Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / Coach Pennington on the WVSU Homecoming + High School Program Rebuilding with Carl Lee and Hollis Lewis

Transcript

Coach Pennington on the WVSU Homecoming + High School Program Rebuilding with Carl Lee and Hollis Lewis · WCHS Network Podcasts

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta work.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: You gotta work, ry Shine. It's mine gotta show. Everybody
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: is my sign.
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  Speaker 3: You gotta wurk cry Shine another mind.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to die to day line. Don't tell you've
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: gotta burk.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome to Let's Talk with Carl Lee and frequent guest
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  Speaker 3: hosts Hollis Lewis and Lisa Odie, where sports culture and
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  Speaker 3: community intersect. Join the crew as they dive into engaging
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: conversations with guests from all walks of the sports life.
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  Speaker 3: Let's Talk as proudly presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real Talk,
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  Speaker 3: Real Experience, Real Results, Frank Walker Law dot com and
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  Speaker 3: by the all new historic Choyir Diner in downtown Charleston
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  Speaker 3: one line at Choyerdner dot com. Let the conversation begin
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  Speaker 3: on Let's Talk.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: This is Carl Lee with Let's Talk and I have
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  Speaker 1: my co host Hollis Lewis. Is a little building and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: actually I think we have had this guest in once before,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Coach Pennicton for West Virginia State University. And what I
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: think you said in your ninth year at West Virginia State. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: sir so one of the interesting things that before we
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: get into the whole football realm, one of the things
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  Speaker 1: that is interesting to me had coached at West Virginia State,
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  Speaker 1: is the craziness that comes around with homecoming. You know it,
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  Speaker 1: for whatever the reason, it seems like that becomes the
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  Speaker 1: biggest thing on campus.
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  Speaker 2: And I know that it's a struggle sometimes to.
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  Speaker 1: Go through that week of homecoming and coach and get
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  Speaker 1: your kids out. Tell us a little bit about homecoming,
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about how you are handling that,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll kind of go a little bit more football
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  Speaker 1: as we go through this.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, there's you can feel I can I
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: can feel the homecoming in the air, you know, like
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  Speaker 4: it's the biggest thing of the year. You know. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: maybe there's something bigger, but to me, it's definitely the biggest.
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  Speaker 4: You know, if you can feel it on campus, you know,
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  Speaker 4: so so it's it's a big deal. I mean, obviously,
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  Speaker 4: I'm here tonight. I got another radio show later of
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  Speaker 4: the week, so a little bit more you know press.
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  Speaker 4: But I mean, I think that's why, you know, why
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  Speaker 4: you play college football while you coach college football, to
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  Speaker 4: have that kind of atmosphere, you know, and that's what
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  Speaker 4: we talk to the players about. That's what I was
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: even talking to the coaches about, Like this is exactly
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  Speaker 4: what you want UH to do. And then you know,
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  Speaker 4: you get like a lot of my former players will
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  Speaker 4: be coming back. You know, being there for nine years,
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  Speaker 4: there's a lot of guys, so there's gonna be a
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  Speaker 4: lot of guys coming back. And you you know, for
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  Speaker 4: me personally, like I love being in West Virginia State,
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  Speaker 4: I've been there, you know, over a decade of my life.
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  Speaker 4: I've been a Yellow Jacket. So like I went to
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  Speaker 4: your camp when I was a kid. That was a
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  Speaker 4: first football camp I ever went to. It's where I
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  Speaker 4: really fell in love with the game. So like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: for me personally, it's a big deal like that, you know,
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  Speaker 4: this is my home, this is my community. Like, uh,
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  Speaker 4: I feel the personal pressure on myself, you know. So
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: then and then you got everybody else, you know, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: get you know, tech calls, text messages from former players
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  Speaker 4: and anyone involved with West Virginia State. They know that
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  Speaker 4: homecomings coming up, so there's extra stuff to do. But
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: like it's more press for our team, it's more press
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  Speaker 4: for our school. It's it's building connections for our players,
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  Speaker 4: for you know, for our football program for West Virginia State.
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  Speaker 4: So it's it's an opportunity, you know, it's a it's
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  Speaker 4: a great opportunity for us to grow the program, build connections,
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  Speaker 4: and just you know, continue to build West Virginia State.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: One of the And I know, Hollist, I know you've
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: got a bunch of questions, but I want to I
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  Speaker 1: want to follow up with what you said because like
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  Speaker 1: the guys, the guys that I have coached, had coached
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the guys that I coached at West
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  Speaker 1: Virginia State.
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  Speaker 2: When we chit chat on the phone, it's it's interesting
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  Speaker 2: to me.
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  Speaker 1: How comfortable they are saying, like, Hey, I talked to coach,
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  Speaker 1: I gave him a call, or I sent him a
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  Speaker 1: text message and all that kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And I want to I want to say that to
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: appreciate that.
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  Speaker 1: I want to make sure that you know that those
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  Speaker 1: guys truly, truly love the idea of how they're treated
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  Speaker 1: from you, by you, and to them, it's like you
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  Speaker 1: are their coach, you know what I'm saying, It's like
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  Speaker 1: you're coaching at their school and they have this this
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  Speaker 1: appreciation for how you have treated them and for that,
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  Speaker 1: my hat's off to you.
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  Speaker 2: Man.
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  Speaker 4: Well you helped me out a lot of that this summer.
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  Speaker 4: I called you looking for some advice, but I mean
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  Speaker 4: it's it's you know, like I said, it means a
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  Speaker 4: lot to me, you know, personally, and I know it
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  Speaker 4: means a lot to the school. And I think you
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  Speaker 4: know that we always tell our staff the bandwagon's always open,
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  Speaker 4: you know, like that that door is never locked. You know,
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  Speaker 4: we we I don't you know, I don't you know,
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  Speaker 4: if they jump off because we lose a game, that's fine,
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  Speaker 4: but like we want them on that, you know, we
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  Speaker 4: want them on the bandwagon, want as many people involved
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  Speaker 4: as yell with Yellowjacket Nation and uh, just building our program.
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  Speaker 4: And I appreciate you saying that. It means a lot
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  Speaker 4: to me. I've I've definitely put a lot more effort
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  Speaker 4: into it and just trying to you know, get everybody
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  Speaker 4: back involved.
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  Speaker 2: I know, to on that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, John and I we play high school football
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  Speaker 1: together and I think we from coach Edwards, we come
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  Speaker 1: from a tradition of carrying on tradition at GW.
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  Speaker 2: It was a really really.
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  Speaker 1: Big thing to connect with former players and to acknowledge
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  Speaker 1: things that happen throughout the history and make you realize
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  Speaker 1: that you are part of a lineage of things. You're
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: not just playing in the now. So I can understand
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: like kind of why you think that way, just in
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: you know, as a broader question when we look at
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  Speaker 1: college football and sort of the landscape changing, you know,
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  Speaker 1: with transfers and nil and you know, the different methodologies
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  Speaker 1: recruiting and different things of that nature. You know, homecoming
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  Speaker 1: is that tradition you took your sons to the WVU
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  Speaker 1: pit game to like, that's part of that tradition. You know,
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  Speaker 1: what are some of the things that you tell your
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  Speaker 1: players about, you know, being part of a lineage and
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  Speaker 1: carrying on tradition.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I had a meeting with our leadership group
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  Speaker 4: right before I came over here. We meet every Monday,
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: and and I just talked to them about you know,
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  Speaker 4: we have fifty seven new players, you know, so like
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  Speaker 4: and that's that's the landscape of college football. And you know,
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  Speaker 4: i'd message you on Saturday, you know, just uh, I
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  Speaker 4: want to make sure that that everyone in our program
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  Speaker 4: understands how how big this is, how important it is.
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  Speaker 4: And not only that I talk to them about, you know,
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  Speaker 4: take some time to find a new player and just
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  Speaker 4: tell them something positive about your experience at West Virginia State.
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  Speaker 4: Like they may not they've only been here a couple
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  Speaker 4: of weeks. You know, they don't they don't know how
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  Speaker 4: important this is to to you guys and to me
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  Speaker 4: and you know the guys that have been here for years.
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  Speaker 4: And uh so that was something you know that that
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  Speaker 4: I want to do is make sure our leaders spread
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  Speaker 4: the word to the new guys about, you know, just
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  Speaker 4: just how how special it is to play for college
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  Speaker 4: football West Virginia State. We have a great program, we
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  Speaker 4: have incredible support, we have you know, it's a great school,
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  Speaker 4: like great tradition, like and you know, these guys have
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  Speaker 4: a chance to grow not only as players, but as men.
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  Speaker 4: So like you know, there there's a slogan it starts
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  Speaker 4: at State and that's, uh, you know, from years back,
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  Speaker 4: but I've always used that because I think, you know,
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  Speaker 4: something really special can start here, you know, for the
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  Speaker 4: players and for the coaches. And I really want them
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  Speaker 4: to see that, like they're going to look back on
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  Speaker 4: this and and really see how they grew as men
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  Speaker 4: and how this was a big part of an influential
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  Speaker 4: part of their lives and in a positive part of
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  Speaker 4: their lives.
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  Speaker 1: And to that, like for me, in the ten years
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  Speaker 1: I think that I was coaching, I can, regardless of
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  Speaker 1: wins and losses, the young men that I got a
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  Speaker 1: chance to touch, and I'll say, maybe God into doing
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  Speaker 1: some of the right things compared to where they were
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  Speaker 1: when I first got there. That impact is something that
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  Speaker 1: never leaves you. And when you see those guys, guys
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  Speaker 1: that you know you coached in your first year, Guys
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  Speaker 1: that I had coached in my first year, Guys who
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  Speaker 1: I can remember, some guys that they were getting ready
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  Speaker 1: to put out of school that you know, I'm fighting
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  Speaker 1: for them and saying I got them. Just just trust
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  Speaker 1: me to let me, let me have them and they'll
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  Speaker 1: be fine. One of those guys are now a teacher,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And And there is nothing greater than that
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  Speaker 1: kind of belief in a relationship that you can have
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  Speaker 1: with a player from a coach. I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: there's anything any greater than that.
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  Speaker 4: Well, and it's inspiring, right like you know, I don't
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  Speaker 4: People get burned out not because of what they do,
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  Speaker 4: but they forget why they do it. You know, and
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  Speaker 4: so for me, it's like, and I told our leaders
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  Speaker 4: this tonight. I was like, for me this week, like
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  Speaker 4: you're not. I mean, I'm gonna do extra work. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: I don't care if I sleep, I don't care if
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  Speaker 4: I eat, because you know, I've had incredible support. You know,
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  Speaker 4: like two guys sitting in this room that have supported me,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: you know, since I came up in the coaching ranks
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: and since I've been at West Virginia State, and you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: I've told them, think about all the people that have
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: supported you to get to where you're at. And so
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: like the community is always behind us. You know, obviously
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  Speaker 4: Yellowjacket Nation is, but just the whole knav Valley. So
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: like for me, it's about you know, just thinking about
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  Speaker 4: remember why I'm doing it, not only you know, to
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  Speaker 4: win football games, but like you're having a huge impact.
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  Speaker 4: And then those old players come back, you home coming.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I'm thinking about some of the guys I'm
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: going to see and and you know, knowing like Okay,
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  Speaker 4: I've got it. We have got to have a great plan.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: We've got to be ready to play, Like I want
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: to make sure they're proud of, you know, the program,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: and what we put out on the field. So you know,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: like I said, for me personally, it means a lot.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Now over the first So this is Game four, homecoming
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: playing Fairmont. But I'm gonna take a look back at
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks. So we played three games
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: so far, we're two and one. First game we took
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a lost to Carson Newman at Carson Newman, bounced back
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: at Barton home win, had two pick six to close
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the game, and then we had our first offensive explosion
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: playing Wesley at Wesley. So over those past three games,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: kind of what are you seeing that you'll like? I offensively, defensively,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: what are you seeing that we need to improve on
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: moving into this game?
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  Speaker 4: So Number one, I love the way we play like that.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, they play hard, they're physical, they're athletic, they
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: play together as a team, you know, like our defense
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: has been incredible in the red zone, which they so
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: they don't. It tells you they don't. They play every
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: play like it's the life of its own. So like
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: they've been but they haven't broken. I think the biggest thing,
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: you know is like we had a bye week and
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: then you know, then we had West Virginia Westley and
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: then we knew wasn't you know, they're not one of
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: the better teams in the conference. You can watch it
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: on film and you know, so the biggest thing for
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: us was to make sure we made the improvements that
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: we you know, messed up the first two weeks in
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: non conference play. And offensively, we didn't throw the ball well,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: we didn't have explosives. Last Saturday we made you know,
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: we made those big plays. We hit the ball down
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: the field, we threw the ball over three hundred yards.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: And defensively, we had a lot of busts in the
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: first two games, just missed assignments. I don't know if
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: we had maybe one or two missed assignments on Saturday
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: against Wesleyan. So I think, you know, I love the
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: run game with the offense, like the old line is.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: You know, we got a lot of starters back, so
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  Speaker 4: they're they're dominant up front, and I love, you know,
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  Speaker 4: the aggressiveness of our defense, like and and the biggest
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: thing is that they're great in the red zone and
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: we've been good on third down. We've been good in
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: the red zone. So winning the stats that matter, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: I think we're just kind of tough team, like I
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: don't you know, we can throw it, we can run it,
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: we can stop the run. We can you know, we
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: can get after you blitzing like you know, we're not
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: we're not dominating any statistic, but we're winning the stats
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: that matter, and we're making the improvements from the mistakes.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: You know that we made the first two weeks, and
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: that's that's you know, by week you know, you can
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: get a little lack of days of cool. It's right,
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: you know, so we I thought our coaching staff did
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: a great job of giving them some rest but also
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: applying pressure to get better. And I think our whole
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: team knew that we had to get better.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Now, well, you have fifty seven new players in a game.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: This is not unique to West Virginia State. Coaches are
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: dealing with this all over the country. I think there's
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: one stat where WU had like seventy plus new guys. So,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: from that standpoint, although these guys do have some collegiate
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: experience sort of offensively, defensively special teams, what are the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: points that are kind of easy to coach up and
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: what are some of the points that are more difficult
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: to coach up? To get that sort of continuity between
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the players because before you answer, before you answer that,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I'm going to add to that little bit, like to
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: his point, not just specific position, but all of a sudden,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you run this offense and you run this defense compared
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: to somebody coming in and now all of a sudden
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: you've got to find a position for them or teach
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: them something totally different. How is all those things with
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: what he's already talked about?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: How does that happen?
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: Well, the language is the hardest thing, really. I mean,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: you know there's cover three is cover three, but you
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: know some people call it six when you roll weak
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: and three buzz when it's strong. I mean, there's just
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: riples for different it means right man coverage. Yeah, okay,
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: it's like match coverage. So like there's just different aims.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: But it really is a lot a lot of it's
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: very similar. So I think that that's the first thing
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: is making sure they understand like this is what we
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: call this formation, this is what we call you know, uh,
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: this coverage, this route concept. And then on top of that,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: you know the techniques, you know, because there's there's different
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: ways to play, you know, different ways to block inside zone.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: There's different ways to to run you know, certain stunts.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: So not only you have to teach them the language,
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: now you've got to teach them the techniques that go
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: with the way that we do it, you know, West
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Virginia State. So that does take some time. I think
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: the biggest thing, the hardest thing is uh just the
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: the you know, the standards in your culture. Like you know,
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: we have no one you have to run off the
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: football field at West Virginia State, you know, since I've
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: been coaching there, like you do not walk on the field.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: So like little things like that, you know, making sure
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: their toes behind the line. You know, maybe some other
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: the coaches they had in the past and harp on
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: some of those details. There's you know, that's maybe the
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: harder thing to teach is that they have some habits
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: that uh, not necessarily their fault. They're just not used
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: to like what my pet peeve are. You know what
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: the guys that have been in the program understand this
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: is what coach pen expects, is what Coach Jackson expects,
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  Speaker 4: So that those things are a little harder to teach
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: as well because it's just not as common for them.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: We It's funny that you use one that my in
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: youth football, running back to the huddle, running off on
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and off the field.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Why do you think that is?
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Like to me, I think that that's that's so important,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: even though it's not necessarily part of the game, but
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: it's been instilled in you forever.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Ye Can you remember?
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Can you go back and try to figure out like
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: where you were and when that first? When what grade
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: you were in or what level you were playing at
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: that somebody said that to you and you were like, Oh,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: if I ever coach, we're gonna do this.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I can't. I can't.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: I just know, you know, there's some things that you
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: just pick up, you know that you just do that
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: your coaches did to you. Yeah. Uh, and that's definitely
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: one of them. I still run on and off the field.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: I don't well, you know, I feel weird if I'm
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: walking on the field. So no, I can't remember it,
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: but it is I think when those little details five
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: minutes early for the meeting, hats off for the meeting, Like, uh,
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: I know I was reading about like Michael Strahan and
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Tom Coughlin had they butted heads a lot about that
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: five minute early to the meeting thing, and uh, you know,
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: it helps, like when you have like a rule that
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: maybe some guys don't agree with, because then the leaders
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: come in and they're like, well, we do that because
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: details matter, right, Or you're like, why do we have
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: to run on off there? What does that have to do?
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: And it's like, well, because details matter, you know, or
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: effort matters, like we do things harder, you know, we
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: do things harder than anyone else here, or you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: like so it reinforces your culture by you know how
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: the like the leaders talk about why you do some
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: of those little things that maybe a new guy doesn't understand.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Seeing I'm a hat guy and I and I as
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: soon as I got there, I knew this was going
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to impact me.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: No hats on into building.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, whether it's the cafeteria, no matter where you are.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: If I see you with a hat on in a building,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: run it. And and the kids. I don't know if
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: they really I shouldn't say kids, young men. I don't
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: know if they really understood exactly why that was something
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that was super important. But I bet you they still
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: remember that and probably go by it.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, coach Lee time.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Now Now, like I said, in this world, I actually
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: kind of about players that you gained. We've also lost
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: some players. Joel Fillers, who I actually talked to today,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: believe it or not, Donnie, he was, you know, a
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: legendary quarterback at Westervinginia State University and we have actually
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I've washed him play Barton and I've seen the stat
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: as far as Wesley and our quarterback now he's that.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: He looks pretty good. You know, he can run the ball.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: He got some he got some pop to that ball
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: as far as velocity coming off his hand. So talk
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: a little bit about him and how he's developing within
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the program.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean he you know, he was elected a captain.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Caleb Jackson. Yeah, Caleb's Uh, he's a captain. He's got
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: great energy. You know, at every practice he's locked in him.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: He's got all the quarterback things that you want. It
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: takes notes in every meeting. He's always where he wants,
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: you know, where you need him to be an incredible athlete,
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: you know that knows how to play the quarterback position.
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: I think when you get those two things combined, uh,
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: you know, they can make a coordinator look good sometimes
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: and you know it's third and twelve and your concept
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: is terrible and he just scrambles for thirteen yards. But uh,
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: you know, he adds an element in the run game
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: that you have to you know, you have to be
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: aware of him. You know, he's he's he had some
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: good runs. He's had some good runs in every game. Uh,
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: and he's I've never seen anyone with zip on the ball.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: It come I mean it comes off.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And it's very catchable too, for what I noticed. It
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: comes off, but it's not like overtly hard and difficult
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to catch it.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: The ball speeds up on its way to you. Like,
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, I catch a lot of quarterback passes, and
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: you know I've caught a lot in my day, but
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: my thumbs and and index fingers are in a lot
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: of pain this year from him. I mean, he throw,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: he can spin it. You know. The biggest thing for
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: Caleby he's just got to work on, you know, being
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: able to drop drop back pass. That's the biggest thing,
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: you know that we've emphasized with him, Like we can
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: get him out of the pocket and he does great
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: things and he's you know, quick game. He can throw
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: the ball wherever he needs to, just you know, seeing
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: the field. He's not a not a tall guy, so
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: just seeing the field and having vision in the dropback
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: game because he's hadn't been a starter at the college level,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: so that was a big thing we wanted to see
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: out of him against Westland, and he was you know,
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: he was on fire on Saturday. Yea.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And I think sometimes if you don't have that experience,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you know, your eyes can shift down, it can shift up,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: be all over the place, and it can cause you
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to lose sight of the field. Now I want to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: ask you about because you know you played under rich Rock,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: so he's back. I mentioned earlier you went to the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: pit game with your son, so kind of what do
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: you think. I know you probably haven't got a chance
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to watch a whole bunch, but it kind of what's
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: your sentiments?
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking about that?
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, watching that game, I thought Pitt was the
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: much better team, just personnel wise. Like I just you know,
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: it's what I do as a coach. I'm looking out
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: there and I know we had a lead, and I'm thinking, man,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I want this game to go well. Is my son's
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: really first game, either of them, you know, first real
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: WVU game, and I'm just hoping it goes well. And
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: you can see on the field, even with the lead,
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: like man, Pitt's better than us, Like the personnel, we
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: just don't have great players compared to maybe the upper
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: echelon or the conference and in that level. So just
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: watching them grind out a win, you know, an ugly
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: Rich rod Win, I loved it. I mean, I ate
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: it up. I mean you could just see, uh, you know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: I knew they were probably not gonna win against Kansas
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: on the road after that, but we just not. They
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: don't have great players right now.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And I thought the emotion, like like I said, when
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you lose to Ohio, then you get all the way
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: up for Pitt and then you got to go to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Kansas sort of a flat line. Nobody's really excited. There's
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: no history, no tradition there. So like in a week
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: like this where you know, sort of the outwardly emotions
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: are high from everybody else, how do you manage those
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: emotions just kind of within your locker room?
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: Man, that's a that's a tough that's a tough one.
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: You're you're always I'm always trying to get a temperature
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: of the locker room, you know, not you know, not
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: the actual temperature, but like are they too high? Are
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: they too low, and my job is to figure out,
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: you know, what that temperature is and bring it down,
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: you know, if I have to, or raise it up
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: if I have to. And you know, last week we
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: played Wesley and so off of bye week, and like
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: I said, they were you know, you could watch the
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: film and you could easily look at it and be like,
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: we're gonna kill these guys. And if we went up
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: there with that mentality, we probably wouldn't have played very well.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: And so so you know, I built a chip on
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: their shoulder and you know, kind of turned the temperature up,
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: got under their skin and made sure that they you know,
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: I got them, I got them hot, you know. So
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: I think this week I don't have to do that.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: It's homecoming, like it'll be the opposite, Like I'm gonna
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: have to turn the ac on a lot. And so
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: I talked to our staff about that all week last
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: week with Wesley and how we're gonna have to fire
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: them up, and we had some fights in practice. I
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: mean it was, you know, we got them going, and
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: then we brought them back down right before the end
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: of the week. And then this week it'll be you know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: probably the opposite I'm gonna have to calm them down
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: constantly at no raw ross beaches before that game. You know,
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: it might come out a little bit just because I'm
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: gonna be passionate about the game, but you know, it's
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: it's gonna be more about keeping them calm, you know,
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: on Saturday. So I think as a head coach, you
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: just you got to know the temperature of the room
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: and then you got to be the thermostat and bring
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: it down to get it to a nice seventy two or.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Wherever you need it to be.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: But isn't it But doesn't the whole doesn't the whole
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: campus get a temperature that that whole campus that temperature
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: rises up and there's like this absolute expectation of winning. Yeah,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: like there you can win one game and it and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: and as long as it's homecoming, you got a shot.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Well, we can appreciate you.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: All the whole all the alumni who come back, this
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: game matters. They're not checking on what the record was,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: they're not looking who's on the schedule.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: That's a lot of pressure on just one game.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but that's what you want, you know, That's why
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: that's why you play college football. It's the it's the
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: you know, I wouldn't want to be at a school
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: that that didn't care if we want a lot or lost,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: you know, like, hey, just make sure you have enough
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: people on the roster. I wouldn't be there. I want to.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: I want. I mean, I put enough pressure on myself
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: that's going to be more than than any you know,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: anyone could put me. But I think that, uh, you know,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: that's I think that's what you're looking for. And I
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: know our players are looking for that, you know, So
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: so we're we're welcoming it. I think it's an opportunity.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: But you know, and what you said about me taking
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: my sons, it wasn't homecoming at WVU, But for me,
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: it was the only chance. And you know, my kids
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: are my boys are thirteen and and eight or ten,
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: so like they haven't been to a wv game. So
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: it was like my one chance. And that's it's probably
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: gonna be. Somebody is probably taking their kids to that
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: game that played at West Virginia State and it might
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: be their one shot to get their kid to like
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: really appreciate West Virginia State football. So like hopefully, you know,
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: we we play a good game so they can have
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: that because I had an incredible experience, like one of
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: the best days of my life. You know, my kids
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: get to see the backyard brawl and we grind out
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: an overtime victory. I mean, you can't.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Anything that's a movie stuff, right, So.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: Hopefully we you know, someone that comes to this game,
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: brings their kids and wants to show them what what
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: their dad, you know, how proud he is of being
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: in West Virginia State yellow jacket and how important it is.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: And then the kid love you know, we win and
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: the kid loves it and it's a big homecoming win.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: So somebody's you know, going to have that hopefully that
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: same experience or you know, it's my job to provide it.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah cause I know, like you know, homecoming last year,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: you hung out a little bit to tell Gates you'll
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: come through, Coach Pennington will come through after the game.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: And I think those sort of things are so important,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you know, for the community and the people who are
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: you know, the supporters of West Virginia State University to
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: kind of see you in that element as well as
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: you know, coaching the game. Man. So anything else you
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: got going on, anything else you want to tell us,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: anything else you got just you want to let people
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: know about.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, right now, all I can think about is
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: one thirty on Saturday.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: You know, I got my kids got some games this week,
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: you know, middle school football and soccer and stuff like that.
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: But it's right now, I'm just locked in on you know.
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: You know, like like you said, there's a lot of pressure.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of people that want to see us
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: through well. And I want to make sure that you know,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: we've got every single nook and cranny covered and I
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: you know, dotted T's cross like, I want to make
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: sure that you know, West Virginia State is proud of
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: what we put out there.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, so when tell us when the time?
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Win?
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Is the game? Everything like that, it's.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: One thirty Saturday kickoff you know at obviously at Lake
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: and Field. Uh, West Virginia State, you know, get there early.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: You know it's gonna be you know, getting if you're
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: an alumni, like, uh, you know, don't tailgate too long.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: You know, he starts early. Guys, I'd love to.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: See you there for kickoff, like it means a lot
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: to our players. I mean, the tailgate didn't going anywhere.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: I always go after. You know, it's one of my
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: favorite things to do is walk the tailgate after a
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: homecoming win. It's I love doing it. And so, uh,
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: the tailgate will still be there, I promise I'm always
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: there after. So uh, come in cheer us on, like
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: let's get a home field advantage, like this is a
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: big game. Fairmont's really good. Both of us are trying
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: to climb our way to the top of the conference.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: Like we're gonna need all the fans support, So just
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: get in there, like, cheer on the guys. I mean,
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: our players are gonna play hard, you know, for for
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: all the West Virginia State alumni.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm hoping. I'm hoping also to try
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: to try to make it. Youth sports is killing me,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: but I'm gonna I'm gonna try to make it. A coach,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: we wish you luck and we're gonna take a quick
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: break and we'll be right back.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Thanks coach, Appreciate you guys.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: All right, cats the Kitten Sam you heard.
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  Speaker 3: Now back to the conversation.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: All right, ladies and gentlemen, Hollis before we go any further,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: you know, and I say, I forgot that coach had.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Been on once before. Yeah, what I have.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I truly, truly, truly, truly
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: truly love about him is like he's so matter of
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: fact about what he's doing, how he's doing it, what
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: everybody else is supposed to be doing. And I and
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I and I just I think that that quote organization,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: that standard.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: I think I think he he presents that to everybody.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: And I just don't know how players and coaches other
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: coaches can't get it. Yeah, he's a penniton is a
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: is a systems guy. So uh, he sets up things
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: in a manner in which, you know, it sort of
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: works as like almost like a machinery almost like the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: assembling line where it can sort of work on its own.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: And he's very like I said, very organized. He's heavy
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: into leadership, motivational sort of not not just cliche emotional
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: motivational speeches, but motivation in a way that's driven to
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: get the best out of you. So I think he
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: does to his coaches and his players, and he just
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: has a vision for where he wants to see the program.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: You know, off air, we were talking about, you know,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: what would it take to win the conference, get into
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the national picture. So I think his vision of the
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: program is there and had a program like stay like
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, where we came from to where we're
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: at now. It's going to be a process. Nothing's easy, right,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: So I think we're gearing up to see us turn
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the corner here in the next couple of years. What
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: is interesting to me about him is there is no
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: he never has ever ever come across to me like
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like that quote confident coach, But.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: He's so sure of.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: His process, if that makes sense, you know, like he's
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: not saying.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: We're this, we're that.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: The way he describes the process, it's like he knows
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: what the process is. He got it from somewhere and
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: he's applying it and it's working. Because man, I mean
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: when you look at it, when you look at State
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: today compared to where it was back in the day
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: when I was there, it's it's a thousand foot difference.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: Man like.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's a total different situation there, especially
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: with the football.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: It's support, the fan base, all of that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Man, I think that they have they I mean he
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I'll say he has grown that program into it being
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: a lovable program for the community and for anybody who
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: ever went to school there.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: And I think we talked about it earlier, you know,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: far as the face of college just changed. And you know,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: these athletic programs are essential to your university, Like you
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: need athleticism or your university not only to fill your
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: your campus, you know generally, but to also feel those spots,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: those dormitories on campus. And you know, and football is
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: a major key player in that system. As far as
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: coach Pennington, you know, he has a you know, a
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: very positive attitude. And this is not cocky, it's not arrogant,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: but it does not come across it. I'll phrase it's
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: like unrelenting positivity. So it's not it's one of those
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: situations when you know, if negative things or bad things happens,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: he deal with them acknowledging. But it's back to being,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: you know, having that attitude like we have to move forward,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: we have to you know, build this thing up, all right?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: With all that, Ben said, one of the one of
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I know this is not really a topic that you
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: might really want to deal with, but high school football
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and specifically like teams like South Charleston.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Who have who have been down for a while, what
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: is it? Do you know? Could you could you.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Give a game plan like how do you get yourself
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: back into the winning category? Like how do you get
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: how do you how do you get the kids to
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: be positive? Is coach Pennington's way the ideal kind of
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: way of turning a program around?
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Like that? Man?
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's one of those situations. Now if
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you look at programs like you know, South Charleston or
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Saint Albans here locally, it's just it takes time. You're
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: really time is your friend, because you're gonna have to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: take time to build those programs because with the fluidity
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: of how kids.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Moving from school to school.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: You can't even necessarily look at your middle school programs
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: and say, hey, I have X amount of kids. You
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: can't really count on that. Hopefully they come, but you
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: can't count on that. So it's gonna take time. And
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I think what I've always said is that, you know,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: if I'm coaching at South Charleston or Saint Albans or
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: any other school that's you know, struggling. If I'm a
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: high school coach, I have to make my presence on
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: those middle schools, on that Little League program. It's almost
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: like now it has to be sort of a community effort.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I think the days of a high school coach kind
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: of just sitting at the high school, you know, anticipating
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and waiting for kids to come. You know, those days
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: are kind of over. And I'm not saying that you
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: should be quote unquote recruiting, but you have to make
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: your presence known early on so the kids can get excited.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: You can share your vision, you can get to know
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: those kids, get to know those families escally when they come,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: so when it's their time to come, they actually come
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: to the school and willing to play. I was going
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: to say, because a lot of times, is that that
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: impact could be the parent. Yeah, the mom and the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: dad not wanting to put their kid in that in
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: that situation. They're not winning, they're not very good. We
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: don't want to go there, we don't want to play there.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: We want to go play somewhere. That's that's winning. I'm
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I think that is the wrong conversation. I think the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: lessons that you can learn and and the effort that
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: you can put in at a at a team. If
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I was gonna be going to South Charleston High School
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: from from middle school one, my parents are gonna make
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: me go regardless. They don't care about what football is
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: doing or any of that. So if I go, if
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I go with the idea of thinking like, oh, we're
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: not gonna win anything, well, what effort am I going
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: to put in?
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I mean that's actually true.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what I mean, like, what am I really gonna
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: What am I gonna do to to have an impact?
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: If I'm coming in there saying Okay, well I know this.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to start as a as a as
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a freshman and go out there and I'm gonna play,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: that's a whole nother that's a whole other thing. And
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I think if, if, if parents can maybe look at
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the focus of playing and playing hard and pay playing
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the best.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Winning is not.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: A guarantee to make you gonna get start in high
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: school or go to college or go to the pros.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: That winning is not gonna guarantee that it's you.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: But I also think nobody wants to walk into a
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: situation in which they know they may not be able
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: to win for the next four years. And that's just
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the reality. Parents don't want to sit through that, and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: players don't want to play through that. You want at
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: least the opportunity that you'll be able to win out
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: some games, maybe make the playoffs. I think now you
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: know coaching programs who are struggling. Now you have to
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: find something to sell, right. So if I'm in a situation,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: I may not be able to sell you necessarily winning
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: because we haven't done that right, But I could sell
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: you were guys are getting stronger, guys are getting more athletic.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Our team has, you know, a three point whatever overall GPA.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: So I have to similar to coach Pennington, I have
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: to find the positive. If I'm the coach and I
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: have to sell that like these are the steps to
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: we're making because to your point, you could be doing
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of good things and maybe it doesn't reflect
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: in the win and lost column yet. But if I
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: can get the right group of guys and we can
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: continue to improve daily, then you know, once your kid
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: comes up here, then we can start getting on the
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: winning track.
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: I like in this situation too, like Dabo Sweeney, you know,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: he made some comments in the last few weeks and
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: he's a little bit stuck in the past as far
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: as what he did, because they're losing now. They're struggling now,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: and you know, you being a coach and these times
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: you have to be able to adjust. So and again
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: that adjustment may be, you know, it may be some
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: struggle in that adjustment, but you gotta find something to
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: sell in the meantime. That's just the reality. I wouldn't
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: want to take my kid to a situation in which,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: again there's no improvement and it looks bleak in the future.
• 35:52
  Speaker 7: I think even some of the programs that are successful
• 35:54
  Speaker 7: right now are struggling to get kids in.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because you were.
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: Talking about this before we are recording, Hollis, you were
• 36:01
  Speaker 7: talking about how the popularity of soccer has gotten bigger.
• 36:04
  Speaker 7: I think football as a sport in general is just
• 36:07
  Speaker 7: struggling because of the injuries, because of all these travel leagues.
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: With other sports. I think there's just things that are
• 36:15
  Speaker 7: maybe cheaper, that are more fun than a year round
• 36:18
  Speaker 7: that kids are just being drawn to, and it's just
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: harder to find football players.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, And that's a great point because I mean
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you think of a program like you know, twenty thirty
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: years ago, like a Capitol High program. Man, they would
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: have a full varsity, a travel varsity, a JV. And
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: if they had ninth grade at the time, they would
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: have a ninth grade team. So even like a school
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: like South Charleston or Saint Aubmus, it may just be
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: an issue of just numbers, like if I had more
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: to work with, then I would have more to work with.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: And to your point, soccer and injury and the threat
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of injury, it's kind of hurt the game overall you
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: because and again to copy both of you. The hardest
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: thing to me when I look at football and I
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: try to figure out, like what's happening with it, I see.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: I see soccer, I see baseball, I see.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Travel sports and anything that falls in the window of football.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Football is going to lose unless you have unless you
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: have parents, a dad, a mom, a kid who is
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: sold on football. Chances of a kid saying, well, you know,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: i'd rather play travel baseball. I'd rather play travel basketball.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I don't. Well, Okay, the parent. The parent's going to
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: ultimately be the one who's going to make that decision.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I get it that you say, and it's not the kid,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: but the kid's probably not thinking about playing. He may
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: not want to play. I mean I didn't have to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: my dad. I don't think my dad had ever said,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: are you are you going to play football?
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: But I wanted to play. Yeah, but you grew up
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: watching football, watching you know what I'm saying. It was
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: part of sort of just the relationship that you guys have.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: I think I think now we just got to make
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: it more accessible, if that makes sense. Like I think
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: we need to start flag football programs earlier. I think
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: we need to. You know, we have to make the game.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying more friendly. That's not the right word
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for. I'm struggling to find my words. But
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: we have to make the game more accessible. We have
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: to and at the little league level. We cannot make
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: this as it been because I know again even for me,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: my girls were done with cheerleading, like because I don't
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: want to be in that environment because it's just a bad,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: toxic vinerment. It's always drama. And I'm sure there's drama
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: andary sports, but it just seems to be like that,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: just drama in that far as in our little league programs.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: And it's not just here locally, it's all over the country.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: We see people parents getting in fights and fighting the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: reps at little league games and stuff like that. So
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I think we have to sort of quell that and
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and just make it where it just doesn't
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: turn people off as much well, and and and and
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: kind of to that point, you know. And I'll say this,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: if you're if you're if you're at a game, a
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: youth game, and you're yelling out profanity and all of
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff and threatening to to pull your
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: kid off the field and all of that kind of stuff,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: the question you should ask yourself is this, Okay, how
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: does my son feel? What are the coaches thinking, what
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: are the people sitting beside me thinking? And who am
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: I actually? Who am I being?
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: Like?
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: What am I being?
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: You're out there in emotions anything about none of that,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: and you know what another thing to to that point
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: sort of the other side of that, I think when
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: it comes to specifically football at the youth level and
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: at the middle school level, I think we've forgotten about development.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: I do't, you know, because it becomes about winning in
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: those sports too early. I think, because you play so
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: many games in basketball, football, soccer, winning and loses is whatever.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: You know, they want to win obviously, but if you don't.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: But I think with those sports the way they're constructed,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: you know, if you look at sport like baseball, you
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: go from.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: T ball to coach pitch to kid pitch.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: And you kind of move up through the ranks, so
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: that way you have development periods within that, where football
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, we're just gonna throw you out here.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: So maybe, to even answer my own question I asked earlier,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: maybe we start with flag. Maybe we have just different
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: levels that we can start to. That way we can
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: focus on development and get the parents in the mind
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: frame that this far as from your kid playing from
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: five to twelve or five to whatever, five to ten
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: or five to two or whatever it is, This ain't
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: about winning the losses. We are developing this kid. So
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: by the time they getting eighth grade, they understand the
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: dynamics how to play football. They know how to tackle properly,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: know how to run the ball, they know how to
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: pass the ball, They understand the game. So by the
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: time they get in high school, all that fundamental work
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: is secured done and now we can just start working
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: on systems. So I think the mentality of how we are,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: you know, constructing these football leagues at those tender ages
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: need to change.
• 41:25
  Speaker 7: I'll tell you one other thing that I see because
• 41:27
  Speaker 7: I'm on for the second year in the road we're
• 41:29
  Speaker 7: broadcasting Herbert Hoover football and in this area can on
• 41:33
  Speaker 7: Putnam County specifically. One of the things I've noticed there's
• 41:36
  Speaker 7: not as much loyalty to the community to the school
• 41:41
  Speaker 7: that there used to be, especially like here in Charleston.
• 41:43
  Speaker 7: You might live in South Charleston, but your parents send
• 41:46
  Speaker 7: you to GW or I want to go play for
• 41:48
  Speaker 7: Coach Carpet Capital or whatever it may be. Same thing Winfield,
• 41:51
  Speaker 7: Hurricane and Putnam County. Some of the schools have a
• 41:54
  Speaker 7: better community base than others. Other schools are much more
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: prone to having that transfers to go on.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: And good point.
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: So it's gonna be easier for some of those teams
• 42:05
  Speaker 7: to kind of amass a good talented team, where the
• 42:08
  Speaker 7: rest of them are just gonna be who's left, who's
• 42:11
  Speaker 7: there who maybe can't go to the transfer school like
• 42:14
  Speaker 7: the rest of the kids.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: A good point.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that was my point earlier about coaches ingratiating
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: themselves within the community. You can't just be at the
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: high school no more just now sitting on the throne.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: You gotta be all through that thing. And I think
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: and I think the transition from coaches at South Charleston
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: I think created that absence of someone who could say, hey,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I'm here, we're gonna do it this way, bring your
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: kids here. I think that absence that that that change.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: I think those kids as soon as as soon as
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: the coach left, as soon as the coach left, I
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: think automatically they started looking around and and and if
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: you're a good player, somebody's gonna call you.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: And I think with Donnie Mays his history of South Auston,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: so I think he he'll bring that back. So I
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: think that that But again, it's just gonna be time.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I think even with coach stottson sat Off, it's just
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: gonna take time to build because and I think now communities, administrations,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: other you know, parents, they gotta be willing to say,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: hey man, it's gonna take a little time to do this.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Just changing the coach ain't gonna help necessarily. And I
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: don't think changing your kid, taking your kids somewhere else,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I don't think that that's I mean, well, let me
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: ask this question, hollis, if if I've got a talented kid,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: he's fourteen playing football really pretty good, team's not very good,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: why are you moving it? I think it depends, man.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm not gonna fall the parent for
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: that because I think it depends on position. I think
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: it depends on schematically what they're able to do with
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: the players that you got. So it really depends on
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: a on a lot because if you know, if you
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: have you know, if I don't what I'm saying, I
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: don't want to pen like, if you have a linebacker
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: who's who's really talented, that's gonna be a spot moving
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: forward college all at if he doesn't have a good,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: you know, defensive line and they're just getting through that
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: that's going to affect him. Or if you have a quarterback,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: you don't have a good offensive line, or you just
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: don't have enough, you know that that can affect you.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: So I'm not necessary.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: I understand your point as far as just hanging out
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and sort of dealing with it, but it can affect
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: you depending on the position that you're playing, if you
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: hope to play at the next level.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: It just it is what it is. See And I don't,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: I really don't. I don't. I don't. I don't buy
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: that only.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Because I think by the time a college scout is
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: going to be looking at you there, if they think
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: you have something, they're gonna work you out. And if
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: your numbers, if you hit the metrics for them.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: You got an opportunity.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I don't have any If your tape look raggedy,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: well that's what I mean.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: But the tape is not the team. The tape is you.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is that you know, if you
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: if you got a safety you play corner, you got
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: a safety who never follow his darn assignments, who never
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: who never follows assignments, then that can put you in
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: a mind no, no, you know what I mean if
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: a scout, a scout is not gonna he's he's gonna
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: understand whether it's cover three, cover four, he's gonna he's
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: gonna understand that that's seeing. I think to that point
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: that you made, I think that's where a lot of
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: parents are and and and they're thinking that that scout
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: knows what the what?
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: What?
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Who the quarterback threw where he threw the ball to,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: how he threw it, God drops it? That ain't Was
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: it on target? Did he get it off on time?
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: That's the scout looking at the quarterback. He don't care
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: that to drop he gets a sack, Okay, that's fine.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: What did he do? Did he did he see it?
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Did he move?
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: You know he's gonna.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, and I think we and and and I'm
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: making the point only only for the fact that if
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: your kid has talent, there is going to be a college.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: If your kid is in high school, there is going
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: to be a college that can see that. Yeah, but
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: if you are playing at a team that's not equipped
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: to maximize your talent, that can ultimately in some way
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: hurt your recruitment. I'm gonna make the case that I
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: maximized my my my place. I understand what you're saying,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: but it depends on position too. Some some some positions
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: are cod dependent. It's not necessarily a corner, like particularly
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: if I'm just paying playing man and that's all I got.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I'm just locking people up. You know what I'm saying.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: I need, I need.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: But and that's my point. So imagine you playing a corner,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: hold them. But imas you playing corner, you're playing man.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: For the majority of the game. Your your your defensive line,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: your linebackers ain't getting no pressure that quarterback got all day.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: You're gonna get some passes thrown on you. You something's going,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: We're gonna make some plays on you. But yet absolutely,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: but what they're gonna what they're gonna look at. They're
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: gonna look at my steps, my my, my position, all.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Of those kind that's what they do.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: They're just not they're just looking at a stat line. No,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: because they know they don't. They don't just look at
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: a stack and hope they come. If they here's the thing.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: If they're coming, okay, if they're coming to a school,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: because there was zero reason for Scott to come to Marshall,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't win it. There was zero, there was zero
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: reason to come. But that's your your d one player
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: at that point. That's that's a little different in high school,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: not not in my time, not in my time. Here's
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying though, in in in this high and
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: this is my point. I'm glad you said that because
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: in this time, no, in this day and age, when
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: coach pennyten at West Virginia State University is taking fifty
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: seven transfirst, you notice he didn't say I got fifty
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: seven kids out of high school. WVU had almost eighty Transfirst,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: there are not taking kids in high school no more.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: I get that. You are not. Even if you three star,
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: two stars, those type of you got the darn there
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: be the five, five star.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is like, if my kids on
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: that bubble three stars gas some talent, gasymmetrics, but still
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: need some development. And if you're at a high school
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: where you are playing out losing that development could be
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: lost because you're just trying to pull it together. So
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, overall, depending on how your kid is situated,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: it may be best for him to him or her
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: depend on the sport to go somewhere else where they
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: can seek that development to try to get that offer
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: coming out, because again the kids now, man, and to
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: your point, any offer is good now as long as
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: you got one good So it ain't about D one,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: D two no more. Just find So we're to go
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: ball out and then you can go up later. But
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: in order to get that offer, to get those eyes,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: you may be going to be in a program that's
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: gonna be conduced, conducive to your skill set. I'm not
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: sure I'm gonna So I could have gone to I
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: could have maybe transferred to Furman, any of those kind
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: of schools.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: High school. It's a different to high school.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, So if if we're in high school, I'm going
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: to make the case that it was obvious to me
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: that nobody was interested in me at I had. I
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: had Virginia Tech was the only school that there was
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a bigger school that recruited me.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: a minute. Then they tell me to walk on and
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: they still interested. Brow I ain't got no dollars, okay,
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: but they still interested. Not not interested enough, okay, got you.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: So every other school that I had was a West
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Virginia was a West Virginia team wasn't was it basically
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: a D three team with the exception of Marshall. Yeah,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: And that's when Sunny Sonny random came in and then
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: he offered me a full ride.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: I took that. Now we weren't like we were never good.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: But it's different. What I'm saying is like you got
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: college is different. So the way in which an NFL
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: scout is doing that analysis, like you said, they don't
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: care about all that wins and losses. They're looking at
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: metric steps. They can pinpoint all that sort of thing.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, Come ou out of high school where it's
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: so cluttered, it's it's a it's thousands of millions of
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say millions, but it's hundreds of thousands of
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: kids coming out trying to get to a spot potentially right,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And if you're at a
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: dogget program where you don't have any staff line or
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the status line, don't look good compared to your actual
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: talent because you're just in a bad spot. I'm saying,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: ultimately that hurts you and and it compounds in a
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: world where a D two program historically that took all
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: high school kids. A lot of local kids are kids
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: who couldn't find a home. When they're just taking basically
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: all transfer, it might be less than five ten high
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: school kids coming in.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: Now that hurts.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: You got to get to a point where you can shine.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: And I think some parents think like it to your
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: and I will, I will go with you on the
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: reality of today, they're finding a transfer, they're finding another
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: kid that's that played a year or two the same money. Yes,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: they playing it, not like they're paying more or less.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: It's the same money, which which does make it really
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: really challenging on the high school athlete because it's the
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: same argument that having like people are criticizing Debo Deebo
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: swinging at Clemson head football coach because of the comments
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: that he's making in regard to that because he's not
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: or he's fell into it just with the time. So
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: even Nick Saban was like, bro, either you gotta you
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: know you either you're gonna do it how it's supposed
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: to be done now or you're not.
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: You can't live in the past.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: So I'm saying again, ultimately, in the perfect world, we
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: would want those kids to stay in that community and
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: come up through the ranks and do those things. But
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I think, to me, in order to accomplish that, the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: head coach's job is different.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: You know you, I think you have to get or
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: you got to strive to get coaches who can manage
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the day to day operations of your football program and
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: or you feel comfortable during that at times. That's going
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: to allot you the time to get into the community.
• 52:37
  Speaker 7: Let me it is what you're saying here. Do you
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: think that the NI on the changes to the transfer
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: rules that we've made in West Virginia, do you think
• 52:44
  Speaker 7: that it has made high school more like college?
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Then get one hundred percent it's more like college, because
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: again now it's almost like it's like that, it's like college,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: but not because you can't recruit, so unlike college where
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: you're not supposed to, you can't you know, legally recruit.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: So now it's sort of a coach what you're hoping
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: like if I'm South Charleston, Poker of Saint Albans, you know,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: of Riverside, if I'm those programs, I'm wishing and wishing
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: that I could get five, you know, maybe five to
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: ten kids to come in.
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: I can't go out and legally do that, but I'm
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: hoping that I can get five or ten players in
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that could add to the program and add to the
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: kids that I have. So in lieu of that, if
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I'm a coach at programs who are similarly situated like that,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: I have to get into the community. So I gotta
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: be at the Little League games. I gotta be at
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: the middle school games. I gotta get to know the parents.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: I gotta be sort of in the community. Your darn
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: there just a politician now, because you got to have
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: your face shown. People get comfortable because people may send
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: to their kids forget wins and losses. I like coach Lee.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: I want to see it because I like the man
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: that he is. I'm gonna go up there and they
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: can figure it out. He got the program, like I said,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: even selling the program. Hey man, we ain't got we
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: We had a bad year. We ain't make the playoffs.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: But our team got to collect the three point five GPA.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: That's gonna sell some parents. Our kids are averaged forty
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: time went from this to this, So our average bitch
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: press went from this to this over this perce. So
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: you gotta find anything you can sell, now sell it
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: to get people to get into that program, and I
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: and we can close it out here. But I buy
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: that I buy that sell. But my fear of the
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: sale is somebody's gonna sell the wrong thing percent.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: You know that somebody's gonna sell the.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Wrong the wrong thing, and and with without a conscience
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and bring kids in and and and end up creating
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: a situation where you know, who knows what happens to
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: the get going forward. Yeah, but you gotta I mean,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: that's obviously you're one hundred percent right, that can't happen.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, man, something, you gotta do something.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, this we could have, we could we
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: could do this all day.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: All right, ladies and gentlemen, We're gonna get out of here.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: We will be back again next week. Thanks for being here.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: Let's Talk with Carl Lee as presented by Attorney Frank
• 55:11
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• 55:14
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• 55:31
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