when I say better, I didn't mean there's like a slam, like,
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  oh, athletes are dumb. They don't graduate.
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  They actually graduate higher than a normal student does.
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  So yeah, that's interesting. OK, so we're asking 'cause this
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  will be also published next year as we lead into the 2025
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  convention. So I'll be able to check how
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  good you are at this. You get to make one prediction
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  for track and field cross. I'll allow you to have cross
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  country in there as well. If you'd like something that's
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  gonna happen, It could be Lynchburg, I'm sorry, Liberty
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  related. It could be pros high school.
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  What's what do you think is one thing that might happen in track
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  or cross country in 2025? Well, I.
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  I do think I actually I brought and I can this with you.
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  It's I wrote a letter to Congress.
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  'Cause our yeah, the program. Said that the biggest change
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  would have to happen at the. Congress level, right So.
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  I'm trying to get out, get the word out that like we can
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  advocate for our sport and advocate and, and this is not
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  obviously something to fight for, but if, if we can advocate
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  for opportunities for, for our athletes, like I want to do
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  that. But I think as far as your
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  prediction question goes, I'll I'll keep it local and I'm gonna
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  predict are women's cross country teams going to.
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  Make the national champion. Yeah.
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  Is that right? Yeah.
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  A good group of women. Oh, man, that's cool.
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  Because now you give me something to root for too.
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  Like. All right, I'll watch because,
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  you know, Liberty played my alma mater Troy in football and we
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  didn't do so well. So I'm not a big Liberty fan in
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  that sense. But in cross country, I can I
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  can root for that. I love that.
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  Hey. And by the way, you notice he's
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  not the first person. And we're just getting started
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  here. That it said talking about
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  Congress and making sure we're communicating with them and
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  making sure our top people are communicating with them about
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  the real richness and opportunities that track and
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  field and cross country give young people in this country
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  specifically. Yeah, I love it.
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  All right, brother, thank you so much.
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  Thank you for visiting us. Really a lot of value add there
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  and and go Liberty and cross country, not football.
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  Thanks, Mark. Appreciate you, man.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  Please do. I want to read that.
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  Absolutely. Thank you.
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  Thank you.