The Boro Buzz: Episode 11 WOOOOOO of a Comet

Check it out as we sit down with Blue Comets Head Basketball Coach Nance!
Stories you won’t hear anywhere else but The Boro Buzz!!! 


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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to the Borough Bud, your inside podcast for all access for your stories inside and off the court.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Borough Nation, and welcome to the Borough Bud. The all access path to everything sports in and around the borough. We're talking inside the lines and behind the scenes. Athletes, coaches, records, and the stories you don't hear on game day. If it's happening in the gym, on the field, or in the locker room, you'll hear it here. This is the Borough Bus.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

This episode is sponsored by Just Keep Swinging. From top quality equipment to custom apparel like hats, shirts, and more. They're more than just sporting goods store. They are here to support our athletes and community every step of the way. Whether you're gearing up for game day or looking to rep your team with fresh merch, just keep swinging has you covered. Give them a follow today. Today's guest, I couldn't think of a better than Ashbrough Blue Commons head coach basketball, Brian Nance. How are you doing, Coach Nance? Very well. Thanks for having me. Oh, I appreciate you coming. And uh let's give a shout out to our sponsor, Just Keep Swinging. They're coming back with us for a year. And I want to give a shout out to Curtis and Kelly Cole with this awesome merch. I'm actually wearing Corey Media that I got made by him. And uh I got a request in for uh a Ric Flair robe for you, uh Coach Nance. There you go. Um, Coach, uh as we kickstart this, I just want to one coming off this season. I mean, you were a young team. Uh you might have lost, I think, what, three, probably three seniors. Yeah, talk a little bit about that team this year and uh how they've grown as a as one unit, really.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Well looking back coming out of the summer, we had a lot of question marks. I have a lot of new people, a lot of new faces. Uh lost some pretty talented kids from a year ago and Osiris and Elijah and those guys. And um we had some sophomores that we were kind of seeing what they could do, uh, if could they plug some holes? And then of course some of the rising juniors, um, Jeremiah, Garrison Cheek, those guys had not seen a lot of playing time. So, you know, it was kind of up in the air. Um they they finished the summer out pretty well. Had a stretching error where we were really learning how to play. And uh when we got started in the once football was over and we got everybody together, we had the scrimmage on Saturday and started playing on Tuesday. And it got it got better each game. Uh, you know, we had uh we we won the first game, but it was kind of a struggle, and then we we played a little better as we went along. Um Christmas time was uh good time for us uh winning that Christmas tournament. How many years have you won that now? Consecutively, because then you went last year too? No, we so when we came back in the building, we won it the first year, it was us and random. Then Randoman won it last year, and then we won it, it was us and random again this year. But you've been in the championship ever since coming back. Yeah, yeah, all three years. But it's we've won, I don't know, six or seven of them, I guess, since I've been there. Uh going back to the courier days, um, and a bunch of runner-up finishes. Uh we've had several runner-up finishes, but doing all the trophies. Yeah, so we've got a lot of stuff in that office that I never go to. It's just a storage facility, is what it's turned into. Um, but Christmas was good to us. I mean, Randall and had a very experienced team, as we just saw. They went to the third round of the state playoffs. Only team really to give Reevesville a run right now. Yeah, and um he had I think eight eight seniors, so we had a very experienced team. Um so that gave us that gave us kind of indication that we we were gonna be okay. We had played some very athletic teams in High Point Central and uh Northwest Guildford. Uh both of them were overtime losses, and so we knew that was the type of athleticism we were gonna see in the new conference. Um got off to a good start in the conference. We were we were three and one when the snow hit, and that that two weeks kind of hurt us a little bit. Um you know, we we're a little more um strict on policies in Ashbury City Schools about practicing when schools not in for weather. Um so I I know some of the Guildford schools had already been back in the gym and some other people around us, and then I think finally the the straw that finally got us back in the gym was the fact that Randolph County was allowed to start practicing and uh then Dr. Woody talked to him and got us back in the gym for a day or so, and uh we we just had a tough stretch. I mean, we played um that Saturday, then we played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we were off Thursday, then we played Friday, and then we played Monday and Tuesday, and then we had a day off, and then we played Thursday.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

They were getting home at 1 a.m. about every night.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

We played uh we played eight games in like twelve days or whatever, and and that's a lot of basketball. I mean, colleges don't do that. NBA doesn't do that, and when you've been sitting around the house for two weeks, it it's tough. But those kids um they they came back and and you know it was kind of like riding a roller coaster. They didn't they had a tough game against Northern, bounced back and won against Northeast at home, and got a win against Southern at home and and against Eastern Guildford uh back-to-back nights on Monday and Tuesday with the last regular season game and the conference tournament game. And uh, you know, and they and they were in a good uh good battle in the first round of state playoffs, and I think the other team's experience with eight eight seniors and a lot of guards just took over late and uh they they were a tough, tough matchup for us. Um their record was very deceiving. They were in a very tough split conference, 6A, 78, with Weddington and Charlotte Catholic, who's still in it right now, they're in the final four, and I think Marvin Ridge, who just got put out last night, and they they were in a very, very tough league. And so uh I knew when they came in that would that would be that would be a tough game for a first round game. Um but seventeen wins. Uh if you would have told me that back in July when we we ended our summer basketball, I would have taken it at that point. Um, you know, and I told the kids 13 to 15 wins in high school basketball is a good season. 16 to 19 is a really good season, and 20 and above is an outstanding season. So to to end up with 17 and uh you know, you your three seniors and uh Joel and Eli and Reed, I thought that was a great accomplishment for 'em.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

And uh piggybacking off of that, uh, when's the last time you've had a 500 or below season?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Five hundred, uh we had a five hundred season, I think, when Tyson and those guys were Tyson Freshwater was a junior. I think we ended up 13, 13 after the loss at uh Coxmill. What year would you think that if you had a guesstimate? Go back and see when Leaky Black and Wendell Moore and the Carrowell kid were all at Coxmill. That should have been around 2018, 17, something. Yeah, it's I think it was it was 18. Had to be about 2018. It was after Emmanuel and all that group and Preston Russell and that group got out. But uh yeah, that was we had lost a lot from the year before. I I had a uh one of my bigger senior classes, I think I had five or six seniors. And uh it was kind of a rebuilding year, and those guys all came up from JV and they struggled early on, and then they got they got going and finished about third or so in the in the conference. And then we had to go to um we had to go to Coxmill in the playoffs, and they hadn't lost the game all year. And uh it you could tell early on that was gonna be a tough night. I mean Wendell Moore, I think, blocked the first two or three shots we attempted. And uh so it it you know, but yeah, I think we were like 13, 13, or 12 and 12 or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

That's pretty good stats right there. It was 2018 is the last time you've been 500.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

I mean you weren't even really below 500. No, we've uh we've been very fortunate. Um, you know, I was telling Scott that um he came by and talked to me before the playoff game. So Coach Smith took the program back over the same year that I started at Random, 96, 97. And uh he got it turned around. Ashborough had gone a couple years or so not being very competitive and not being in the playoffs. And uh since that time um we've we've qualified for state playoffs every year but the COVID year. Oh wow. Um yeah, the COVID year they cut the bracket in half and uh we were in a tie because they only counted the first round of our conference season because we didn't finish the second round. Uh we ended up we didn't even play I don't even think we played Southeast Guildford, they ended up with COVID both times. And then we didn't play Southwest Randolph the second time. They had a COVID outbreak. So they went by their first five games or whatever, and we were in a tie with uh Burlington Williams.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

And we had to draw it out of a hat. What? And I've never won a draw the whole 30 years I've been doing this, so they got to go and and we stayed at home. But that was that was the only year, and that's so that's 30 years, because I'm this was my 30th year, so 29 out of the last 30 years, the the boys program has qualified for state playoffs. That's that's a pretty good run. I mean, uh because I look around, for instance, Central Cabaras, they they won like a hundred games in three years or whatever it was. And then the next year they they had a poor season. I mean, they just really fell off. Now they were back up this year and had a pretty decent team, but we've just never we've never experienced that, and I hope nobody does, whoever me or whoever follows me and takes it over, and I hope they can continue it on. I feel like you're gonna do another 15, 20 years. I think that's something we all are wondering, Nance. I don't know. Um I I mean we've only been out over a week, and um I mean there's a lot of things that's changed. Kids have changed. Yeah. Um That was actually my next question. Yeah, the the th things are changing, and it's a lot of dynamics involved in it that sometimes it makes it a little tougher. And uh, you know, when I was twenty-eight and thirty-eight, it may have not been a big deal, but when I'm I'll be fifty-eight next month. Oh wow and uh it it's I'm I'm telling you, it's it's a little more stressful sometimes um and handling certain situations. Uh a lot of kids just they they're they're just different this day and time. And the social media plays a big part in it, uh, all that stuff. See, when I first started, cell phones were just becoming a thing. Kids didn't even have cell phones. I mean, we had to we had practice stuff. I had to actually pick up the phone and call kids at home and tell them when practices were and that kind of stuff, and then then we evolved into flip phones and stuff to and the text, and I had to learn how to text, and so I've kind of been through it all. And now, I mean, you know, you got all this social media and stuff, and they can access anything, and it it changes a lot of them's perspectives on things. Well, they're a little more blunt than they should be on social media at times. Yeah, and I have to stay on kids, you know. Um that was one thing with Aquarius and even Tasha on the year he was with us, um, because they had obviously expressed an interest in going on to school. Um social media stuff. I mean, people are gonna see that stuff, so be careful, even if you're just reposting something a friend put, it may not be something that they're inclined to approve. Yeah. And it may turn them off. And um Jaquaris did a good job. Uh he he kept his stuff pretty pretty calm and and tightened up and um so we didn't have any any problems there. But I have had kids over the years that I'll have to send them a text, hey you might want to take that down, hey you might not want to, you know, promote this stuff or whatever. And you know, that's just part of growing up. And uh but we'll see. Uh I mean, you know, it's I still enjoy it. Um it's just how you do things sometimes you gotta you gotta modify and change with the times.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

That's why I was asking, because I asked the same question to O.G. Gary, and uh he he he's he gave me an age, but he keeps changing his mind. He's like when he he's like, when I don't love it anymore, I'll stop.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah, well that's the thing. I mean, when you feel like it's I mean, I'll be honest, it's it's not work. I mean, the first five years after I got out of college, I had I had a job. You know, I was a sales rep for a while with Brown and Williams and Tobacco and then worked for Burlington Industries as a cost accountant, and that was work. I mean, you had to go in, you had stuff you had to do every day, and it it could be tedious and time consuming, and you had to work until you got the job done. So there were nights that I was in the office at the uh knit plant in Denton until seven, eight, nine o'clock. I mean, you know, that that's the job, that's work. Going to school and dealing with these kids every day is not work. I mean, now some people uh for some it is. I mean, those teachers in the classroom, I should uh you know, for them it it can be a lot of time consuming work. But for me in the sports, it's not really what I consider hard work. I mean, we work hard, but it's fun. Yeah and you know, I still enjoy it. I still enjoy seeing the kids every day. Uh I look forward to PE and getting in there and cutting up with kids and because that's a place where they can come after they've been in a box for 90 minutes with math or science or English or whatever the case may be. And they can kind of let go a little bit and and have some fun and express themselves and we try to keep them reined in to a point, but you know, that's the time to kind of get that extra energy out of them before they go back to, you know, Miss Carroll's math class and she doesn't want them bouncing off the walls or or whatever. Wow, you that's a name I hadn't heard in a while. Yeah. She's back. She's back. I actually had her um 1980 and 81, my seventh grade year, first year at South Ashboro Junior High.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Were you and Dan Jordan in the same class? No, he's a year ahead of me. Okay. Or two years ahead of me. Dan was a senior when I was a sophomore. Okay. Um class 84. Um, but she was there, and we were scheduled to have her for math and then, no, science, I'm sorry, was scheduled to have her for science, and then Ray Scott, who was teaching that there uh at the time, left to go to Jordan Matthews and just do driver's ed. And we ended up having Miss Carroll for three periods. We had her for math, science, and help. So we just stayed in there for three straight periods. And uh so I've known her since I was 12 years old. She grabbed me by the ear. I remember she grabbed me by the ear to get me out of class. And uh she still gets after those kids. I'll go by her classroom and uh she'll say, Now, this young man here, I had to do it, and I'm like, Oh lady, you're telling stories that I really don't need these kids. Did you get the chair though, Coach? Did you get the chair, the desk that she has right there? Yeah, I sat beside her several times. And uh her and then Miss Betty Martin that I had that was kind of her mentor in the math department at South Ashboro. I sat beside both their desks a lot uh in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

So I've experienced all that. And uh before we dive into like the more deeper basketball stuff, what uh I know you're a blue common alumni, you can spit out facts like I've never believed you, like you just said earlier. Oh, he was 84, oh, he's 81. He's this um what you you know when you started your coaching career, what made you want to come back home to Ashboro? Because you left a really solid charity program and you're at Randleman, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Well, so the the whole backstory is this. Um my dad graduated well, my whole family. Um my aunt is 93 now, graduated in 1950 from Ashboro when the building first opened. My uncle Norman was uh Mr. Blue, well, he didn't call it Mr. Blue Comet, it was most athletic. He and uh Craig York's aunt, Peggy Scholler. Okay. They were um most athletic boy and girl 1953 class. He was quarterback for Coach Stone and played basketball and all that stuff. And then my dad graduated in 1960, was part of that undefeated 1958 football team, and uh and then was on one of the state championship basketball teams with Coach Smith. So I knew Coach Smith when I was really young, and of course he took over basketball mid-70s. My dad would take me to the games as I got into elementary school, and then of course the Kyle was right behind me. Derek's knew the family. Um I just thought I don't know, he was just the coolest thing to watch him. He was always kind of cool on the sidelines, dressed really nice, and um it it just kind of got my interest up. And I knew when I got to high school, you know, and I I tell the kids this, I wasn't an all-conference player, you know. I I was that guy sitting on a bench, you know, uh not getting much playing time in sports. Um played a little more in football than I did, obviously, in other sports, but I enjoyed being around Coach Smith and those guys, and so I said, Well, I think that's what I want to do. Well, my mom was a school teacher, she taught for 39.8 years, uh, which is a very long time. And when I was getting ready to get out of school, we went through the same thing we went through several years ago. Well, we're actually going through it right now, they haven't approved a budget. Salaries are frozen. But they went through a two or three-year period where teachers' salaries were frozen, they got no steps, they got no raises. So my parents told me, they said, You're not going to school to be a school teacher. Your mom, you know, is going through all this, and you're just not gonna do that. You need to find something else. So I did and ended up with degrees in accounting and business management and economics, and um came out of state and uh went to work. That first sales job was really cool. Um, allowed me to do a lot of things, bought my first house when I got home from Mike Myers over on Rocky Lane. And so I was kind of living the life there single. Uh plenty of money, nice job, had a company car, thought all that was great. They bought American tobacco in Reidsville. They downsized, so some of us got let go. So I went to work for Burlington Industries, and I was in Wake County at the Wake plant for a while, and then was transferred to Denton and still was doing some rec coaching from the time I got home. 13, 14-year-old, which is your age group that you've got. And I really enjoyed that and uh kept eyeballing school sports and thinking, well, what if, what if? Well, then Burlington shut that plant down and I was gonna have to move out of state. And Sherry and I had just gotten married, she had a job at High Point Regional, and I didn't want to rip her out of all that. Um so I lateral entry to randomly. I tried at Ashborough, but at the time they said they were not hiring lateral entry employees. You say lateral entry, is that just mid-year? That no, what that is, you have a degree, for instance, um minor in business, and if it matches up to a curriculum, like there are people that um major in certain sciences, they could, without a teaching degree, they could be hired to teach science. Okay. And you have to go back and take the education portion and the teachers' exams, and they give you three years. Um they hired me at random, and and of course I'd worked for Coach Bulla as a lifeguard at the city pool, so I had a connection there. So he told me Bulla Bulla. Yeah, people So they had they had a job there teaching business courses. Somebody had retired, and I actually went to work on August 8th of 1996 and started helping with football after the first week. And uh, and then the the deal was I was gonna help Gary Leach with boys' basketball. Well, about October, Terry Lintcombe gave up the girls' position he had had for 10 or 12 years. He actually coached Sherry and Shelley when they were in school, and uh he went to the principal and said, get Brian to do it. And I went, uh, okay. So I kind of got thrown from rec league to a head varsity job just like that, and inherited a really good team with Haven Webster and Stephanie West and Mandy Hurley and all those kids, and uh they had come off some really good years with Brandy Cook, and he was a really good mentor to me. I could go to his he wouldn't come to practices, he wouldn't come to games, but I could go to his room every day. And uh so that got me through at Randall, and I passed my teacher certification and was teaching business. And the last year at Randoman, a lot of people had left. I ended up being the athletic director and coaching three sports and teaching two classes, mowing fields, lining fields. Kessley had been born. I didn't see her awake except on the weekends for like months at a time. And Daryl Barnes uh contacted me from Trinity, and Doug was gonna, Doug Tuggle was gonna become the athletic director only, and so he offered me a chance to come to Trinity to just do girls' basketball. And boys' assistant, right? Well, that came after I got there. Uh but it the deal was I'd only have to coach one sport, and because of the Trinity AT tax supplement, I'd actually be making almost as much as I was making doing all that at Random. And so I I scooted up there, and uh unfortunately Kyle Spencer and the the chorus teacher, I was supposed to take Kyle's place as a business job, and they ended up uh she got pregnant and they got married and had a kid, so he didn't leave. So that was my they looked at my transcripts, all the foreign language credits, so I had to do another lateral entry type deal, and I taught Spanish one for three years. You taught Spanish? Oh yeah. And uh had to go back, had to go back to RCC, take more classes. Yeah. And then in the in the midst of all that, I thought, well, this would be a good time to learn more basketball. So they got out at 2 40 back then. I don't know what they do now. So practices were three to five, five to seven. So I would go to the boys' practice if they were early and help Coach Kelly and then do my practice, or vice versa, every day. And Sherry was good about that. I mean, I'd get home late. Of course, I was getting home late from random in anyway, so she was used to it. And I learned a lot of basketball from him that first year that I, you know, took bits and pieces on with me. Um and he was the one that actually recommended when Sam Whitley got the football job for me to apply at Ashboro. And I said, they are not gonna hire a girls' coach as the boys' coach at Ashborough. Ashboro. Ah, you need to put your name in there. So I did. And here we are 20 years later. And you know, it's it's been a lot of fun. And uh so I tell people I got to where I wanted to be. It just took a while. It took it took 10 years to kind of get back. And because I had applied for the girls' job at Ashborough a couple times, but they hired from inside. And uh so I was happy cruising right along there in the county, and things were going good. And then like I said, Coach Kelly just kept right after that season, kept hammering me about you should apply, you should, you know, trying to do that. Was that after you got your ring? Yeah, that was a couple years after the ring. Yeah, yeah, that was that was exciting, I'm gonna tell you. I mean, uh people just don't know until they've been in it uh what what a process that is and playing in that dean dome. That was one thing I learned. So I was the I was the errand boy. Um they put you in a locker room and it's like it feels like a football field from the actual court. And Coach Kelly's group, they have these warmups and they would come out and do this stuff, and then that Trinity, they'd just run in that little locker room, take off part of it, come back out, do it, and then take off more stuff. I mean, it was the most, I don't know, complicated deal I'd ever seen. They had more stuff to take off than I'd ever seen. And I told him, I said, if they run back and forth to that locker room three times, they're not gonna be ready to play, they're gonna be dead laying on the bench. So I was tucked inside the tunnel, and they would come and dump that stuff off on me, and I would run it to the locker room and put it in a bag, and I'd come back and wait on the next group, and then the final warm up, and then I ran, then I ran back out and got out there for the national anthem. So, yeah, I was I was the I was the gopher. And uh and uh was sitting right there at the scores table and uh Josh King, I still want to choke him. Uh they had that lead, they had that game one, they were up 12, 13 points, and he had pulled the ball out and was running it, running the clock out, and Josh tried to drive in, and the Swinton boy from Dudley just whap off the board. Coach Kelly's like in my face, just scream at me about why is Josh still trying to score. He said, Does he think Roy Williams is gonna give him a scholarship? Because Roy Williams was sitting directly across from us. And I said, I don't know, but I'll go ask him. He goes, No, just stay right here. So Josh came by and I grabbed him by the shorts. I said, if you shoot it again, I'm coming on the court. I said, I'm getting screamed at for you. So that was it was something all the time. Me and Coach Kelly, he's a real good friend.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

He was a good mentor to me. Um I don't think no one's ever heard that story. I mean, it's a pretty good story. They probably hadn't. They probably have. There's a lot of stories. I mean, it's I I mean, me and Coach Kelly, we had some times. He was he was something else, and he gets so of course his health has declined a lot. Um that's the thing about getting older. It's tough to see him like he is now when you knew you know twenty three, four years ago, how it was, and the energy he had, and people don't understand what he put into that program because I see all this stuff on social media now, the Reedsvills, and I'm not taking anything away from the Reedsvills and places like that, but they get kids in from everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

The unique thing about him, he he had Trinity kids and he worked with them from the time they rolled into that middle school until the time they graduated. And they lived in Trinity and grew up in Trinity, and they were from Trinity. And he would always say, I wonder what I could do if I was at Dudley or I was at this one where they get all these athletes. And I said, I don't know, Coach Kelly, I don't know if your style would work, because he was tough on those kids, but they respected him and they would run through walls for him, and they started at a young age. Yeah, and um though that was that was good times, and like I said, I learned a lot, and uh he's still a really good friend to me. And uh I miss him being in in in control of Trinity and being the head guy. I that's something you know I'm I'm I'm it. I mean um Burton Cates has been around forever, and then the next longest running act's me right now, um, 30 years. And uh a lot of people have I mean, Daniel Mitchell's leaving, and he's been at Random in forever compared to what we had. I mean, when I was there, I guess I had three boys, three or four boys head coaches in seven years. Um he's been a a stable stable person at random, and now he's he's going on. Uh I've seen people come and go at Southwest. Now Matt's been there a while. I've seen a whole boatload of people at Eastern Randolph over the years. Uh you see Baxter leave and come back and leave. Yeah, I mean I mean Seth, he bounced around like I did there for a while, and then he's been back at Southwest for a while now. That's that's the one thing is the you get a lot of friendships, and then they kind of come and go. And uh, you know, I miss a lot of those. Uh I I do. Um but you know, you got people like Luther and you got Reichmeir at Randleman and you and you younger guys, and so I'm kind of in Coach Kelly's shoes now. Not that I'm the the coach he was or is or anything, but I'm saying I'm the older guy. And so, you know, it can it kind of keeps me going. Uh Wes keeps something going all the time. Uh and with he and Barner and all those guys, we kind of interact a lot. And so it it still makes it fun. Yeah. And uh, you know, there's gonna come a time, just like with Coach Kelly, when I'm gonna say I've I'm I'm ready to, you know, just watch somebody else. And uh except Jam Burris, because I see he still gets up there. He'll come by with with Brett and hang out. And then uh he's so funny because they've struggled last couple years, and and you know, everybody knows that. But he he came up to me and he had a pack of MMs at the Christmas tournament. He was getting ready to play somebody and he said, Hey, come here. And I go over there and he said, you know the best thing about this, just helping is. I said, What's that, Coach Kelly? He goes, none of this counts against my record. I said, Well, you got a good point. He said, I'm just come and go when I want to. I said, Well, yeah, there you go. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Oh man, and uh, I know you gotta go here soon, uh, but as we wrap up, um, I want to ask a few questions from the humorous side. Uh what's the most common thing players say after a loss that you've seen in your 20 plus teams? Common thing?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Um we played like garbage. Or we're or we were trash. That's the new thing. And I'm like trash. I mean, I mean, that's coming after overtime losses, and I'm like, you just played two really good teams to double overtime and overtime. I don't think you're trash, I don't think you're garbage. You beat everybody in conference this year at least once. Yeah, we beat everybody in the conference, and I would I I mean, I hate to say this on something that they're gonna see, but coming out of the summer, realistically, I was thinking if I could beat some of the ones towards the bottom, maybe split with the middle guys, probably not gonna compete with northern and northeast. Well then we split with them. And so they had to be a proud moment before that. They exceeded my expectations. And and you know, and I told them, I said, you know, I didn't want to put any doubt in their head uh about anything, but they they really did, and and like I said, that crunch with the eight games in twelve days, they they did a good job handling that. I I mean some teams could have just slid and not won a game. Yeah and uh and I told somebody after the Northern game, because we just that game was a one-point game with four minutes to go in the third quarter, the first one we played back, and they they ended up in a running clock. We just ran out of game. It looked like somebody popped a balloon and we just died. And I told Wes, I said, we may not win another game. I mean, I don't know if we can get back to what we were doing. But to their credit, they they kept their nose to the grindstone and and kept working uh or playing, I should say, with no work to it, there was no practice time, but they kept playing and had some big games in that stretch. And uh, you know, it'd go six and four, and you know, all that can get a home playoff game. That was that was good. So, but yeah, they're we're trash. We're trash.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

I'm like, okay. So you'll like this next question. What's the most creative excuse you've ever heard for being late for practice?

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah. I don't know, it wasn't a creative excuse. Um hair appointment. Getting their hair twisted, it took three hours over that. And I'm like, three hours? I'm like, are you kidding me? Wow. Three hours to get your hair twisted. And I mean, according to JJ's mom, LaQuanda, and all them, I mean, that's that that's could be truthful. Um, but I actually the next time, and I'll tell you it was Joel when he was younger. So earlier this year he had a hair appointment up here at LaQuanda's, and I said, get it at this time, and I'm taking you. So I dropped him off to make sure he was there on time so he could make it to practice, and he was waiting on her to get back to the shop. But yeah, the the hair, the hair twisting deal, that was I was like, okay, all right, good enough.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Well, Scott's not here on this episode, but who stresses a co uh who stresses a coach out more, refs or parents?

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Probably the parents. Um and it and it really hasn't been a lot. It's just been a select few over the course of time, maybe unhappy with playing time or whatever. But you know, and I tell them at the parent meeting, I mean, you you're not at practice every day. Um so you don't really know what's going on. And it it never fails. You put a kid in and they look like an all-American for a minute, but they've not looked like that in practice. Yeah. And they think, well, why ain't he playing all the time? Well, because every day in practice he doesn't look like this.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

And he shines for a minute. But uh that that stuff and the social media, that that's where I go back to the social media. Um, and it's not it's not just high school. I mean, it's college. I mean, I saw last night they're just busting wheel weight at state. Um Well, parents, they just they they don't hold back on their social media. Yeah, and they get on there and they don't understand that that hurts that hurts teams and that hurts kids more than anything because forget about Ashboro, forget about I mean, you're not gonna hurt my feelings. I've been doing it forever, I care less. Because I've said this many times that if they keep yelling at me from the bleachers, I may just toss them the keys and go out the back door. Because I mean, I've got 160 something sick days, I can go home now and never look back. So it's not that big issue. But going back to the college thing, some of them have aspirations for their kids. Well, those colleges will look at parents, they will look at family, they will look at the kids' social media. If they see you on there ripping coaches or ripping teams or ripping other players or degrading other kids on the team, they're not going to talk to your child because they don't want that around. They're not gonna pay money for you to come and and then you're doing that kind of stuff. And um, you know, I'm I'm I'm to the point now, I'm I'm just not, you know, it it doesn't really phase me, but I'm not gonna put other kids through it either. And uh we've had situations like that where other parents are on not just their kid, but other kids, and you you need to stay in your lane and worry about yours and let us worry about the group as a whole. But uh yeah, that's that probably the parents the officials as I've gotten older, it doesn't really now when I was younger, I was up. My wife gets stuff about that. You used to stand up all the time, you know, and I'm I'm in that chair 90% of the time, and Wes gets on to me and said, You get away with a lot of stuff I never get away with. I'm like, you gotta pick your battles, man. You gotta be smooth about it. You can't be up ranting and raving at them all the time. Let them come by and get a word in here and there. Um but they don't I mean there's a shortage and we're having to bring in people from everywhere. So I just look at the official situation as don't don't let that don't worry about the stuff you can't control. You know, if it's a good crew, it's a good crew. If it's a not so good crew, it's a not so good crew. Just coach the kids, see what happens. Uh tell the kids, look, we're fortunate we got three officials. We're actually getting to play. Because there's been times where we've had to cancel or move games because there's not enough officials. And uh so that that doesn't really you just yell at Scott next to you if you have a problem with that. Now Scott sits down, it it becomes like you know, a comedy show because I like to ride Scott anyway. And uh especially when he's wearing Dallas stuff, sitting right beside my bench. So I I start in on him and we have a good time. We even got uh we had uh Brian Biggs, the state representative, came in the Christmas term. He was it so he got a little action too. I got on him about not having a budget passed and different things, and Scott was like, holy smokes. I said Did he warn him? He told him, he said, You sit over here now. Nancy, I said, it's fair game. I said, You're in the danger zone, you get over here right beside of me. So I had I had a good time with that. But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

And uh my last question, I'll let you go. I know you gotta get into class, and I appreciate you coming here. Um looking back, I know you're not retiring, but looking at this full circle to looking at your from your middle school program currently to high school, what do you want Aspro Blue Comet basketball to be known for when you leave at Coach Nance?

SPEAKER_01 34:54

I want it to be known to be a consistent success and to take kids, you know, that maybe not have didn't have the greatest situation in life coming through and help them go on and be able to take care of themselves and their own families. Um it's not so much, I mean, uh obviously everybody likes winning. Winning's fun. You know, losing is not fun. But at the same time, you know, I want to see him, just like with Aquarius, people ask this question all the time Well are you gonna try to get him back here? No. I want him to stay as far away from Ashboro as he can because he's having such an experience down there. He's making straight A's in school, uh he's playing 25, 26 minutes a game, he's averaging eight points a game as a freshman. He gets too close to home. Being from Ashborough, I know there's a lot of things that can drag you down. And and it and it and it's sad because I've had some kids, you know, I get a lot of flack sometimes. These kids didn't go to college. Well, they didn't have the grades, they didn't have somebody backing them at home. And as I've gotten older, I've gotten better at helping them myself with the help of some other people like Kendall and those guys. Um but I want them to be able, once they leave Ashborough, to be successful, not just well, you know, I ride through over here on the other side of town. Well, there he was. He was a great high school athlete. Here he is hanging out, he's doing nothing. Yeah, I I want them to get something out of playing at Ashborough and being a part of it. Be successful, uh, be respectful, and be a good representative of their family, their school, and their community. And if they can do that, then they're gonna have some success in life. And Jaquarius is the the obviously he's the shining illustration of it all right now because with his situation, losing his mom and them having to move in with their aunt and the whole deal, and that was real stressful on them, he and Jeremiah. He's really kind of pulled himself up. And uh he he's he's making a name for himself, and I hope it continues because he could be he could be the next Joe Sphinx that goes overseas and plays and makes money off of playing a game and um setting himself up for life. And that that's what that's that's what we want in the end, is for them to have a successful life after high school.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

And uh I I kid you, this is actually my last question, I promise. Um for that coach that's wanting to put you know get into school ball, um, I know it's changed, the game's changed from what it was to what it is now. What's your advice for that coach that's hesitant or thinks they want to pursue that? Because I've seen you, I mean, I've heard, I'll be honest with you, coach, I've heard negative and positive, but you seem to not bother because at the end of the day, you're you have one one goal.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Well, my biggest advice to them would be because I see a lot that do not do this when they get into it, ask questions. You know, I was lost. I mean, I was coaching 13 and 14-year-old boys in 1996, and then I was handed a varsity girls program that had just won 28 games, and I had no clue what I was doing. And if you want to find out real quick, go sit on a varsity high school girls or boys bench with no experience and watch the game fly up and down the floor. You're you're lost. And I would go to Coach Lentcombe, who had won 200 and some games at round. And then when I got to Trinity, I sat in there and took notes during practices and ran drills. Yeah, I was there four hours plus every day, but it's paid off for me now. A lot of them want to get into it and they they just they think they can just do it. And I mean I didn't care. When I did cross country, I I went and asked Coach Smith questions about cross country. He won 17 straight cross-country conference championships in a row at asked questions of him. When I did tennis, I went and found a tennis coach and asked, I didn't know anything about tennis. Daryl Barnes made me coach tennis at Trinity because the lady quit right at the start of the year. Go ask questions. You know, find people that's been doing it. You know, Chet Gary, Chester Gary is a great person. I mean, he's been in it forever and he has coached every sport there is almost volleyball, basketball, football. I don't know if he ever messed with the baseball exams or not, but he's he's probably done track and go talk to him. You you can pick up things from those people that's been in it forever, and you'll be amazed. They'll want to talk to you. Um you know that a lot of people won't approach them, they think they're you know standoffish or whatever. They'll talk to you if you'll go and ask questions. And uh it will make you better. You can learn something from everybody. And I've gone to the clinics and all that stuff. I learn a lot more from other high school coaches, yeah. People that's where we're at, doing coaching the same type of kids we're coaching, than I do listening to you know, the one that's got all the four and five stars and doing that. You know, that stuff's it's fun to listen to the stories, but you're gonna learn more talking to people on your level. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

And uh as you know, I just want to thank everybody for watching this episode of The Burrow Buzz with Coach Nance. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe and uh watch, check out and share these future episodes. And before we sign off, he's probably not gonna do it, but I'm gonna ask him, but can we get the famous woo coach? Can we get the famous woo coach? Absolutely. Two claps in a real player. Woo! Ready to dominate social media? Meet CoreAI Media, your expert team of videographers and digital strategists powering data-driven campaigns with cutting-edge AI. We analyze, target, engage, monitor in real time, and deliver results that surprise industry standards. From skyrocketing engagement to crushing your goals, we are measured by results. Contact CoreAI Media today at info at coreaimedia.com. Let's grow your brand fast. This episode is sponsored by Just Keep Swinging. From top quality equipment to custom apparel like hats, shirts, and more. They're more than just sporting goods store. They are here to support our athletes and community every step of the way. Whether you're gearing up for game day or looking to rep your team with fresh merch, just keep swinging has you covered. Give them a follow today.