Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Russell Mitchell Interview

Transcript

Russell Mitchell Interview · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're back her afternoon. I'm driving with Jack wiber
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Lady where he is and local on Jackson Sports Authority
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: esp A one five one nine Zone and on Live
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the Zone one oh five nine dot com.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Taking you in on a Tuesday brought to you about
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Taylor Power. Go to Taylorpower dot com. I mean you
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: can always call their office six or A one nine
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: three two five six seven four. Standby generators for your business.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: They are needed with the storm season here September. Zamp
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: and up there talking about a lot of storms that
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: could be in September and October, especially in the Gulf.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Get out to Taylor Power and of course learn more
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: today home generators as well. Taylorpower dot Com. Six or
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: one nine three two five six seven four. Want to
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: say thanks to doctor Woodale with Mississippi Sports Medicine and
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Orthopedic Center, also team physician for the Germantown Mavericks. Were
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: at Germantown today. It is Maverick Day on your radio
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: on the high School Football road Tour. They're head football
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: coach Russell Mitchell and athletics director here for Germantown. Kind
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: enough to sit next to us to my left. Sorry,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: coach Mitchell, Thank you sir. How are you?
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate it. Uh doing great, Glad to have
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: you here, you know, proud to have you doing your
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: show on our campus and chance for us to highlight
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: our school, and really excited to have a minute to
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: talk to you.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely, and thank you. I know you said y'all
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: moved some things around. Well, I tell you what, there's
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of moving parts this time of year on
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: practice times from morning or you know how you taking
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: it inside afternoon. It's it's just kind of a big
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: ball of accident.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, you know, And obviously we've got some
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: restrictions from the state on our wet bulb globe temperature,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: you know, whether you know, talking about whether or not
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: you can wear shoulder pads or how long you can practice,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: and you know, water break intensity and you know, scheduling
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: and making adjustments based on the heat. And we're doing
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: that in the best interest of the kids, keep them safe. Certainly,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: don't want to have any heat illness or a kid
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: to get, you know, have any sort of medical condition
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: under our watch. So but I guess, I guess when
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: you're planning practice and trying to carry out of fall camp.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: The hardest part is, you know, you got eighty one
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: families that are They need to know what time practice is,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: so it's not like we can just walk out here
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: at three thirty and decide on a moment's notice that
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: we're going to call it off or push it back
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: or whatever. So we try to try to make those
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: adjustments in the morning. And today it looked like it
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: was going to be really, really hot, and now we're
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: not looking back on it, I guess we could have
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: probably gone out because it's a little breezy. But again,
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: just want to give give those families enough heads up
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: to where they can make arrangements so their kids can
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: be here and we can take a step forward as
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: a team, because that's our goal every day is to
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: get a little bit better. So we're going to push
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: it back to seven o'clock tonight. It'll be our second
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: day and shoulder pads. That'll give our kids another three
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: or four hours to recover and go home, get something
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: to drink, get a meal in them, and come back
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: and practice from seven to nine to night, and maybe
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: we can be a little bit better tomorrow than we
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: were going into today.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I had a old gentleman one time at a conference
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: told me, he said, hey, son, he said, life is
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: like a roll of toilet paper. The closer the end
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: you get, the faster goes. I could not believe that.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: You told me you've been here five years. Seem like
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you just got here.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, going into year five, So time time
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: goes fast. You know, I guess I'm I'm up. You know,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: you look up one day. You're not a young coach anymore.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So now you're still you still got a lot, a
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: lot of runway ahead of you. You've done an amazing
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: job here. Talk a little bit about it's hard to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: believe Germantown has only played fifteen seasons of football in
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the history of the program, I mean gone from it.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: I can't remember. You could correct me on this, or
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Jared will when we visit with him, next segment three
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: A or four A. And then of course the boom
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: in Madison County. The facilities look phenomenal, Your weight room
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: looks phenomenal. You guys are now a Nike school. Talk
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: about the growth of this school under your leadership in
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: what you've seen.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, one of the things that was
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: so attractive about it, and I tell everybody I had
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: the best assistant coaching job in the state. I was
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: the offensive coordinator at Dog Grove when I took this job.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: You know, my wife and I are both from South
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Mississippi and have two young children, and we weren't just
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: you know, chomping at the bit to take any head
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: coaching job that was available. But when this opportunity came about,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: it was the right opportunity, you know. And when I
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: say it's the right opportunity, You've got the community support.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: You got a tremendous community that supports their kids in
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: every way. The school district is tip notch. We've got
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: a booster club that supports us, and you can look
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: around this place and it's a reflection of that. You know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: we've got great facilities, it's great places in your kids
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: at school. So we weighed that as parents and then
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: and then we thought we had a chance to be
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: successful for all those reasons that we just mentioned. It's
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: a it's a thriving, diverse community and we're proud to
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: be a part of it.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: You've got a great offensive mine. You spoke about being
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: down there with Drew Causey and being seen it all
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you know, being a part of a lot of great
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: up growth teams. When you see the evolution of football,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: even on the high school level, man, there's still a
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: great mixture of offensive football and this state from you know,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: guys that still run the wing tea, guys are gonna
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: get under center, Guys are gonna spread it out, They're
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: gona play outside the hash marks. Are we seeing a return?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm referencing this more to college football, but then
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: bringing it back to high school Indiana, Ohio, State, Michigan.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: A lot of chatter nationally about the Big Ten and
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: what they've done versus the SEC, but they have really
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: put a put an emphasis on an oneos on running
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the football. Are we seeing that kind of return back
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: into high school football as well?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Or did it ever leave?
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: You know? I don't. That's what I was gonna say
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: is that the one thing that has remained the same
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: in my career is is and and going back further
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: than that, it is just that emphasis on good offensive
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: line play. If you're gonna score points, right, so, you
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: can't do it without an offensive line. And that goes
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: for controlling the line of scrimmage in the run game,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: and also protecting quarterbacks. So I think it starts and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: end there. And there's been a lot of schematic evolution
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: obviously in football, from like you reference the wing tea
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: going back to the wishbone in the old days. And
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: then you know, it seemed like twenty years ago everybody
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: got rid of the tight end and it was one
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: back and forth wide for a while, and now there's
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: a return to some heavier personnel groupings. But if you
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: can block, you're gonna have a chance to move the football.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: And I think the other thing that hasn't changed is,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: you know, you got to get the ball to your
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: best players, and I think as coaches we've done a
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: better job of that over the last you know, quarter century.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: That's right, of getting the ball to them in space.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Maybe so's it's fun. You know, I've always enjoyed going
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: in on the weekend and Saturday and Sunday trying to
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: figure out ways to get our best players the ball
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: in space versus our opponent. And I think the thing
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: in high school football that makes it so fun is
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: there's a wide disparity of talent on the field. And
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I know, you know, in the media and not newspapers
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: so much anymore, but Twitter or wherever, you always hear
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: about the best players, and a lot of times it's
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: about the eleventh best player too. So if you can
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: match your best up on their worst in high school,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: a lot of times you can get a pretty severe mismatch,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you know. And those are the things we try to do,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: and we're still having a lot of fun doing it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: So you know, that's where we are. And you mentioned
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: the growth we've had in this program and the growth
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: we've had in this school. We've gone from five hundred
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: students to nearly fifteen hundred and fifteen years. So we
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: did start as a four A back in twenty eleven,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: and you could see, you know, as the school grew
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: and became a larger four A school or district championships,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: and then you move up to five A and there's
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: a little drop off, and as it became a larger
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: five A school competing for championships, and then there's a
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: little drop off and you've become a six A school.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: And now we're growing, growing and growing, and I'm proud
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: of the fact that that we've placed ourselves, you know,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: in the conversation with some big wins against some blue
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: blood programs in the state, you know, and there's been
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: a lot of hard work that's going into that. I
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: think our whole staff prizes ourselves on the way that
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: our team works in the weight room, on the practice field,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: in the classroom. So there's been a lot of people
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: that have contributed to that success. Certainly the team we
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: had last year, we had the top producing offense in
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: the state, had a really good quarterback, had some really
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: good skill players around him, had thirteen kids signed college
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: scholarships last year. So we're really proud of the progress
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: we've made as a program and looking forward to this season.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: He is an athletics director and had football coach here
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: at Germantown. He is Russ Mitchell. Coach Mitchell, thank you
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: so much for taking some time in his athletic director.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: We got about one minute here. We'll be remiss with
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: about saying, hey, look, basketball, baseball, softball. You guys are
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: doing the deal here across the athletic spectrum.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: We provide a lot of opportunities to all our students.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: You can find something you're interested in. We've got bass fishing,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: we've got bowling, we've got archery, We've got it all.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Going on for boys and girls. We're proud of the
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: opportunities that we that we you know that the kids have.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: We've got a principle that supports us. We've got an
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: entire administration here in Madison County in Germantown that supports
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: kids and wants to get kids involved, and we believe
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: that it's part of the bigger picture of them achieving
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: in the classroom and in the community. So proud of
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: the graduates that we put out of this place, and
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: athletics plays a role in that as well as the
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: arts and academics. So got a world class band too there.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: They've won the state championship three out of the last
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: four years. So there's a lot of good things going
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: on in Germantown.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Well, coach, thank you so much for having us over today.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for time today. Hey, best of
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: luck this year. We'll talk this season. Thank you appreciate
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Jake Russell Mitchell. He is the head football coach and
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: athletics director here at Germantown.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: As we