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

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BONUS: Ritchie Beene 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.
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  What's going on with the NIL transfer portal?
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  Roster Caps. All those kind of good things,
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  and there's some interesting feedback.
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  And tidbits. From everyone who chose to sat
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  down with us, so here. We are.
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  The audio version of that you can catch the video version
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  over. On YouTube.
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  Just search up the GAL Athletics podcast and look for our live
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  events content and you'll find the three that we've done
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  20/24/2023 2020 2 and we'll do it again in 2025.
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  I will. Always take you.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me get Richie.
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  I'm going to do real quick with Richie because I want you last.
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  I want you. I want you my anchor leg.
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  And Richie always, if he ever wants to sit down with me, I
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  always sit down. He just makes it longer by doing
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  this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Ryan Krauser's birthday is on Wednesday, and he turns 32.
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  Holy cow, I can't believe he's only 32.
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  Scoot in a little bit here with me.
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  They want to see your beautiful face and microphone has to be
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  pretty close to your mouth. Introduce yourself as if you
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  need any introduction. Hi, I'm Richard Bean, track and
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  field coach, cross country at Alabama State University.
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  How do you resist not wearing 1 championship ring on every
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  finger everywhere you go? Cuz after as many as you have
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  won with your athletes and coaching Staffs, I would do it
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  everywhere I go. You know, I have one that I I
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  wear all the time. The other ones are in the man
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  cave. Yeah, how big of a ring display
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  must you have, dude, I. Have two cases.
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  Yeah, dude, it's still so iconic that picture on online of it and
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  that was like probably 10 rings ago, by the way.
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  It's a really, it's like the iconic Michael Jordan picture
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  when he had, you know, a ring for each finger.
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  It always reminds us like, oh, this is our version right here.
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  Hi, Mr. Richie Bean, by the way, Guild podcast alum use the same
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  podcast you're listening to right now, unless you're
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  watching live, of course, and you gotta hear this story, this
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  journey, his journey in story is important and pretty heart felt
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  there. There was there's some tragedy
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  there that I'm so grateful for you to, you know, open up and be
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  authentic and tell us. But it's what we all go through
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  some of these things like this. And I'm just grateful for you
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  again, sharing that with our listeners.
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  All right, Richie there, the topic for the year, the night
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  here is the NCAA and all the changes that are going on.
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  You're at A Division One school that has done really, really
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  well, really, really well with developing kids, however you
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  wanted to find that, but kids being at the highest, highest
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  level, many, many championships. What do you think, thoughts,
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  feelings, actions on all this NCAA stuff, how it might affect
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  you, maybe how you're preparing for it?
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  What's your thoughts? Well, to be honest with you
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  there, there's there's so many thoughts and honestly, Mike, I'm
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  I'm in a listening. Phase at.
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  At this point right now, I, I lean on the side of wisdom.
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  I I've been blessed and privileged to send in several
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  different rooms at the NCA level, USCFCCA level, and hear a
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  lot of voices. But I think one of the biggest
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  thing now is people need to educate themselves on what is
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  and what's not. How?
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  How do you do that, though, when there has been so little
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  guidance sent down? We don't know.
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  Like it's so funny. Even just tonight, we've had
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  people say that the, you know, utilizing the 45 and 17 numbers,
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  that the 17 on your cross country roster are not going to
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  count towards your 45. And then someone else's down
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  says, Oh yeah, no, they are. And then you can opt in, but you
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  can also not opt in and still go to NC Double HI Mean there's
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  there's been this is where I think they did a really bad job.
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  But by the way, I think the World Athletics did a bad job
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  with this with their new rules. Like that long jump specifically
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  is they throw this stuff out there and then just leave it up
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  to us to figure, not not even figure it out, because they're
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  going to figure it out, but they leave it up to us to guess and
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  conjecture and stress about. There's just so little actual
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  guidance towards you guys on what you are actually going to
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  be able to do and not do and how it's going to operate.
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  Well, Mike, it's, it's a lot of things and, and, and you just
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  hit the nail on the head. You've talked to several
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  different coaches tonight and you've heard several different
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  things that were somewhere on the same wildly.
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  Different, yes, right. And you know, this, this, this,
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  this, this thing going on with the with the changes and things
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  like that, I've heard from administrators, I've heard from
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  coaches, I've heard from almost every level.
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  And you'll get different answers from everybody.
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  And it's, it's kind of disheartening.
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  It is. Because the sport that I grew to
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  love is the sport now and I I often question myself, do I
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  still want to be a part of? Because what happened to old
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  school coaching? What happened to every young
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  man, every young woman put on a uniform, go out there, represent
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  their family name, their school name and their university or
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  whatever to the best of their ability.
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  I mean, we're we're, we're, we're pushing toward making it a
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  team sport. And I mean, if you're good at
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  what you do, track is one of the the true sports where anybody
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  and everybody can get the business any day, even if your
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  own teammate and. That's the.
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  Beauty of it where if you run in 100, there's no.
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  Timeout. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
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  Once you start down the runway, it's it's you against.
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  Yeah, and. Now, I mean, how do you
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  conceptualize that into the making it something different
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  than what it's what it's been for so many years?
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  That's what I struggle. With yeah, agree do you in wise
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  words for someone who's been around for a while and you know
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  I'm always conflicted when I say this next thing about coaches of
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  your age and stages. Yeah, yeah, I'm going there.
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  You're going to retire and and I and I'm going to say this
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  hopefully soon. And what I mean by that is
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  because I think you deserve it, not because I want you you know
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  I don't want you out of coaching, but I want you to and
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  your family to enjoy retirement. We all hopefully went towards
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  retirement. Do you have not not knowing and
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  you don't have to reflect anything here tonight.
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  That could be next year, could be 10 years.
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  I don't know. We don't need to know but but
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  it's imminent in that sense with with you.
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  Do you look at this differently like are you and this isn't the
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  Richie being that I know so I'm sure you're going to answer no
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  to this. Are you just like I'm just going
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  to buy my time Mike. I'm going to be gone retired
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  here in 2345. It's not going to really affect
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  me or because of the leadership I know that is within you.
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  Are you like yeah, yeah, OK, I may have 234 whatever, you know,
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  time frame you have. I'm going to lead every second
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  that I have. Well, it's.
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  It's it's, it's so funny that you bought that, but man, you
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  know, you and I are, are 222 men with like spirits.
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  Yep. Right.
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  Just last week, you know, I'm not saying that I'm, I'm looking
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  to retire, but I, I literally last week went in and start
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  putting my ducks in a row. Just making sure because I mean,
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  I when I get out on the track, I enjoy being out there with the
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  students. It's so fun.
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  But when you sit in the office and you.
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  Sit in these. Meetings it makes you.
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  Wonder what am I doing? How has this changed?
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  How has it changed? You know, and I'm actually, I'm
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  not, I'm not rushing to get out of sport.
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  I think I have many more years ahead of me.
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  But I want to. I don't want to be somewhere
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  where I'm not enjoying it. I don't want to be a part of.
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  And you deserve to be at some place where you're enjoying it,
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  yes, in a profession that you enjoy and.
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  Be somewhere where you're tolerating.
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  I'm not saying that toward my universe, but it's it's a lot of
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  things that people are doing to tolerate each other now.
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  And that's the part where, well, you know, we'll do this for now
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  or we'll do this. I just, we really, really as
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  coaches, as a sport need to take a hard look.
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  We need to stop putting stuff out there that's not true.
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  It's a lot of things going out that's not true.
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  There's a lot of information that's not that's not fully
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  vetted and, and there's a lot of things out there administrators
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  are trying to figure out and, and, and the coaches and the
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  kids are suffering. I don't know, Mike.
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  Yeah, see, but yay, we'll, we'll take you as long as there's
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  still a sport. We gotta have a sport that's
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  we're very keen on that Richie, thank you so much man.
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  A little shorter tonight, but again, I implore you to go and
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  take, take a listen to his, his journey cause it was special
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  man, you're special and one of the most proud things that you
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  can say to me is that you and I are kindred spirits, man, that
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  there's a lot of other good compliments you can give me that
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  one that one stirs my soul brother.
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  I appreciate you my. Brother.
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  Look. Thank you.
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  We're down.