Winning Starts When Nobody Is Watching | Coach John Edge

The fourth quarter doesn’t care about hype. It exposes what you built when it was hot, uncomfortable, and nobody was cheering and that’s where Coach John Edge starts. We sit down with the Apollo Eagles head coach to talk about the standards behind his program in Owensboro, Kentucky, from relentless practice habits to the “process” mindset that keeps players locked on the next play instead of the last mistake.

Coach Edge walks us through the coaching influences that shaped him, including lessons from Houston Nutt, and why faith and family are not side topics in his life or leadership. We also dig into what makes Owensboro high school football different: four schools, real rivalries, constant fundraising pressure, and a community where bragging rights mean something even when people pretend they don’t.

You’ll hear how Apollo football navigated the chaos of COVID, why accountability has to include real consequences (even for the best players), and what it looks like to build character that lasts after the last whistle. If you care about high school coaching, team culture, leadership development, and building a program the right way, this conversation delivers practical insight and a clear challenge: do the right work when nobody is watching.

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Transcript

Fourth Quarter Grit Mindset

SPEAKER_02 0:05

If we can't dominate, you know, on a sudden hot day in August or July and June, then we're not gonna nominate in the fourth quarter when we've been beaten and you know and and head to head on a tight competition against somebody. Because after all, you know, that's who wins the ball games, is those teams that can persevere through, and everybody goes through it. It doesn't matter how great you are, you could be a great team, be 14-0, but you know, you're going to get challenged and see how how well you handle that challenge.

Meet Coach John Edge

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Man, that tells you everything you need to know right there. That's not just football, that's how he builds teams, how he leads, and honestly, how he lives. And when you start to hear his story, from his playing days to the programs he's led to what's being built right now at Apollo, it all starts to make sense. Let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome back to All of Things Owens Furrow. I'm pretty excited about this one. Again, we just celebrated our one year anniversary on April 21st. So thank you guys for following along. Uh, thanks for listening. I've been making it worthwhile. And so thank you guys for that. But this one's special because I've been a part of this program for five years. It's something that I've kind of walked into, and uh, it's been a really cool relationship uh between me and and I feel like Apollo football. And uh it's been good to get to know Coach Edge and the rest of the players uh with Apollo football over the last five years. And so today's episode, uh it's a little different, like I said, just and he's not just a coach, he's a builder. He's been several different places, and he's really gone from Murray State, KWC, to championship runs and to building something out of Apollo. So Coach Edge has been a little bit everywhere, and that's been pretty cool because he has a lot of experience. Um, but then you're also a husband of data six and a man of faith. And so, Coach Edge, I'm I'm glad you're here, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Uh thank you for having me on, Brad. I appreciate this.

When Playing Became Coaching

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, yeah, I've been looking forward to this. And so uh let's go right into it. You know, when you when it comes to football, I mean, I've been able to watch you during games and stuff talk about the strategy and plays, and I mean, you know the game. And so uh, but when did football go from something you just played to something you felt called to coach?

SPEAKER_02 2:06

You know, I have two older brothers, and you know, they used to include me on their team, which was not a lot of times people do. So, but everywhere we went whether it was basketball or or just you know baseball or whatever, I always got to include it. And so, and football was one of them. I think my first love was watching Marcus Allen years ago run reverse field, go from one side to the other side and you know, score, you know, like a 70-yard run for the Raiders years ago. And then it wasn't my team, you know. I like the Redskins back then, but and then and then of course the Giants, you know, but we'll we'll talk about who my favorite coach was later. But yeah, but you know, but that I think that's when it started. And then, you know, Mojo, playing for Mojo, just kind of how he was or really organized. And then just the coaches I've been fortunate to coach, you know, not just with, but my coaches I was, you know, played for were really have impacted a lot in my life. A lot of guys, but not just my head coaches, but my you know, coordinators and position coaches really have impacted my life, and they're they're still impacting lives today. And so they were young back then and not much older than I was, really. So they've they've done a really great job of instilling stuff in me. But I think the biggest one was my father. My father, I used to watch, you know, he he coached middle school football, and I think, you know, seventh and eighth grade, I think the in the Catholic League, and I think that really, really got me to say, hey, look, I'm gonna coach. And then, of course, you know, you are either gonna get into college or you're gonna coach high school. And if you coach high school, you gotta teach, you know, you have a teaching certificate. Back then you did when we first started out. So I I think I think my father was my biggest one, but the the guys that I had, you know, I played for were really, you know, influential.

Discipline That Players Can See

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Well, it's cool because I mean I I we talk about this in sports. There's coaching trees, um, and you're influenced by those you either learned under or you played under. Um, and that's been really neat too to see that just in the different coaches. And so when it comes to your playing days, like what did that teach you that still shows up in your leadership today at Apollo?

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Well, you know, I never missed a practice in high school or college. I got to leave practice to go to mass, but that was the only time. And so, you know, I just couldn't imagine missing a practice for anything. Yeah. Sick or you know, uh, and I wasn't really seriously injured. I mean, I was injured, you get hurt in football. I mean, you know, your neck, your back, you know, with all of it. But we just never missed a practice. And I think it carried over in my job and everything else that you just we just don't miss days and you don't take any days off. And it just it it's it's it's still there. And I think it, I think it's huge. And kids watching that, you know, I I think I think they have to see what you do as well. I mean, you mimic and they mimic you. I mean, they you know, you know, I do learn a lot from kids. I've you know, long time ago, I was probably more authoritarian authoritarian. And then, you know, I've learned a lot. And not that they, you know, I'm I'm the cool coach or anything, but you know, I I just I just sat back and I said, look, uh we can learn a lot from younger kids and younger, you know, the players, and and then more than I know. And I listened to a guy at a clinic one time talk about that, and he was just like I was when you were when you first start coaching, you you know, I mean, you just want to know that you're not gonna take anything from anybody and and you know, that's great and all. And then it it's just you know, you're just excited. You're excited when you first start coaching, and that you just, you know, you just gotta be if I could do it all over again, I would I would act like I'd be, you know, 40 or 50 years old instead of 23. But yeah, it just doesn't happen, you know. Yeah, you get you learn from it.

Houston Nutt Lessons In Faith

SPEAKER_00 6:05

So yeah, well, it's really cool, and I I even see I've been sitting here over the last couple years, like, you know, you're when a player brings up a suggestion, like, hey, like this is what they're doing out there in the field, you're not like whatever, you know, you're open to it. You're like, okay, like well, let's figure out how to maybe combat that. Where most coaches aren't, they don't do that. Like you said, an authoritarian authoritarian, like that that that doesn't happen. And so it's really cool to see that you're like, hey, like when someone's like, hey, this is going on, okay, let's adjust, right? Which is really cool. And so, you know, you talked about, yeah, I've heard you talk about before Houston Night. Um, and so if you're familiar with that name, I think most people are, but it's for younger people. He coached at Murray State, wound up coaching Ole Miss for a while. Yeah. So he's he's a pretty well-known coach. Yeah, um, Arkansas was the biggest. Well, that's what I think. I thought Arkansas was in there somewhere. Yeah, I was gonna say Arkansas State, but I mean, so no, that's right, because he had like Felix Jones. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So so what from Houston Nutt shows up in your program today?

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Well, you know, I try to like now keep it, you know, have fun. And you know, and Coach Nutt, I mean, we worked, and and I'm not kidding you, we we had three days, but one of the things that he did is Sunday mornings we had off because you had to go to church. And Coach Nutt was a real you know, godly man, and he and thank God, because you know, a lot of coaches would have practice on Sunday morning, and we didn't. Now we went to mass or church or whatever you know denominations we we were in, but but you had to go and you had to go with a coach, and or if not, then you know we were gonna you know do all that. So I I respected the heck out of him for doing that. And one time we had a holy day during in set you know in in August, and I had to go to to mass, and I told him I'm going to, and he really respected that. And he goes, if you can go, you know, in mass with at six or whatever, if you can leave at 5 30, I said that's great, that's not a problem, you know. Leave and go. And he, you know, I respect him. Another Catholic player came up and said, Hey, look, I'm gonna come too. I and I go, I go, you gotta cut the coach tonight. And so but anyway, but he left too. He got and and I respect that because that you know Christ is the reason why we're here, and our our main goal, you know, uh is to, you know, as a coach to win championships and make kids better, but our number one goal is to get to heaven, you know, and it doesn't matter what you are here down on earth, you know, but you gotta you you but Coach Nutt always had a phrase of, you know, best days of your life. Okay, these are the best days of your life. And you know, and he's right. I mean, you know, I had a we had a lot of fond memories in high school and and college and stuff, but you know, the best days of your lives is I'm telling you, when you do get married and you have children and you get to mentor them more than I mean, you know, you're probably around your other kids than your kids, but as time has gone on, uh, you know, they've come here to practice. You've seen Basil and Scarlet and you know the younger ones, Hayden comes in, and just they all become part of that program. And that's what I we always saw Coach Nutt's kids show up and it was like, you know, I mean, they're like now they're they get it. You know, yeah, and and they it's just crazy. You just like golly, I remember that child when he was well. So come some of that shows up in the program and just the the the camaraderie and the hard work. I mean, he I remember we used to see trash cans out, that meant, you know, in the summer, that meant that you're gonna run a lot today. So, you know, and but he didn't do it to you know kill you. He did it because you needed to dominate in the fourth quarter. Yep. And if we can't dominate, you know, on a sun hot day in in August or or or July and June, then we're not gonna dominate in the fourth quarter when we've been beaten and you know, and and head to head on a tight competition against somebody. Because after all, you know, that's who wins the ball games is those teams that can persevere through, and everybody goes to it. It doesn't matter how great you are, you could be a great team, be 14-0, but you know, you're going to get challenged and see how how well you handle that challenge.

Air Raid Roots And Practice Tweaks

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yeah, yeah. Stamina's definitely a big deal. Uh, you're talking about the kids. This is like my one little like not claiming fame, but like, and and first when Ty Simpson's in first grade, I thought him Sunday school class. That's awesome. So he doesn't remember me if he listens to this. Well, you never know. But I knew his dad, but I went to Martin and he was involved with Sunday school class as well. And so anyway, so it's just really cool to see that because we tell people we remember Graham, his younger brother, yeah. He was like two, but now he's setting records in high school football in in Tennessee. So that is crazy. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, it's kind of neat. But enough about me. Um, so I just thought it was cool. And so, you know, when you transitioned to being a head coach, you were a coordinator at Catholic. Um, and from what I understand, this is me not growing up here, like that was a pretty historic coach that you followed in some footsteps.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

So let uh so I coached with Gordon Pyers a couple years at Owensboro High School. Okay, we had some really good players and Justin Miller, Bo Smith, Brandon Handley. We had a really good run. We went a couple years to the to play Highlands, and you know, we had you know, we had we had a good coaching staff too. You know, we had of course we had Gordon, we had Bruce Rayleigh, he was a very good mentor of mine. Uh Marcus Kimbrell, you know, Jody Ashby was on the staff there as well. And then of course, you know, it Marshall Enoch. And it was it was a really good, it was, and we had six coaches, uh coaching, you know, everybody, you know, all of it. So, but it was great. You know, it was a great experience there. And then I went to Owensboro Catholic with Mike Lawson, who did a really great job. And you know, before him was Mojo, my my head football coach, who was a legend. And that's you, that's something. Yeah, yeah. He was so for two years or uh three years, I was the defense coordinator. You know, we had some really good uh kids. We had the Martin twins who were phenomenal off the edge. I mean, they they of course they're cousins with Nick and Zach Martin. Oh, yeah. So, you know, they uh, you know, I couldn't imagine their Thanksgiving Day. We, you know, but they had a great, you know, that is a great fan. We had a lot of good, good, you know, uh Will Wathan, he was a really great linebacker then. Okay, you know, we were setting some, you know, we only gave up 79 points one year, and then you know, the next year we only gave up about 84. And wow, you know, and then during the playoffs, I think it was like 120, you know, out of 14, 15, 14 games. And then Mike went on to Marshall County, uh, which I I loved Mike because he was he was an innovator. Okay. When we were doing the air raid stuff then, he was more kind of like what Bob Spire does. We didn't he didn't do much of the, he did a little bit of the Tony Franklin stuff. But Bob Spire was a really good best football coach at Lexington Catholic at the time, and now he's at Highlands, he was been in Georgia, won a couple of titles down there. But long story short, is you know, he had a different way of doing things, and we did it kind of that way. And Mike, Mike, we we dominated the city for those couple of years, and he was he was awesome. And he was, you know, we were stopping people and he was pouring it on. He was putting up 40, 50 points, you know. And so what was great about him was what he did in this area. I mean, you know, uh I a lot of people give kind of myself credit, and uh, but Mike Lawson's the one that kind of started all this with the air raid and the and the spread and the I kind of went more tempo than he did every play. He kind of slowed things down, but that's who he was, and that's what he liked. But I always liked Coach Lawson. And then he he went into Marshall County, and then I had an opportunity to be the head football coach, and it didn't start out too well. We were like two and three, or and I hired a guy, Tony Franklin. He was on my staff, and then eventually we just turned it around. Fit, you know, we made adjustments. We we changed, we and we didn't change our what we do, we just changed how we practice. You know, we scored every possession, we scored our every every play. We'd have what was great was we had enough receivers and we would play against our JV defense, and there and a lot of people don't like that, but it made our JV defense better. Oh, yeah, and it made our kids better because you know we we were almost able to go both ways, but we had backups that needed reps. So when the Z would catch his screen, sure he'd get tackled or wrapped up and then he would go finish a run. He'd go score and he'd run like he's really running in a game and act like he was, you know, you know, dodging defenders or you're making plays. And I think that helped us out a whole lot. And then it carried on to our career in my career here. Yeah, I've even seen it here in a practice. At first, it doesn't look good because they're tired, they're not in, you know, it doesn't matter how great in shape you are when you're in the summer, you know, you get that dead period dag on it, you know, for two weeks, which is fine. And then you they lose a little bit, and then you gotta get them in shape again. Yeah, yeah, get them in shape again. And so, but carrying forward like around September, you start seeing those big plays, 80 yard screen passes, you know, and then or runs, you know. And I think that's huge. I think that was one of the biggest things that I learned through Tony uh doing that. And then, of course, Tony goes to Troy, and then we went to the state the next year, and then we went to semi-state the following year. Okay. KHSA led a team called Mercer County. We call it Merger County, merger. Yeah, Harrisburg and Mercer County were able to play, which is fine. You know, it is what it is. You play, and but they wouldn't do it, they wouldn't let anybody do that around here in Owensboro, I promise you that.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Uh but the couple years we I mean, we were good. I mean, we just weren't good. Fort Campbell had some dudes that came in and which is fine. You know, they Antonio Andrews was the the three-year starter for him at quarterback, and he ended up playing in the NFL and playing at Western, I think, or what or maybe maybe it was Air Force and then Western. Anyway, really good football player, and then we had then we we beat him down there, shut him out at Fort Campbell in 2010. We had a really good run that year. We got beat by Newport Central Catholic, and and then we had a couple years where we were really good, you know. I think we won the city maybe three years in a row in 10, 11, and 12, and then Onsborough beat us in 13. But we had some good players. Logan Cart was a really good player. He signed with Arkansas State with Gus Malzahn. And you know, Malzahn used to show up at our practice and you know, during spring. And then we had some really good years with Ray Zuber, and we had some really good competition against Mayfield and some slyber knockers that were went down to the wire's in a couple of them, and then of course one year they they they beat us pretty good. And that was my last year at Catholic. And then, you know, I I I learned a lot there that that that uh, you know, and we just we had a good run. We had a good we had some good runs there, and then you know, there was some times we probably shouldn't have made it on paper, and then there's times on paper we probably should have. So, you know, there's some years I felt bad, or at least I know one year. Uh oh five, we should have won the state title. And we didn't score at the at the end of the half. Our kid was in that they called him out, and I think that kind of took a little wind out of their cells, and you know, you try to build them up at halftime, but I think they just kind of was like, I mean, man, we you know, we did everything and kind of took the feature. But yeah, well, and we all lost by a touchdown, like in Belfry the year before we lost by a touchdown, and of course Newport, Newport blew us out. But I was you know, I I was very thankful of my time at Catholic.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Yeah, no, that's really cool. And I know you know, we talk about your time at Catholic, and I know you were across the city.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

And we built the stadium and we oh there's a lot of. Oh yeah, oh yeah. We and my family put in a little money for the stadium and did some things. And okay. And it was at a time when they uh they they weren't very interested in doing that at first. I mean, we they talked about it for a long time, over years to getting out of rash, and I think I think we we had some good leadership that said, hey, look, we're gonna do this, we got the money, and we're gonna do it. And you know, kudos to you know, Mr. Staples doing that at that time. Uh he he did it and he I didn't realize that Catholic played at Rush. Oh, yeah. We used to play rash a long time ago. Used to get charged, I don't know, a thousand a game or something. I thought to myself, and we didn't get the concessions, obviously, which I don't blame. I mean, you know, uh no, doing concessions now, like you know, we don't blame them. Heck, they they had their band do it. So anyway, so long story short, that's where we were. And you know, heck, it did great. We had we had a lot of we had a lot of people contribute to to doing that. They had to buy PSLs, and it really it really helped the program and it helped the school too.

Why Owensboro Football Feels Different

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Yeah, yeah, no, it's great. I think it's a really good stadium for sure. I mean, especially when you're playing on I know uh when I went to SU Martin, uh we played on the UT Martin field. Yeah, uh, so it's just kind of neat playing on a college field. Yeah, absolutely. Because there's something different about it. You know, you so so you've been a Catholic, you were across the river for a little bit of South Mentire, came back to Paula, so I mean, and you played a Catholic, you played a C, so you know you know Owensboro football. Yeah, um, so what what makes uh football in Owensboro different from other places?

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Well, you you got four schools. I mean, you've got four schools competing, not just not not on the field. I mean, you're competing to fundraise and you know, it and it it it's a it's a it's a tough town because you've got your areas. Yeah. I mean, you know, Davis County's over there on 54, and we're over here on South Town, and and you know, you know, getting businesses to you know help you and do things. It's it's it's you know, it can be challenging. And you know, you have you have your diehards. Well, I was thinking that too. Or even Die Hard Apollo, the Owensboro and the Cali people, and they, you know, they're not gonna donate. Uh which is, you know, it's not just that. I mean, it it's good because it's not like it's a you know, Henderson who they just have one school. Yeah. And you know, they can use that town to use a lot of their resources to to go into that school. So, but it's good. I mean, it it's it's it's you know, part of it. Yeah, you gotta sell your program, you gotta win football games and you or you know, whatever sport we're in, you know, you're in and basketball or baseball, and you gotta that's what makes Orwell's Boro unique. And you know, and and Louisville, I'm sure that you know it's definitely probably even harder there. I mean, you have more people and more businesses, but you know, a lot of a lot of places may struggle to fundraise that there.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Yeah, I was even thinking too, like something that I've noticed from like an outsider coming in, is that Owensboro is that so Owensboro's like a big town with a small town feeling, and so a lot of these kids play with each other growing up, they're playing on the same teams or against each other, and so we get to the high school level, it's like a whole nother level. Yeah. Um, I know when we play DC, it gets really heated. Sure. Um, and when we play Owensboro and Catholic, they're they're pretty serious games as well. I mean, so yeah, city count county is usually a big thing. Oh, it means something.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah, yeah. And and and people say it doesn't, they're they're they're lying. I'll just tell you that right now. Anybody says those games don't mean anything, they're lying. Now, at the end of the day, when you get in the playoffs, no, it doesn't matter at all. I mean, that that game's over with. And, you know, I mean, but yeah, I mean, th those are those are serious games, those are games you want to win. Yeah, uh bragging rights are big. I mean, yeah, you know, and again, if anybody says they're not, a coach tells you they're not, yeah, yeah, they're a lot. They're aligning. Yeah.

Apollo Rebuild Through COVID Chaos

SPEAKER_00 21:43

So no, that makes sense. I think I do think that's really unique though. And so, you know, you came to Apollo. So what did you see at Apollo that made you believe, okay, like I can work with this, I can take it to the next level, and and next level could mean various things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

And so like what what did you see I I when I when first got the job, I looked and and I saw Weedman and you have your Bates, Parker Bates, Cade Kroom. Oh yeah. Uh you know, all those lime and you're like, wow, they got some lime. And then COVID hit. Oh, that's great. We were ready for spring ball. We were getting ready for spring ball. Yeah. We were like in another week, we were going, we were ready. We were, you know, we were getting ready to go out and do it, you know, and put in this system and and and then of course everything shut down. Well, it shut down. And of course, later on, you I mean, we eventually had Zoom meets, but I mean, what do you you Yeah, there's only so much you can do. There's only so much you can do. But you you got to know the kits and then the KHSA opened it up and you had three weeks to get ready before your first game. And so you know, then we can get into pads. And so it it to say it didn't hurt, I I'm it it it didn't help, let's just say, but everybody was in the same boat, but we had a new system coming in and we had new things, but yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not an excuse. It just it we had a lot of things going in at first, and it was it was really it was really good. But you know, we still had a great year. Uh we beat some teams that you know we hadn't beaten in a while here, and uh, you know, we were very competitive against, you know, at the time McCracken was very good. Okay. You know, we had some games come down to the wire against them. And so but, you know, you know, we beat, I think they beat, we beat Davis County. They hadn't beaten Davis County at that time for about six years, seven years. So, you know, that was good. And uh, and anytime you can beat a rival, it's it's really good. It's it's good for your program. We beat Catholic, and you know, we had a good game against Owensboro who had Gavin Wimps sit in them. That was our first game. So wow, yeah. So anyway, there was it was a good game, and we just you know we learned a lot. Yeah, we had some really close games, and then the next year we we came in second again for the in the district. You know, we got beat by Ownsboro. They beat us pretty good then. And then I think that was Gavin's senior year. I think that was my yeah, that was my first shot. Yeah, that was Gavin's senior year. And we we had some good runs. We beat North Harden, who had you know really good football players. And anyway, we beat Henderson that year too, if I remember. Yes, we beat Henderson. That had Henderson, it was a KSR game of the week. Yep. Anyway, it it was uh it was a good run. We had some some down years where we just you know, we just weren't very good. And and I didn't do it, we must not do any good job coaching either, because uh, and that's sometimes you look at yourself in the mirror after those years and say, all right, this is how I want it done. And so I kind of took over the offense after that, after those two years and said, Hey, this is how I want it done, it's gonna get done this way. And we've seen some improv a lot of improvement. Yeah, and and nothing. And nothing on anybody else. No, not at all. I just, you know, sometimes you just, you know, I I just I just like using the wristbands and I like no huggle a lot. So and we just keep it real simple. I mean, I everybody knows in the country that John Edge is gonna run mesh on the goal line. And then some years we're really great at it and you're not gonna stop it. And then some years we're you know we're we're we're not very good at it, and we gotta continue to get better at it, but you know, or whatever you know, whatever, whatever we run. And but, you know, I really think that the you know, this coming up year, if this kind of segue there, we we've we've got a lot of you know pieces that are coming together.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah, well we always need linemen. Yeah, I noticed that too. Yeah, lyman's the colour. I think the whole city needs linemen. Yeah, I was saying I think that's like the biggest need every year. Yeah, and so yeah, no, I think it's been really cool. Of course, I came in the year right after Bates and all then went on to college. You know, Wheatman just came out that he signed with the San Antonio Touros uh in the UFL, uh if I'm not mistaken. And back here uh coaching and investing in the kids, and I think that should have been really cool to speak to. And so so Can I say something about Wheatman? Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

He's got an opportunity. I've said this after he left. I said you he's gonna get drafted one day if he plays O-line. Because at first they had him at tight end before I got here. And I said, You're not gonna make any money doing that. He might not even go to the next level doing that. And so I told his dad, I said, if he plays tackle for us, he'll he'll go to the next level. And then I said, and after that, he'll be a guard or something. But he had a really good, he had a good 40 time at you know 6'6 and 315 running a 491, which would have been the if he went to the big combine, he would have been the second fastest lineman in the Oh wow, oh yeah. And then he ran a and then he ran a 448, I believe, in the shuttle. Oh wow. So those numbers are gonna really help him. And he has a really good agent.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

So yeah, and it's really you're you're in the in this system with UFL and all, you've seen a lot of players transition to the NFL. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Uh uh it depends. If he gets drafted, obviously he won't play in the world. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah, that's true, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Yeah.

Accountability That Actually Costs Something

SPEAKER_00 26:53

So but it's been really cool. All right, so what is high school football to in today's world? I know you've I know you've been doing it for a long time, but in today's world, like what do you think is key teaching kids today?

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Well, we got to continue to teach kids that uh the accountability part. I think sometimes there are people who don't, and and that's fine, that's their program. And you go on and just do it. But for the most part, I think you know, we've we've always keep things. Hey, look, you know, like I like I told to my Catholic, you know, when I was at Catholic High, we had Ray Zuber who missed Mass. And well, coach, we're playing tomorrow, you know, and we usually always had mass Friday morning before games. And I said, Well, uh, yeah, I said he's not playing until the second half of this game. And we were playing a good team out of Illinois, uh, outside of St. Louis called Modern Day Breeze. Oh, yeah. And they they were putting it to us. They we were down 35 to 7. And thank goodness that guy didn't score and go for two. He ran the clock out in the second half before the second half. They got the ball back. And we anyway, long story short, I told Ray, of course, the rule is he's out for the first half, you know, if you miss mass. And he goes, Um, I looked at him and I go, We're losing because of you. You're the best player on this field. And we end up winning 64 to like I think 35. I don't think they scored in the second half. Okay. And what it does is it keeps the kids accountable, but it also shows the other players if I'm gonna bench one of our best players, then I'll bench you too. You know, there is no, you know, I and you always, you know, there are some kids that, you know, like my son didn't get any slack. I mean, you know, you know, I've kicked him out of the way. Yeah, I've seen the first time. Yeah, yeah, I've I've you know, I've but he knew that going in. I told him, I said, I'm gonna be harder on you than I am on anybody else. And I'm talking hard. Like one lip, you're done, you're sitting out, one anything, you're sitting out, you you know, and there for a while, there was there was some times. But I think what it does is we've gotta keep kids accountable. And because I see so many kids do some silly stuff on Twitter, and you know, you you always get your kids showing you these TikToks of you know, kids doing silly stuff. I just I just think that we just gotta continue to there's gotta be some consequences and and you know, I'm not not not something or death penalty, or but you know, just but there's gotta be consequences for some actions and and if they don't learn from it, then yeah, of course they you know don't let them, you know, they're they gotta be off the team.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

So yeah, so responsibility, I mean that's something we need to be teaching, and that's what you do.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

And that's what Mojo taught me and and and what my father taught me. My father was a drill sergeant, okay, and so you know, things had to be put certain places. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you know, when he said he said be quiet, you were quiet. Yeah, you didn't challenge it. I mean, there was no challenging it, you know. So, you know, yeah, things had to be put in certain ways. So anyway, just things like that. That's where we need to continue high school football. But it's getting better. Football is getting better, and athletes are getting bigger and stronger. Oh, for sure, for sure.

Protect The Nest Season Trailer

Family Support Behind The Program

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Yeah, I would totally agree with that just from what I've seen too. All right, so you had an opportunity to coach JT. Uh JT uh just finished his senior year. Yeah. Uh he's committed to Murray State, and he just won the national or yeah, nationals with the uh cheerleading squad as a male cheerleader and did well there. And so, what did it mean for you to coach JT? Main engine's Argo. This isn't just a season. It's return to mission. Apollo football was never meant to drift, it was built to rise, to guard what's ours. Because Friday nights aren't just games, they're statements. This is the sky we defend. This is the nest. Under the lights, surrounded by family, fueled by tradition. Home opener, August 28th, 7 p.m. Heritage Hills enter our airspace. Every snap matters, every yard is protected, every moment belongs to the Eagles. Apollo Football 2026. Protect the nest. Own the sky. Hey, quick pause. I'm Brad Winter, host of All Things Owensboro Podcast. If you're looking for a church that feels like home, we'd love to invite you to First Baptist Church Owensboro. We gather Sundays at 10 30 a.m. right next to the Blue Bridge. Infos in the show notes, and if you reach out, my family will gladly sit with you. Looking for a place to get active, connect with others, and have fun as a family? Then come check out the rec at FBC Owensboro. From open gym and a weight room to upward sports and community events, there's something for everyone. Memberships are super affordable, just$2 a day,$10 a month, or$60 a year. And get this, families, you only pay$120 max for the entire family for the whole year. And if you're a senior, college student, or one of our city heroes, like a teacher, first responder, or healthcare worker, you get a discount too. The rec is more than a gym, it's a place to belong.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Well, like I said, you know, he he hanging in a lot of flag, and you've seen it, you know, and and it taught everybody that, you know, if you're gonna take your own son out of practice, they're gonna take you out of, you know, I could take you out of practice too. And I did. And, you know, what it did is he had a tough road, tougher road, but he endured the challenge. And you know, I was very proud of him of doing things. He, you know, he got a scholarship to go to Murray State and some other schools, but he wanted to go to Murray State. You know, it's it's gonna be exciting. You know, I had to walk on. And so this this kid gets a you know ride, you know. But a lot of it, you know, he he gets, you know, he's done a great job in the classroom. He's maintained over a 4.0 and takes college classes, and so he's smarter than I am. I wasn't like this in high school. I struggled. You know, and I think it's this from your wife, right? Well, she gets they get everything everything from my wife. You know, the I guess the silly stuff came from me. So, but no, but no, we're Lauren and I are very excited for him going to Murray State. And my my daughter, Avery, actually works for the football program. Oh, cool. I knew she went there, yeah. Yeah, she does the some of the marketing for them. Okay. But she's getting in or get into a full-time position, I think. I probably I don't know if she'll take the job or not, but she will. But she's she does a great job, and Coach Wright really likes, you know, working with her and stuff like that. So, you know, we're very proud parents, definitely. We're proud parents of all of them. We can get into all of them, but uh but JT, he's you know, and and those guys and Avery at Murray State, they're they're you know, we're looking for great things to happen next few years when we kind of there a lot.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah, well, and I was just even thinking, like, just from again from an outsider end, um, I've got to see him from a different angle for the last four years. Yeah, um just like the knowledge that he has of football, like to me, he's been impressive. Oh, yeah. Like, like, just I'm like, this guy's gonna make an amazing coach one day. And that's what he was. Yeah, and I mean, yeah. And like I know he was in every play this past year, like if there was a tackle, JT was probably in on it. And so he's a hard worker. And and I said, I I've told lots of people I'm pretty sure JT is gonna be an awesome coach one day. All right, so you talk about Murray State, Avery's there, but let's talk about Lauren a little bit. Your wife, absolutely, you know, what role I know she's played a major role, but just kind of go in a little bit of what role Lauren has played in all this.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

She's played all of it, and God love her. You know, she's done a lot. She's she takes care of things at home. She take, I mean, she helps us too, you know. Yeah, I see her here quite a bit. Yeah. When the, you know, Thursday meals and stuff, and you know, she donated a lot of her time and and I I I tell you what, there's a lot of people going about coaches' wives, and you know, she probably hasn't got a lot of credit in the newspapers or m media or anything like that. And she doesn't want it. That's the thing. If I'd done that, she would have a heart attack. And so we don't want her to have a heart attack, but uh she she just appreciates the thank you, and that means more to her than the publicity of Yeah, oh look at that. She has six children. Okay. We do. I'm sorry, I'm not saying just her, but you know. But she she does a wonderful job of managing, and that's one of the things she's good at. She's good at managing, and she likes she likes the organization part and everything. But Lauren is a wonderful wife, but as a coach's wife, she's endured a lot over the last 20, 20 something year, 21 years as a lot of times they hear everything like positive, negative, complaining. Oh, well, they hear everything. Yeah, yeah. And I know that's hard. She uh, yeah, she she used to be up in the you know at still stadium when we had a skybox, so she didn't have to hear a lot of stuff. And then she came here and she just said, I I've gotta I gotta get down by the fence. It just, you know, and that's and it's natural.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Because again, you're gonna hear something. No, no, you're gonna hear it no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Sometimes you're hearing things with you know you know that may be true, and you just you know, oh, maybe I did call a bad play. But you know, you just gotta but she she's done a great job. We have an autistic son, so a lot of times he's not gonna sit still. Yeah, and so the best thing to do is just let him run around and play in the dirt here in the corner. Oh, he loves the uh so and he's you know, you know, that's another challenge. And so she's again, she's an all-American in my book with that. So and and you know, kids love her, we love her, and so, but no, she plays a big role, maybe the biggest role.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah, it's really cool because we've seen her out a few times in probably the last couple, I would say months here recently, a couple weeks ago, and it's always like, Hey, how you doing? Yeah, it's just it's a nice sweet time. So your your wife's great. All right, so you know, you talked about Catholic, you talked about growing up Catholic, uh, you're involved in going to mass, and and there's an expectation there. What how does your face show up in Apollo? Well, you know, I I'm not the most perfect person.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Oh, nobody is. I and um, you know, I'm pretty intense sometimes. I'm I'm a lot calmer than I was probably a you know three or four years ago, or at least by COVID, you know, I'm a lot calmer. But you know, I don't miss mass. I talk about my faith quite a bit to kids that want to listen. Yep. And you know, look, I I we we do things a little different, and that everybody does. And that, you know, nobody's nobody's greater than anybody else. But we you know, this because I get quite asked, I go, well, what when you all go to communion, why do you do this and why do you do that? Or you know, and I just tell them, you know, there's a sign of reverence that we do. We you know, we believe that that is that is Christ, that we're getting ready to, you know, exume that, you know, our our into our mouth. And you know, and you know, if we don't believe, and it's just it's just a wafer or it's just whatever, then that's not that you know, there's no faith in that. It's just uh I'm going up there and I'm I'm not gonna show reverence to go through the motion. Exactly. Going through the motion. And we all can do that. I mean, you know, I when I see the our father, our family says our like, you know, it it's okay to hold hands, but we don't because I've seen so many times people swing and do stuff and like you know, and that's up to them to do that. There's nothing right or wrong about it. But I really want to focus on the prayer. And if I can't focus on the prayer, then what am I what am I saying it for? You know, yeah. So and and you know, I we that's the kind of stuff we do, and and I try to show reverence all the time, and that's what we, you know, that's the main thing is uh, you know, my mom and dad, especially my mom, would she get on to us in mass if we didn't, you know, gin reflect at the right time or it just if we were talking. Yeah. I mean, we were not allowed to say a word. And and I know you probably growing up, you didn't get to do that either. And now you see people just kind of yap, you know, in the middle of a of a church or whatever, like it was, you know, it's like some social gathering, you know, but it's not like that a lot of times. It's just you know, before mass, it's just you know, we believe Christ is in the tabernacle and we know we need to show reverence and quiet. It's uh should be a somber place where we're you know thinking about what what we need to do to be like him. And so, but for the program, you know, I I use you a whole lot. Uh you know, you yeah, I'm affectionately called Father Brad. You well, now you're Father Brad, yeah. But you uh you you do a a great job for these kids. You you invite them to church, you invite them to go, and you're a great witness too. You you do things like you know, I may get on to him and you come over and talk to him, hey look, this is what he means, and or not just me, other coaches too, and just you know, and then you know that's one of the things I also learned is is you know, you get on to them, you gotta you gotta tell them you, you know, you you love them too. And I I used to love Bill Parcells, he was so great at it. And it I mean he was rough, and but he'd get on to him, put our his arm around them and and be like, hey man, you know, I love you, but this is what we do, and and this is well, I can't let you do this. Yeah, you know, and so you know the the faith part is very important. You know, we pray before we go out, and we, you know, you know, we we we do everything we can to help these kids and you do a great job.

Process Focus And 2026 Outlook

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Well, thank you, sir. Yeah, it's funny. I saw Dayton Brown, I saw I actually saw Dayton Brown the other day, which you know he played the first year I was here. Yeah, I haven't seen him since really since. And he was in the toad hop and he was like, What's up, Father Brad? What's up, Dayton? Uh yeah, or not Dayton Dawn. Yeah, but yeah, like I was just it was just funny. And then Dilbeck, I went to his graduation party and he was like, Hey, Father Brad's here. So it's just a name that I've come to love. It's just been fun. Absolutely. So yeah, but yeah, so you know, talking about football, we're talking about that right now, talk that about that a lot. But you know, something that that we could spend a whole other episode on, but just a quick glimpse like what can we expect from Apollo? I know like when we think of the senior class, you got Max Johnson, uh, you got Eli uh Williams, you have Michael Lawrence, Gabe Burton. I mean, I'm gonna probably stop saying names, I'll forget somebody. Yeah, but we just there's a lot of seniors this year.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Well, we brought up Braden earlier. Oh, Braden Madden Lee. Yeah, I think he's gonna have a really good year both on both sides of the ball. But Gabe Burton has been a he's he's strong. I've seen a lot of maturity too in leadership wise. Yeah, coming out with the linemen and we're doing stuff, you know, we do stuff on our athletic development days, but yeah, you know, and Max does, you know, he brings out kids to do, you know, throw with him, and we do a lot of drills and we kind of install stuff as we're going along. And and then when sometimes we're just looking at things, uh, you know what, that's not gonna work, and we don't like it. And we may like it later on, I don't know. Anyway, I you know, I I think our offensive line is gonna be and defensive line too is gonna be very mature. I would agree with that, yeah. You know, again, we'll we need to find another linebacker, you know, and we need to the secondary's gonna be gone. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna be honest with you. Some of the additions that we're gonna have with the baseball, and we're gonna have, you know, you're gonna have Gabe Jones, Kane Green, you're gonna have, you know, Eli Williams, you're gonna have Don Sapinfield, you know, Brody Jones, all those guys, you know, Thomas Barnett, all those guys are gonna help us. You know, they're gonna rotate and then you know, we're we're we're really excited. Uh uh, you know, Roth Milburn. He'll be back. Uh, you know, we're gonna put him more at the receiver spot.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Yeah, I think I talked to him and he was mentioning that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

And I think that's huge. And uh, you know, I mean, we we lose some really good players, but Bratcher and you know, at receiver and Maj and Tut and JT and all that bunch, you know, uh that whole group, you know, Hester and Kuhn. And you know, BG. It just Diller Diller was a great player for us this year. Yes. Little rod. He was definitely a hot rod, yes. He was definitely hot rod. Oh yeah. Hot rod. That's why we called him hot rod. Sometimes he can get hot headed and we have to see him over there and cool him off a little bit. But he was a great player. He did some good things for us. There's a thing called process. You've seen me talk about that a whole bunch, especially the last several years. I'm not I'm not looking into we're looking at the next play or the or the now. And that means I'm not worried about the future and we're not worried about the past. We're worried about what are we doing now? I know how we got here. Okay. I you know, we've already gone through it. We, you know, we talk about, but every day we're adjusting something. Or we may not have to adjust anything and just say, all right, hey, we're on the right path. I mean, we're doing well. People the gains are getting there, we're getting stronger, we're getting faster. I think we're definitely getting faster.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

You know, some of the drills we're doing now and things. Well, and we just got a part-time because we didn't we had a strength conditioning coach. Yeah, and then I know Coach Ashby for a little bit was kind of a field role for that, but we haven't had anybody in about two years, and so I know this has made a big difference. Yeah, he's done a great job.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

You know, he he is a uh you know, Dustin Bunch has done a just he does a great job. He's he's does it a little different from the guys we've had in the past, and I think he works well with the kids and he's got he's formed some good relationships too.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

I think uh they're they're excited. Yeah, no, that's cool. And then Sura too, which I I've become really good friends with Seurus, so small shout out to him. But yeah, you know, he's an athletic trainer for us, and I I'm a little biased, but I think he's amazing. He is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

He he lets you know when they're just hurt or injured. So there's a difference. You know, hurt means you can still play. Yeah, injured means you're not gonna play. Yeah, so but he's he is phenomenal at doing that. You know, he's he's done it in the college ranks, so he's seen the primadonna's and stuff like that. So uh, but we're you know, we're definitely this year, we're excited. We, you know, but we've we've still got to get better because you know, again, this is going back to Houston Nutt. He always says you're only as good as your last game.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

And you can go 10 and 0, but if you get beaten the first couple rounds of the playoffs, nobody cares about that. Yeah, so but you you are you've got to be, you know, you gotta be better than you were yesterday. And that's our goal, is is the process.

Legacy Through Quiet Service

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Yeah, that's cool. And so I like I said, I can talk about political football all day, but I have two more questions for you, and then we'll hit up some rapid fire. The first one is is you know, you've been you've been a Catholic, you've been all kind of over the place a little bit as far as even playing and coaching. Uh but when it comes to your legacy, like, and and I know this might be like, oh, I don't want to be prideful. I'm not trying to get to that, but like when it when people think of John Edge or Coach Edge, like what do you want people to remember?

SPEAKER_02 47:04

I just remember remember, you know, that they've they were they were coached, they were taught life lessons, and that you know, being the best person that they can be, not just football, not just you know, outside relationship, whatever. I just don't want them to be the overall best person they can be. And that means leaving here, taking your work ethic, taking your what you do. Because I've had a lot of people, I've a you know, a lot of people go to the military and they laugh, they go, When we went to basic, it was a piece of cake because we got yelled at and we just saw you, and they go, they would laugh, they go, because coach, he goes, there'd be people in a fetal position not used to being corrected. Oh, yeah, and they and they weren't used to being correct it, and they'd sit there and cry because they're not used to being corrected. And I go, Well, you know, my father was a drill sergeant, and you know, that's just kind of came out into me a little bit, and not all of it, but but you know, like Jackson Brett was a player of mine. He's a Marine, and you know, I've had several guys, you know, just go, they they they get that smile, and then of course their petty officer is like, what's so funny? And they they just sit there and shake their head, and they later on they tell them and they go, Oh, okay, well, good, because we got kids, you know, laying down, not used to this. Yep. And so the legacy I want to leave is that I want them to be better than they've ever been before. Not just you know, in football, but they've their their life and they continue to grow. And growing is everything. Your faith. You can't be doing the same stuff over and over and over. Yeah, we can sit there and say our father, but if it doesn't mean anything, it doesn't, and it's nothing. You know, and it's just words, you know. What are we doing? What are we learning? And you know, not just plays and you know, I mean we can same thing with plays. Even if you are doing concepts, you know, are we are we growing? Are we getting better at this play, the mesh route or whatever? Do we truly understand what we're doing? Yeah, are we getting better or or we're getting worse? Or are we, you know, is this something that we need to just scrap, you know? But are we getting are we getting better as a person? And you know, kind of I know the next question you're gonna probably ask is, you know, what you know, not just the legacy, but you know, what does Orange Burrow mean to you? And I and I I've been I've I was very fortunate to live with a family that gave, but you didn't see it in the newspaper a lot. Yeah. And you know the behind the scenes right. That's not what it's about. You know, a good friend of mine always talks about giving, okay, all the time, but do it with people who can never repay you. And you know, some of the stories I heard my grandfather VJ Steele years ago, I sit there and I go, Wow. Owlensborough doesn't realize a lot of things that he he did for this town. Yeah, you know, he's good friends with Paul Harvey, you know, Alvin Barkley, who was the vice president under Truman. Okay. I mean, you know, you didn't it was just crazy how they'd say, you know, this motorcade would come in to your granddad's office downtown back when the the radio station would be downtown on third fourth street, and nobody knew and then all of a sudden it's Alvin Barkley, you know. But Barkley was from Owensboro, or not from Owensboro, he was from uh Paducah and from this area, you know, but you know, and Paul Harvey. If you listen to him, he had a lot of good things to say about Owlsboro years ago, you know, the town, and it it it's pretty neat. Anyway, just things that that kind of stuff, you know, there's things that have to help people, but I don't I don't care. You know, it doesn't have to be on a Facebook post or hey, look what we did today, and on Twitter, or like a lot of people do. And there's a lot of people that do that. I mean, it's gotta be on Twitter, it's gotta be on Facebook. Oh man, look what we did. Well, good, that's great. And it is good. Yeah, but what are you doing outside the cameras?

SPEAKER_00 51:17

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

Behind the scenes. And Coach Coach Nutt talked about that. You know, character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. And you know, I I I didn't realize how lucky I was to live with a you know, my the family I have. And you know, my wife does that. My wife's a servant, and she she does things, she doesn't want credit. Just, you know, thank you, you know, but you know, but not doesn't have to be on Twitter, it doesn't have to be on social media. And you know, my mom was like that, my dad especially. I mean of course there wasn't social media back then, but you know, but you know, you know, I think you know, my brothers do that, you know, they they're they're wonderful people. My sister, my both sisters are wonderful people. Laurie's done a lot of stuff for people. And anyway, long story short, you know, they just they just they just do it. They just do it just because and it doesn't need to be, like you said, it doesn't need to be in the newspaper, it doesn't need to be in on you know live action news 25, whatever, six o'clock, you know. And that's taught me a whole lot, and it's rewarding to really do things for people, like you know, my buddy always Tony always said, you know, do things when they for people they uh cannot repay you. And that's big.

SPEAKER_00 52:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:30

Because they're not gonna repay you. And you don't want, you know, you don't want to, first of all. I mean, if you're doing it out of the kindness of your heart to help, you know, maybe somebody needs one step, you know, and on the ladder to be up. And then once they get on that ladder, they're they're gonna climb the ladder. Maybe that's all they need. Yeah. You know, I mean you can't do it all for them, obviously. Yeah, because then they're then you're gonna create something, but you know, they gotta have some skin in the game. But they there's there's a lot of families and people that you know that we we just gotta continue to help.

Rapid Fire And Final Challenge

SPEAKER_00 53:06

Yeah, no, that makes sense. I like that. So well, we're gonna go into 27 seconds of that. Oh wow, okay. Uh, so I don't give you these questions because they're fun. Oh wow. You don't have to think too much about them. Um, it doesn't last long, so be quick. And so here we go. You ready? Yeah, I'm ready. All right, so your first question is Belichick or Saban?

SPEAKER_02 53:22

Belichick or Saban? Yeah. I'm gonna go with uh Saban was the better coach.

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Uh and I think so, yeah. All right. Uh Patriots or Notre Dame. Patriots. Okay, Patriots. Uh, what's your favorite drill to run in practice?

SPEAKER_02 53:35

I like I I like our drill where we uh, you know, what we we call it the box drill where you got two kids down and one can block for the other guy and you got a score. It's it gives a lot of toughness and pride and and it helps you finish the tackle and helps you finish the run too. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

No, that's good. Uh, what's your least favorite drill? Um or maybe even as a player.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

As a player? Uh when we had to do the uh we had to do suicides or we had to do uh gassers. I think now uh with with the our tempo and everything, we don't run as much at the end of practice at all because of you know we're running already. Yeah. And what are you gonna get out of that at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_00 54:14

Yeah. So that makes sense. Uh so are you more of a Friday night, Friday night light? Uh sorry, Friday night lights guy or Saturday morning college football?

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Friday night lights. There's nothing like it. Um I love college football. Oh, I know. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

I mean better than the NFL, but uh there's nothing like Friday night lights. I just thought when I came up with that question, I'm like, I kind of thought about you know, that's a great question. Yeah, like watching college football on Saturday night's college football. Uh all right, so one word players would describe you as tough. Tough. Okay. All right, uh, which one words kid your kids would describe you as? My dad. Your dad. Okay. Um who's the funniest coach you've ever coached with or played with?

SPEAKER_02 55:00

You know, uh there's a lot of them. Uh you know, recently, I you know, Scottie Vance was a great guy. He's funny. He's a very nervous man. And and he, you know, he's very comical. Uh of course, Coach Crawford has, you know, get he has a nickname for everybody. Uh, you know, he's all he's always funny. Coach Brett's funny. I think this whole staff, we we got some, you know, you know, comical people. Uh but they do they work and they do what they're supposed to do. But yeah, it's it they're they're funny.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's good. Uh so when you were a player, uh, what was your go-to post-game meal? Where did you have one?

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Post-game meal?

SPEAKER_00 55:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

Man, as a player, we would always eat wings. Okay. And so, uh, you know, and then in college, you know, you when you left and got on the bus or whatever, you know, you'll've you know, whatever they gave you. Yeah. But we would go to a place and Murray was as uh, you know, it it was really good. They had a poly eyes pizza. Okay. The the crust was was perfect. Okay. So yeah, it was really good. And then then they had Gaddy Town if you want to get exotic. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, but but that kind of stuff, the pizzas were always good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:15

Um, you know, just basically anything that we can do. Yeah, anything you can get. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Uh, are you more of a coffee or an energy drink guy? Coffee. Coffee, okay. Uh, what's the hardest part of being a dad and a coach?

SPEAKER_02 56:29

Uh you know, you you you gotta be you gotta be fair and you've gotta be you gotta be tough and do both at the same. And you gotta you gotta stay with your consequences. And sometimes that can be tough because because uh because you may be going, well, now I can't go do this because I got a grounded son or whatever or daughter. And and that's tough.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

And but you gotta stick to your guns. And I learned a lot from a cousin that did that. We used to have an annual Easter egg hunt, and their kids were so bad on the weekend that they went home in Louisville, and they actually drove by the Easter egg hunt and waved at everybody. And they, you know, as a reminder, you know what? The next year there wasn't a problem. Those kids, those, those younger cousins were on their best behavior and learned a lot.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

So yeah. So what you know, we talk about the hardest part. What's the most rewarding part?

SPEAKER_02 57:24

When your kids win and they can win on the field, but when they're winning in life, that is really rewarding to watch you know, guys fulfill their dreams. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

Uh, what which kid in your family is most like you?

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Avery. Okay. The music, we're 80s, so she's 80s. Uh, but there's a little bit of JT and Hayden like that. Uh they they're they're more of the stuff that we do. I I mean, if you had to, Avery would probably be probably the one. Yeah. All right. Uh what's the what's a Bible verse you like to lean on? I I know everybody talks about it, but John 3.16, yeah. You think about it, what the sacrifice that our Lord gave us, he gave us his only child. I mean, we're all his children. Yeah, he gave his only son. And that is the to die for our sins. And that's they it's just, you know, and we don't give, we sometimes we take that for granted. You know, I have too. I mean, I'm saving too. We all have, and we sit there and think, you know, here's a man that went through torture. Uh, first of all, he he he did everything he was supposed to do. The, you know, everything he was supposed to do is in the prophecy, you know, of being doing what was told he was, you know, planned to do, and and and everything. And he uh he did it, didn't complain. And I'd be like, what in the world have I got myself into? Yeah. But he's he was tough. Our Lord was tough, and he wasn't no wimpy person. He was tough. Yeah uh you know, he was physically tough. You know, he was a carpenter and he was strong and he probably had strong hands, and you know, a lot of times we depict this man as a wimp, but he was he was tough. Yeah, you couldn't endure that and live through that and be crucified, and you know, eventually he's gonna die. I mean, you know, we all would, but that's what it was he was supposed to do. And he took that role and you know, and Saint Joseph took that role too, as a as the father. And you know, it wasn't his you know, biologically, it wasn't his child, yeah, yeah, but he took that role and he was like, hey, look, I'm the father. This is bigger than anything that we've done, you know. This is big what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 59:48

Yeah. No, that's awesome. And then one last one well, let's we'll we'll go into I have one last question to ask everybody on the spot. Okay, and I do it because I think it's it's so good. So if people listen to this episode, there's a lot of good stuff in it. But if you're like, if you don't remember anything from Zoe Sode, but I want you to remember this, what would it be, or maybe not even just this episode, but just in general, like what is one thing encouraging, inspirational, challenging that you'd want to leave the Just Just work hard, you know, you know, do things right when nobody's looking, not just when the camera's on, you know, or the Facebook posts or Twitter posts, those are great.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Don't get me wrong, you gotta do, especially in recruiting, you gotta do that. But if you're not doing it behind the scenes, then you're really not doing it in the scenes. You're just you're fake. Yeah, yeah. So just don't be fake. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:37

No, I think it's good. And it's real. Like a good way to be real at the end there. So, you know, Coach Edge, I appreciate coming on. You know, people see wins, people see just the history of you and and and really Owens Pro football uh throughout. But you're you're not just about the football, you're about the investment in the kids as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

Well, and we have a lot of good coaches in this, not just this school, but we got good coaches in this town that we do, yeah. It's very uh very competitive. And they've done, you know, we had a couple of guys go to state last year, and that's very, very competitive. And and that's what you want. You want this town to be the best it can be. Yeah. And in all sports, and not just in sports, but you know, in business, our business leaders, we we gotta continue to get better. We and our our our you know, political guy leaders, they've got to get better too. And so we're we're that's that's the name of this game. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:25

That's awesome. And so I appreciate you coming on, Coach Edge. I know you got stuff to do, and you're a busy guy. I appreciate giving me some time to just talk today and reflect on football and faith and and just Owensboro in general. So thanks for coming on, Coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

Anytime, Brad. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

Glad you had us on. Yeah, no problem. And I'll just say this go Eagles. Thanks for tuning in to All Things Owensboro, where we celebrate the stories, people, and places that make our city special. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves this town as much as you do. Until next time, Owensboro, keep loving local, supporting one another, and making Owensboro a place we're all proud to call home.