Episode 41 - Steve Beydler: Inside The Dog House: Coaching, Cameras, And Community

The cameras don’t just capture the game; they capture a town. We sit down with coach‑producer Steve Beydler to chart Sikeston’s journey from SPS TV 12 and VHS replays to a fully featured Bulldog Nation Network running instant replay, telestrator analysis, and polished graphics with AyCorp Media/Sports. It’s a story of leadership behind the lens, the patience to teach new crews, and the know‑how to make big‑time broadcasts feel at home in a high school gym.

Steve pulls back the curtain on game night: three‑camera choreography, live intercom direction, when to cut from band to banner to tunnel, and the timing that makes a replay land. He also explains why audio can make or break a stream, how copyright strikes happen, and what changed when professional partners brought purpose‑built graphics, stats, and on‑air support. For fans who love volleyball, he translates the sport’s evolution—rally scoring, the libero’s role, substitutions, and rotation rules—into clear, watchable strategy that deepens every point.

Threaded through the tech is the heartbeat of a community. We talk sponsors who keep programs moving, parents who feed teams, and the pipeline that turns JV reps into varsity confidence. Football reflections highlight a tougher defense, closer games, and why off‑season work changes everything, even when records don’t show it yet. And we get personal: Steve’s route from TV station to classroom to coaching, the family woven through Sikeston schools, and the pride of delivering a broadcast that lets grandparents watch touchdowns from states away.

If you care about small‑town sports, storytelling, or how production teams make chaos look easy, this one’s for you. Tap play, subscribe, and share with a Bulldog who bleeds red and black. Then tell us: what sport should we spotlight next?

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Transcript

Cold Open, Fall Vibes, Number 41

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nation, it's time to get in the dog house. This is where Tyson Pride lives, where we tell the stories that make this town special. From the legends of the past to the faces shaping our future. Whether it's basketball, community, or just that good old Bulldog grit, we've got you covered. You're listening to The Dog House, the voice of Tyson. What is up, Bulldog Nation? Coming back to you for episode 41 of The Dog House. I'm Matt Tanner. I'm Micah Harris. We are coming back on a well, I was gonna say bright and early. It's bright and early.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

The sun always comes up. It is a little depending on if it's uh rainy. It's not really rainy, but it's it's well, I mean it's a crisp morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

It is, it's fall, it's November 1st.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Lovely weather.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

It is. Well, I was just thinking about the football season. The sun's gonna come up. It's just it won't be long.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

We'll be singing lovely weather for a slave right now.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

That's true. That's true. We're episode 41, as we said, and famous athletes with wear number 41 that Dirk, Dirk, is it Nowitzki or Nowitzki? It's I don't know. I guess it's either way.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

You're asking me to pronounce something.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

It's tomato tomato. I think it's Dirk Nowitzki. You know, I listened to the Rick Burgess show, and they all week they've been kind of busting on each other about how they'd say things, and I'm like, um I know I know Bubba's not on there, but they used to call him the the the master of the Kangs English. Which he always messed stuff up. Yeah. Wes unseld, Keith Byers, you had some. Glenn Rice and Kurt Rambus. Kurt Rambus. I used I used to be a big fan of his. Uh Alvin Kamari? Yep. Keith Byers and Tom Matty. I'm I just remember that name. I never he was with the Colts from 62.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Lorenzo New?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yep. Yep. Yep. Not very many baseball players that were. That's not a let me see if here. Was it Tom Seaver? Did Tom Seavert you got him on there? New York Mets. He was 41. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Saw Young World Series champion.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Eddie Matthews.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Eddie Matthew. That's way back in the day. Milwaukee Brewers. Yeah, way back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

And then there's some NHL ones. I don't know a lot about NHL.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

I mean, I enjoy watching. It's fun to watch them. Fun to go. It is fun to go.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

It's fun to go.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

It's a lot, it's a lot better to go.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I just have a hard time following a plug.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Well, now it is. It's it's tough. Now I know a few years ago we're kind of chasing rabbits here, but uh Fox, they were broadcasting NHL and they put that like a purple, a streak thing, and it had like a purple sp color on the puck, so you kind of knew where it was. But it's I I I enjoy it's so much better in person. It is fun. It's so cool in person.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

But it's like an indoor outdoor game. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

They they do the I mean like it's cool in person.

Sponsors And Community Shout‑Outs

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Don't they play on January 1st? They usually do the was it the the classic something, or I forget what they call it, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Well, no, you're right. It is kind of indoor outdoor because when you go, I mean, you better wear a sweatshirt and a sock hat and a jacket. I mean, it's probably I mean it you're not gonna get hypothermia, but I bet it's fifty-five to sixty degrees. I mean, it's chilly.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

You're not well it's it's that perfect, you know, like what you look for in football.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Absolutely. Yes, that would be absolutely perfect to play a football game in. For sure. For sure. We need to mention our favorite sponsors, our partners, Mercy Phoenix, Jody Cheney. He is uh they find EMT, EMS, nurses, all sorts of stuff. Medical, medical staff, medical staffing, sure enough. He told me again the other day they have picked up some more contracts, so they're needing more people. I I don't have that skill set, but it is well, I made this comment somebody totally different the other day. They are that uh industry, you could work as I told somebody. No, yeah, gnome Alaska, and you could find a job as a healthcare.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

And you could work around the clock.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

I mean Yeah, unbelievable. There's people that probably work two or three jobs at that.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

I mean, like they're yes. And this is lucrative doggone pay. I don't want to say because I don't know the exact stuff, but I know you get paid, you get housing, you get all sorts of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

And so you get a per diem if you're cracking.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

I think it's per diem and all, yeah, all that stuff. And so Jody is a guy to talk to. I know his son Tucker works with him as well. Tucker's gonna be our soon to be he may be the tech.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

He may be he may become the head technical.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah, he Justin may have to go back to assistant and just assume the general counsel role by himself.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah, Tucker, I'm excited about that. We've got uh speaking of that, we've got four more mics, four more headphones, and I I've got it kind of ready, but it's I was telling Micah right when we came down here. I ordered I when we post these videos, you can see these boom. So we have these arms that our mics sit on, and we you can sit and then they you know they rotate and they twist and you can move them in any direction and distance and all that stuff, obviously to the length of it. But we have now I've ordered four more like mic stands with a boom arm that when we have more guests than what we have right now, they can sit in a chair and then the thing will hang like be behind them or to the side and they can just almost do a round table, yeah. Exactly. That's kind of what I was thinking too. I need we need to get a bigger table and stuff like that. That way we could sit at the table and probably, frankly, probably get rid of these things and just get those mics that sit on the table. But those are things that are to come. We want to upgrade our equipment, and so again, Tucker's gonna do that. We're really looking forward to that. Again, we're so proud to be in partnership with Mercy Phoenix, a terrific company, terrific individuals providing necessary service, life-saving equipment, yeah, people, life-saving life, not only life saving, but life just uh improving, yeah, like yeah, empowerment. Exactly. Health care to to anybody that needs it. And again, there I know he's working on a special contract. I've and he's working on I know he he said he picked up three more. So listen, if it's something that you know about or you know somebody that has those skills, reach out to Jody again on their Facebook page or their website, mercyphoenix.com. Yep, and it's M-E-R-C-IPhoenix.com. Our other our other guest, or excuse me, our other partner, Bizzle Lawn Care and Greengrass Guys. If you like a yard like I do, they are the guys. I know there's some national companies that go around and do something similar. I I I don't even want to say their names. I you know, I don't I don't want to give them any any benefit of that, but D and I'll tell you what, you can't beat what you your yard. It looks unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

I haven't I haven't got the look of the football field lately, but I mean like I've been.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

It looked it looked awesome when we played Charleston at home, the last home game. It looked unbelievable. And it here it was almost November.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, it did look good on the on the camera and everything.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Heck yeah, look, it was unbelievable. But they but D Bizzle and his team, I mean, they're local, they're right here. Why would you not support them? Again, with their nursery and their I'm they're probably already selling uh well, they already sold mums and all that stuff. I just can't really say they're they're always you know changing with the seasons. They've got anything you need, but you know, but their their lawn service or it's more turf management, is what I would call it. Man, they they keep the weeds out. Uh there's not any weeds in my yard. Now, some of them get in my plant bed, which is a totally different deal. And I got a Well, they're not in charge of that, are they? No, no, they're not. That's you. That is me. And so I got a spray. You know, though that'll stop popping up now. It's it's that time of the year. It's gonna get cold. Of course, good and the bad, you know, I got a beautiful yard, but guess what I'm doing when we get done here? Mowing. Going to mow.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

And it it's uh I gotta go mow a yard too, but I mean, like it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Now it'll start slowing down when it gets colder. It it'll stay green, but it won't grow as much. But man, when we started getting some warmer weather in that spring, woo wee, it looks good. And it looks great during the summer. Just more Bermuda comes in, and that you know they'll have to they're they're doing some stuff. We're trying to keep pushing the fescue in the fall, and eventually it'll just be all fescue. But it's beautiful regardless. These guys take personal care of you, and actually, you know, they got they'll they'll schedule it, they'll come out, take a look at it, tell you what you need, and then they just put you on a rotation, they come every month. They're it's just terrific.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Well, my neighbor, I think, I mean, like he he uses them to get rid of cucka burrs and stuff. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Yeah, it's not just right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

It's not just to and make a where I live at where I live at cuckoas are.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Oh, they are prevalent. Absolutely. Oh, I p sh well, I grew up there. We had those goat heads, as they call them, those big things with cuckoo burrs all over them.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

I think there's I think there's a team down in Mississippi. Their high school mascot is the cuckoo birds. Are you kidding me? I think it's something like that. I'm gonna be honest with you. If if that's awesome. If we if we you know like Mississippi County ever like created county, it needs to be the cuckoo bird.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

It's kind of like the cupis of uh in that column, in that Hickman up in Columbia, the Cupies. I don't even know what a Cupie is. I don't either. There's some there's some interesting nicknames.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

I don't know what a cuckoo bird is, and I know they hurt.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Oh man, I've stepped on them. Yeah, when we were kids, we couldn't go outside without shoes on.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Oh Maggie Joe, man. She did she go outside with shoes on. Oh my everybody. And she's she carries a blanket everywhere. Oh, and they drag them in. And she gets them on her blanket, she'll stick her, sticker, oh yeah. Oh yeah, she was she was in rare form yesterday, too.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Oh yeah, she they came by the bank.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, yesterday, man, Halloween. Evidently, my mom went with uh went with them to you know, a couple, you know, places. She was with the she was at the bank, yeah. And she kept going, she kept like Maggie Joe would look at her and say, Come on, greeny. Come on, green. Grandma.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Oh yeah. Now, did you guys have a bunch of uh we probably had 200 or so? It wasn't as busy as it normally was. That's what I was getting ready to say. I you normally up in the 400s, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I th well I'll be honest with you. I think I I I think one of the things we gotta work on probably is maybe getting the street a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

I saw you uh somebody commented about that, and then I saw you say we need to get street lights. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Maybe not street lights, but we need to come up with some kind of you know, maybe everybody put a light in their yard or something. Or get some Edison lights, bubs, and like put them on pose out by the road, you know, just kind of line that kind of kind of do your own street light for that night. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean you want you want kids to be safe, and everybody's got their lights on and I get it, not everybody in the neighborhood participates, but I mean a big majority of us do, and I mean and you know it wouldn't be that hard to do.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

No, no, you just have to get it organized.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

There we were And we actually have a page that we talk about. Oh, nice. Yeah, nice like we have a group that we that we talk about.

Neighborhood Halloween And Local Life

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Yeah, that would be the way to do it for sure. Yeah. We uh we were in Cape last night. We uh we listened to the football game. Luke's band played at the uh library, and so we were there and celebrated, I guess, Halloween there. They all dressed up like prisoners, and Aaron and Amy were police, and I was a warden. You were the warden. Enjoyed yourself. Wow. Well, I mean Maggie Joe. Wow. I mean what the what? Yeah, yeah. So no, I uh uh Chris and Will Stenett cut the sleeves out and they had t-shirts on underneath. Of course, Will had a wife beater on. It was just there it it was a nice time. Of course, there was a lot of people in there that were dressed up. There was gosh, all kinds of costumes in there. It was a Viking, there was all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I think costumes have gotten better over the years.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

So I I told somebody this, I saw this on the news the other morning. Costume sales for adults have surpassed costume sales for kids. Well, I'm gonna tell you what. It's a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I've seen some that were just really cool. Oh, they were kids, but the best one was Michael, Michael Jackson. Uh oh, you had a MJ? We had an MJ, man, and he he he moonwalked and everything else for us. Can't beat that. I told him, I was like, you can't get out and get candy if you ain't got moonwalking. He's like, he started dancing a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

He started he busted it out.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, you get two handfuls.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

So we'd have so we'd have four of the kids. Exactly. Well, like I said, we are we're proud that Mercy Phoenix and Bizzle Longcare, Greengrass guys, are our partners. We couldn't be more happy that their their their missions and their values and their support line up with what we're what we're doing as well and what we're trying to do. And we appreciate appreciate our our listeners. Oh, absolutely. That's where exactly you took the words right out of my mouth. We couldn't do this if nobody listened, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

We we I can't even explain how thankful we are that there is there are people that like our content, like to hear what we have to say, and like to hear what our guests have to say, frankly. It's not just us. You know, we we we feel like we get guests that have something to bring, a story to share. And as they say, you know, there's everybody's got a story, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Correct. And and I I think, I mean, we and we we always want to focus on Sykston. Right, you know, but at the same time, I mean, yeah, I think we may start looking at a little bit more regional.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Is that a uh Forerunner? Is that what they call in literature? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Maybe I wasn't giving away nothing, but I mean, like, I I just I just know that we, you know, yeah, we've we've had we've got a lot of interesting people in Sykston and a lot of things going on.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

And we oh and we were always we were always gonna be oh it's it's the doghouse. Yeah, that's what it's called. And you know it's always gonna come from that point of view, too. Absolutely. But we yeah, there well, we've already had some guests that aren't just from Sykston. Before you came on, we had Lloyd Rice, right? He's a Dexter guy, yeah. He's an official. We've had Brad Korn and Briley Palmer.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

They're I mean, they're they're up in Cape, but you know, they're regional. So it's not just and and frankly, Marcy Lawson, even though she's from here, it's a Sykston regional chamber, right? So even they and others understand, and we talked about it with that, yeah. Well, we talked about the importance of our area, not just not just Sykston. We are Sykston guys.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Well, I am, like as Mike is a transplant, but we'll we'll we'll now if you come on as a as a as a as a as a guest and you're from a local high school that's not Sykston, you're probably gonna get a little little point of view from Oh, you're gonna get you're gonna get some shade thrown at you for sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Right, right. We're gonna we're gonna rib you pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

But no, it's gone. It's uh we're we're excited about some of the guests that we got lined up. Again, Sykston and in the region. I I couldn't be more excited about what we got coming up. I you know, the when I upload these podcasts, it always asks me what season we're in. And I don't know, do we I don't know that happening? Yeah, well season one might be 117 episodes.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Are we are we gonna use basketball as a season two starter?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

You know what? Maybe. You know, maybe that that's when we say, you know what, that's probably a good idea. Yeah, yeah. That's probably a good idea, Micah. We'll just start season two. That'll probably maybe maybe next week. That's when practice starts. We'll start season two. That's okay. That's probably a good idea. To just break the delineation. Yeah. Listen, here we are, making decisions on on the air, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

We're our our our our our corporate meetings are right here, right here on live, live local, late break in.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

They're right here. You see this play out right in front of you. I think that's a great idea, Mike. Thank you for thank you for mentioning that. We'll just start season two next week. Yeah. It'd be episode 42, but it will be season two.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Yeah. Now and I will probably forget that. So if you help me remember, we are season two next week. I'll try to try to mention that. Again, we always want to give our shout-outs to Luke, my son. Thank him for all the the work that he does with our audio visual stuff. Aaron, my beautiful bride, for allowing me to do this, to uh take up space in our house. Justin, of course, soon to be assistant tech guru, general counsel. He's probably always going to be the one that's on speed dial.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Oh, probably. Because I think he'll be a little easier to get a hold of than Tucker.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Maybe. We'll see. We'll see. Tucker's moving to Sykston, so he'll I'll have him on speed dial too. Uh he'll be the first call. Justin will be the second. Right, right. And and Justin's probably not upset about that. Yeah. He he he likes the general counsel role much better. It's much more lucrative.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Lucrative, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Deege, shout out to Deege as always, our stats guy, always giving us the statistics, history, scores, all those things. We appreciate him doing that. And finally, last but not least, Tyler Anderson, Twisted Arrow Woodworking for our sweet doghouse sign and logo on the wall. Couldn't be happier with that. Again, uh, don't forget to like, follow, share us, share the doghouse, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Not going to keep repeating the same thing, but YouTube will be really up and running here. And just just hang with us. It's my uh it's my inability to get things done appropriately.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Oh. Don't forget to comment on those sites.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Yeah, please comment, review, like, share, review. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

We are getting, I'm I don't know why I'm fired up about this. And I maybe we talked about this last week or not. We're getting SEMO Fiber. Go SEMO Fiber.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

We haven't talked about that.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

We are getting do you I don't know. You don't have that. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I would love to have it.

Football Season Recap And Outlook

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I know. And Lloyd, I've been on Lloyd, and Pete Kennard's been on Lloyd. And Randall and Marcy Lawson's been on. Marcy lives just a couple streets over. And Lloyd finally texted me this past week. Or no, actually last week, maybe. Check with him, see about mini farms. I'll ask him. And we uh we've filled out the deal, and they'll be here any day, and it's gonna be one a gig up and gig down for the speeds. Uh couldn't be happier, it's gonna make things upload faster and kind of all sorts of stuff. So super stoked about that. And the the quality, and again, local people, right? Right now, if spectrum goes out, first off, you can't get a hold of these.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Well, somebody talked about this. I don't were we on live. I don't know if we were alive or not, but it talked about how like Simo no is a PCN. Remember? And he was talking about how Simo Fiber is less likely to go out than Spectrum because Spectrum comes from the north only. SEMO Fiber has connection coming from north and south.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Oh, I I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah, that's kind of and and and that's why SEMO Fiber doesn't go out. Because you know, every time they have a cut up north, oh, yeah, it knocks everybody out from the wheel. You know what I mean? So and that that was kind of somebody we were at PT in that one night and never talked about.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Oh, for the fundraiser deal. Yeah. I'm not sure who that was. But no, we're we're very excited to have them. Again, you can catch our podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and a whole host of others. And you can also listen via Buzz Sprout. Uh, you can go to our website, it's the doghouse.buzzsprout.com. And when I share our post and social media, I put our link on there. There's an embedded player. You can click and you can listen right there. So it's funny, I keep looking at the stats and stuff, and the Apple Podcast is it's close, but Spotify's second, Apple's first. And so I I try to put all those links out there. Amazon, iHeart, different things. And again, you it's all the same. It's uploaded from one spot, and then it just shoots out to the all the different mediums and that that you can listen. Again, if you need to reach out to us, reach out on our Facebook page or or whatever our social media.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Share our Facebook page and get some absolutely and like it if you if you share it. Share, like it, yeah. We're approaching the 800 mark on followers. We are lovely to maybe see that in the next week or two with basketball season coming up.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Oh yeah. And I mentioned I mentioned actually to D and to uh Jody. We had now these are views, so it's it it's but that means somebody saw it, but we had 30,000 views last month of our Facebook page. That's not counting Instagram, TikTok. That's just views, and so blows me away. And and that's not paid. We don't do any paid ads. And I could, you know, because they it keeps popping up for me to do paid ads on there or Instagram or TikTok, and it'll it'll guarantee you like so many views. And I've I've thought about that and I've considered it, and maybe we'll do that at some point, but we haven't yet. So I again we appreciate everyone for liking, sharing, viewing it, getting the word out there about us. And so again, our email address is doghouse. Email us, text us if you've got our numbers. You know, if you know somebody's got our number, send us a text. We'll be happy to respond to you. Uh we we love what we do. Again, got t-shirts available. If you if you'd like some swag, give us a shout out and we'll get it to you.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Long sleeve and short sleeve.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Long sleeve and short sleeve. That's correct. Of course, red and black. Yeah, of course. It's only two colors that are out right now. And that's probably it may stay there. I don't know. Maybe we'll go to some kind of wild lime green or something. Who knows? I don't know. No, we're not going that highlighter color or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

We're not going.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

See, we're having more corporate corporate discussion here. I ain't wearing no green shirt. Not today, Satan. Not today.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

I ain't green, purple, green, nothing. I've had a job. I had a job where I had to wear purple every day.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Oh no. I I just you know, some people like those bright colors every once in a while, but that's okay. Well, let's let's talk about the football game last night. The season didn't end like we wanted. Bulldogs ended three and seven. I think it's what we were last year, right? Three and seven.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

I think so. I think there were better wins this year, though. I mean No, of course.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

I just what I was getting ready to say, and even reading the article, Coach May talked about it. He said, you know, gosh, we've lost to Hillsborough in the playoffs. Seven years. Seven years. They've been I think they've ended our season the last three or four. Right, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

So And we were we were we were in it. I mean, like we threw a pick late in that fumble. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

We were driving. I mean, like we were driving.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

I mean, like kind of well, where basically what he said is last year we went up here and got embarrassed. And this year, we were in it late. I mean, it was 21-21 in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

I'm telling you, next year you're gonna see a big difference in that defense. Oh yeah. Man, that defensive line has improved. Waters has like eight sacks or nine sacks on the season.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

That's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

It's uh you you you keep mentioning it and you've mentioned it before. Like these sophomores have been through the fire and they're going to I've seen it a couple of times. Oh yeah. They're they're they're they they're showing signs of it, and they're only going to get bigger, stronger next year.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

You can't really I don't how do I say that? You can have expectations, you know. But you know, we are in that month of of you know can I be grateful can I be grateful for the things I expect, you know? Oh yeah. I mean I guess you sure you can. I mean like what are like we're not expect we don't really have any well, I mean we're just getting off the subject a little bit. But I mean like I I think you I think you I think you can. And you but I think you like we live in America, we expect to have a house.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

A deep moment with Micah Harris.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

So like this is my thought process, you know, this is my head.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

So like but I mean like if you We expect to have a house, but we'd we'd not guaranteed a house. Right, right. So you can be thankful for that. Right? I I am.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

I I think I think I think I'm thankful for my home. And I'm not saying I'm not arguing either way. Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying like this is these are things to ponder on a Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Oh man, Micah, you are thought-provoking on this early Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Well, but I mean like so what and I was going where I was going with that is is you know, we can have expectations of our children. Of course, of course. But we're gonna be a lot more grateful when when things happen that we that we want to see.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

I I I I think we I think we've got a big chance next year. You know, we we we we've talked about it and I've talked about it with some of the football folks, and I say a certain phrase all the time, I won't say it on here, but you know, if it I if one of them is if if if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

I thought they're just gonna go with ants.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

I know, that's what I usually say, but I I won't say it on here. We feel like we gave, you know, we didn't win the Pauper Bluff game, and that would have put us at four and six, and that would have been an improvement. I know it's three and seven, and it's the exact same record, but we are way better.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Those losses were a lot closer.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

We were in Jackson. Okay, they they dismantle a lot of teams. So let's you can throw that out as the outlier. Let's move on from that one. The other games, we were in it until late. I know Cruthersville got out of hand, but in the fourth quarter it was just one touchdown. I mean, it wasn't like they were up four touchdowns going into the second half. We were in that late. We were in Dexter. We could have, shoulda, would have beat Dexter. We had a chance to beat Dexter. Same thing with Cape. We were in that game.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

And I'm telling you, a lot of these teams that are up right now, this this was a very up year for SEMO football, SEM, SEMO, SEMO Conference, SEMO just southeast Missouri football. I feel like there was some good teams.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

I mean, we're we're on the way up. I I know I have a few people texting me and some buddies of mine, oh man, here we are again. It's different. I I know I I get it. I know the record is what the record is. It's three and seven, and I know Coach May is anxious, and I don't I have not heard any bad thing about the team. I mean, obviously everybody wants them to win more. I mean, of course, right? Yeah. When we want we want to get more wins. There's there's no no two ways about it. But this three and seven feels different than last year's three and seven. Just for the fact that, like we were just talking about, we were in almost every game. We were in this game. We lost by 14, but we were in that game till three or four minutes left to go, roughly.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

2026 begins the day.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah. Yeah, no, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

And I'm sure that there's coaches that are chomping at the bit of like what can we do now to make differences for next year.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah, I mean, you know, uh listen, we we there's some good things that happened this year. Look at Pierce Baker. I mean, I know it's an individual, it's a team game. I get it. Pierce had a record-setting year. I mean, he set a record for most yards in a in a in a year, and he broke it like early in the season.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

And that was multiple receivers, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

We we had last night, I think there I mean, we had Terrell Williams, Mason King, Keon, Will and Jared. That's five guys. It caught the ball last night. So and those guys, well, see, Will Will and Terrell are gone. Pierce won't be there. Keon's gone. Keon's gone. Keon's gone. He's a senior. So there'd be some stuff to replace, but we our our JV team was so somebody put eight and two. They couldn't have been eight and two.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

I'm I'm thinking they're combining the freshman and the JV team.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Oh, maybe that's what okay. Now that makes sense. I don't know if that's I saw it's because J it was Jason. Jason Rudassil.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Because I think they probably do combine like some of those players.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

I didn't think about that. They were eight and two. It said eight and two. Our JV was like five and one, six and one, maybe four and two, five and two. I mean, it was well above five hundred. It was a winning season. And so typically it's not always the case, but that portend's good for the following years as those kids grow, and there's a lot of sophomores on there that got some time that didn't get varsity time.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Well, you gotta put layers, football is a layer. Like you've got to have you could have a great starting 22 or whatever. Right. You know. But it's gotta be gotta you've gotta have to have some depth. The differences between the Jacksons and and us is they go two to three deep.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Sure. Right. It was good to have Kenneth Hawke back last night. He ended up playing, right? He played well, he had had some big runs. So we've had we had Sam McGill, leading leading tackler.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

I think so, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

And I was listening to him on the radio, said he came in with 126 tackles. Every time I was listening, they kept calling his name. So he may ended with 150. Oh, he was way over 130. I listened to four or five just by himself. And he made because he and I know he made a couple special teams tackles on a punt or something. So yeah, he may have 150. Right. Not not last night.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Well, and and that's what you expect from that that position. But I mean, like, I'm not trying to but he did it. Like he was a tackler. You know, if if if I see an area of improvement, that's got to, I'm sure there's some kind of off-season tackling drill program.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

I mean there is, and I and you know, it we we talked about it a lot, and I know the coaches are working on tackling.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

It's just like it's just like why aren't they weren't they practicing free throws? Well, they are right.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Exactly. That that we say that a lot. Yeah, they are shooting free throws. I mean, come on. But Coach Hoffield's not Hall of Fame. You know, he's not stupid. We have a Hall of Fame football coach on our staff. I mean, Coach Vickery. Jim May is an unbelievably good coach. So And detailed. It's super detailed. They all are. And so to say, oh, they're not practiced, of course they're practicing. Exactly. Of course they are. It's it's silly to think otherwise. But anyway, I know I know some people think that and I'll be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

I mean, I you men, boys, we're talking 15, 16-year-old boys that and then they're going against 17, 18, 19 year olds that right. Right. Well that are are have gone through they've been through the fire. Yeah. And not only the fire, but body maturity.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Oh, oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. When yeah, we exactly. We're dealing with 15, 16-year-olds, and they're 17, 18, maybe even 19.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

I know that doesn't when you're going to be able to do that. There's a difference.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

It's a huge difference. And one thing that Coach Hollifield, he said somebody told him, and I can't recall who it was. And they when Coach May starts winning, the fans are going to be a whole lot smarter. They always say the more you win, the smarter everybody else gets. Oh, I knew that would work, or you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

So I'm sticking with him.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

That was never even a question. Oh, no, me neither. Me neither.

Program Depth, JV Promise, And Coaching

SPEAKER_00 32:33

I mean, like, I I'm I I I I I've seen what he did at Scott City. Right. I I mean I know I know like the people that like he he played ball with in high school. I mean, like, right, there is some pedigree there. Of course, no. We'll get on a different little bit of the subject in a minute, but I mean, like and it may, I don't know. I don't know if it affected us or not. I mean, Notre Dame's getting football.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Yeah, that's in a couple of years. They start JV in 27, which would be two years, and then varsity 28.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

I'm sure we'll play them. I mean I would think.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Man, Micah, I would think it would hurt Jackson and Cape.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Yeah, probably even more so. I'm not looking at I'm not looking at player standpoint, I'm looking at coach standpoint. Not trying to say May. Yeah, not trying to say may, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

I mean it could. Some of the I mean, I mean, like I'm coaches that retire then go do that and still get their retirement because it's a parochial school and still and then draw money from there.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Or even a young young person that's kind of got ties to that little bit northern part of the area.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

I mean, I'm not and I'm not I'm not trying to Yeah, no, I mean Mike, it sure could.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

I'm just kind of speculating. Yeah, yeah, no.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

That's just a couple years away. So and I'm sure they've already got a listen by that time we're gonna have this thing humming by then. So they're gonna be people wanting to come here. When when Coach May, again, it's three and seven, but it's a different three and seven. I I mean I've heard Coach Olifield, we've talked about this, about his teams. I forget, I I don't want to say the year because it could be wrong, but there were some early teams, early 2000s, let's just say, before the 06 team that was special that got second state. You know, they would be right at 500 or just under 500 or just over 500, and he's like, Man, this team battled. We lost seven games by one point, or seven games by three points or less. And you're thinking, man, you know, if those switch, all of a sudden you've had a great season, it's kind of the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

I mean, a couple years ago with Mizzou. I mean, like I think it was the 22 when we went to Auburn, they lost that close game. Yep. Well, we lost a close one last week, but I mean, but typically the last two or three years we've been winning those games. Right. And that's set us in one of the most winningness programs in SEC and like maybe top three. I think Georgia and and Alabama, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Right. Right. Yeah. So I mean that's the we're close. Yeah. And as you said, offseason starts now. Our our kids, I know we're gonna work hard. I mean, we've got to replace Pierce. I don't even want to say a name because I I I I don't I don't know. I mean, I've I've heard some names not bantered, but some names mentioned to me from some guys that are even closer to the football program than I am.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

And I I I know the coaches will be I don't know that they'll be I mean like I'm sure there'll be growing pains with whatever we go through, but I mean at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

But if if they grow right now, you know, grow right now. Grow in this offseason and get ready to you know start work. And and and I know they do that they lift. This is as we talk about even with basketball, any sport, your most growth, your your most improvement is in the offseason.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

That's when it's your opportunity, right? I mean, like in season, in season, your main thing is just like focusing on the next one. And you always gotta be working on your skill. Like you always gotta be working on your skill. Correct. But I mean, and you know, competition does you you're but you can focus on detail a little bit more in the off season. Not only that, just like detail and like conditioning, right, detail and and technique, detail and all those little things that go on.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

I just got uh we're sitting here and my phone buzzed and really ADHD, and it was it was Emmy Watkins who had her on and made me think of I saw on Facebook X and whatever November 14th. Two short weeks. Bulldog Nations. Bulldog madness. Yeah, I don't know. It said more details to come. She talked about it on here.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

I do recall. Yeah, I was hoping it would be before the weekend with the next weekend.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Exactly. Yeah, because we're going, that's right, we're going to Oklahoma. It is.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

That'll be a Friday, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Yes, 14th is Friday. That's correct. Don't hold me to this date because I don't know. But typically that second week is when they play that jamboree. I talked to Coach, I don't think I'm speaking out of school. He said we're going back to Hazelwood East. That's where they went last year.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

I think it may be actually on the on the on the Misha website.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Oh, well, let's take a take a gander here.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

I looked at that the other day.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

He did tell me that that we are going there. I asked him just the other day where that would be. And he said, Oh yeah, we've already got it planned out. Micah and I are here digging it in our phone real quick. But we are yeah, it's on there. It's on the nineteenth. Okay. So it's the day before we leave. Oh yeah. Okay, so it's the third week. Okay, maybe it would maybe I was thinking I I probably won't be able to go to that, but I mean like kind of Yeah, no, I understand. We'll I'll I'll I'll make the trip, I'm sure, unless there's something going on.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

I think your brother may be coming up a little bit early that.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Oh yeah, yeah, he'd probably come in and go with me for sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

I think well, you plan to come in to leave.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Right, so we can go to Oklahoma the next day. Well, we'll uh looking forward to that. We'll we'll start season two next week. But listen, hang around just for a second. Our guest is coming up. And let me say sorry I wasn't there. Yeah. I I just gonna I I meant to get to that. I had I thought I didn't have it written down, but you and my sister are doing better. Right. Yeah. We have both ended up sick. Yeah, we had a I I don't want to get into it, but we had a scare. Scare. Yeah. Praise the Lord. Thank goodness. Yeah. Yep. All good news. All good. So everybody's good. It turned out to not be something you have to address, but not not anything anything serious.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

She follows up next week with permacare, and yeah, we go.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Yeah, we're we're we're good. She and I talked about it yesterday when she brought Maggie Joe to the bank. All good. And so uh we're very thankful for that. But we we recorded with our guest this week is Steve Byrd. We recorded with him Tuesday night.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Tuesday night, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

And Micah was out. My sister was home back then by that point.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

But Micah I caught a stomach bug while I was in the at the I guess somewhere around in there.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Yeah, so Micah was he was under the weather, but he it's all good now. Everybody's back to 100, doing 100, and we're very thankful for that. So hang around. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

So I apologize to Steve. I we really probably enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

Oh, listen, he was terrific, man. We had a we had a great time. Of course, we talked about volleyball, and then you'll you'll you'll hear this coming up. We talked about volleyball. We talked a lot about behind the scenes stuff with broadcasting and all the technology and his story and how he got here. It's a great story. Steve's a great guy. Terrific voice, man. I mean, just a I'm like, dang, that's a cool voice. Why wasn't he on the radio? Oh, yeah, he says it all the time. He I mean, I guess he's done voiceovers and stuff, which I think he has. And so he's got a got a great radio voice, and like we always say, you and I have a radio face, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:52

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

That's where we're better suited for radio. So listen, hang with us. Listen to this week's to episode 41. We'll be back next week. It could be a little bit later coming out. I'm gonna be gone for a couple of days, and our guests coming in next week is gonna be later in the weekend. And so we won't have anything to break down necessarily as far games yet.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

You may have caught a practice or something. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

Oh may have caught a practice.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Well, you're gonna be gone.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Well, I'll be gone the first. Yeah, oh it's funny you said that. I I did see Coach Hollifield had to go by there the other day and drop off some stuff. I said, no, coach, I'm gonna be gone for the first four days of practice. Y'all go ahead and start. Don't wait on me. You know, I'll send you my practice plans. Make sure you follow them to a T. And he said he would. He gave me his word.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Do I need to check on Luke this week?

SPEAKER_02 40:44

That would be a great idea. Yes. That'd probably be that'd probably be a good idea. Okay. If you don't mind, just make sure the dog's fed.

unknown 40:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

As much as anything. Well, I'm not worried about feeding himself, but feeding champ might be the might be the kicker.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Speaking of dogs.

Offseason Growth And Basketball Tease

SPEAKER_02 41:00

We'll we'll we'll keep going. But anyway, guys, thanks for hanging out with us. Just sit tight and and the right after the magic of editing, we'll be right back with our guest. And uh, Micah and I will talk to you next week. Thanks for coming with us after the break. The magic of editing actually was about maybe 1.2 seconds, not not four days like like actually happened in the recording. Now it's time to get to the reason why you came to the uh podcast today. You didn't want to listen to Micah and me all the time while it's drone on, so you'll let we'll listen to our host, I mean, excuse me, to our guest. I'm gonna introduce our guest now. Actually, before I do that, Micah is not with us, so we're actually recording this part before the first part, which is standard, I suppose, as as as our guest and I talked earlier. Movies don't record in order either. No, they do not. They record episodes or not episodes, but scenes just at different times, and they put them all together, obviously, in chronological order, which is what we will do. However, Micah and his wife, my sister Becky, had some medical things and procedures that they were uh he's out with, and so giving him the night off, and he's they're do both doing fine. They just needed to rest, and so they're in good shape, and Micah anticipate we'll be back on Saturday. Of course, you'll hear this after you hear the Saturday part. So anyway, I just I wanted to mention that, and so we miss Micah tonight, but we uh we will keep proceeding. Today on the doghouse, we're sitting down with someone you may not always see on camera, but you see his work every time the Bulldogs hit your screen. He's a retired educator, a longtime volleyball coach, and the director slash producer behind the Bulldog Nation Network, the man responsible for bringing Sykes and Sports to fans across the region and beyond. Before that, he was a producer for the Bulldog broadcast on the original YouTube channel, and probably some on the old SPS 12, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:59

SPS TV 12.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

SPS TV 12. I did not put that in here. Yes, correct. Uh which helped build the foundation for what we enjoy today. From the gym to the production booth, from timeouts to time codes. He spent years shaping the way Bulldog Nation watches its teams. We're excited to talk coaching, broadcasting, technology, and the stories nobody sees behind the scenes. Steve Bidler, welcome to the doghouse.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Thank you. Absolutely. I appreciate the invite.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

I think.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say we haven't got started.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

This is this is not comfortable for me. Really? Because I'm usually on the other side of things. Yep. Yep. You give me a script, I'll cut you a voiceover. You've got that radio. You give me other things to do behind the scenes. Yeah. Write a write a script, make some graphics, okay, we're good. I have retired from the theater, so I haven't done that for a while.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

I was I didn't put that in there, but I was gonna mention that.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Yep. We don't need to mention that. The list is already long, and we're gonna be here uh for the next two days to discuss that's okay. The many, many hats that I wear.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

As as as as Derek and I say a lot uh on our uh broadcast, and so maybe you might agree that you're the same, that we have a face for radio, right? Oh yeah, I say that all the time. So we uh we enjoy a little an anime being anonymous. How about that? Anim anonymity. There we go. Couldn't get that all out together.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

Yeah, I always put my head down when people like you at the end of a broadcast go, and we always I'm going, oh Lord.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Well, I mean, listen, we have to I mean it's important that you guys do the work. We are doing anything. Well, we show up and you guys are.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

And I appreciate it. We appreciate it. I know that. Things have really uh taken a turn for different, as you know, right. As of recent. Yep. And of course, when I retired three years ago, that was when the first real change started happening. So we had to figure some things out. So anyway, that's act two.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

No, no, listen, we'll we we'll get to all that for sure. And there are lots of things in here. And I when I sent Steve the questions the other day, he was like, Man, some of these are difficult. I'm like, eh, it's chat GPT. He's like, that's cheating. I'm like, yes, basically, basically it is because that reason I'm cheating because I'm not smart enough to come up with good questions. And I and I don't want I don't want any of the guests that come on, and I know Micah feels this way. I don't want you to feel like we're like trying to get you into anything. I want you to be you know somewhat prepared. We're not we're not trying to catch anybody in any spill the tea, or you know, we're not looking for that. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

You know, I feel sometimes like I do when the put when the uh newspaper guy comes right after a match and says, Hey, what do you think about tonight's loss? Right. And I'm like, Oh, dude, go away. I have nothing to say to you right now. Right. I like to take a moment, right? I I want to think about this, I wanna, I wanna, you know, let it settle into my head and kind of look at some statistics before I say much.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

So of course that's no, I I think that's a fair remote.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

And I want to think of great answers. Oh, tonight is over.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Tonight when you're sitting at the house. No, I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Man, why didn't I say that?

Segment Transition To Guest Interview

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Yeah, D goes, well, I'm sure you said this. No, I forgot. I understand. But I mean that but that's the right that's what we're trying to do anyway, the premise of just saying, okay, here, we we don't want you to come in caught off guard. But so tell us you're you're not a Sykeston native. Nope. But you've been here long enough.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

You've I have been here a long time.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

You have? I have been here. You've been here a long a long time. So how do you uh well, I know this just because I know you. I know you've got a Maryland background, of course he's wearing a Maryland shirt. Maryland boy to kind of tell us about all that, how you got to Sexton, kind of all that.

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Well I was born and raised in Maryland, but both of my parents are from Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

My uh grandparents lived here. Uh so my mother and father met in Raw when my dad was at UMR at the time it was called the School of Minds. Okay. He played he played football, and he had already played a couple years at Marshall. He played for the Missouri Valley.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

Now Marshall, like we are Marshall, Marshall.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

No, no, no, not that one. He played in Marshall, Missouri for Missouri Valley. I see.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

Because uh he went to high school in Stockton, Missouri, where he was from. So he went there and played football. They did not have what he needed, which was to be an engineer. Yeah. So he decided, but before that came before that occurred, he found out the GI Bill was about to end, so he went and joined the Army for a few couple years. Okay. After the Army, and the Army put him in Maryland. He was at Fort Meade in Maryland. Okay. So he went to school, he met my mom in Rawl, they got married, blah, blah, blah. He was offered a position at Boeing in California, Westinghouse in Maryland. He felt like he knew Maryland. So that's how I became a Maryland kid instead of a California boy. Okay. So anyway. You don't strike me as a surfer. Well you know, I did have the golden locks at one time. I've seen some pictures. You did have some golden locks. But so I'm an East Coast guy. And so I'm, you know, Baltimore fan, this and that. So but anyway, that has got nothing to do with anything else. No, no, it's good. That's where the story is. And then so at some point in my life, I guess around the time I was eight, my parents were got a divorce. And eventually, not immediately, but my mom moved back to Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

So I was flying at Christmas and summers back and forth between Maryland and and Missouri. Okay. So I got to the point where when I graduated high school, I wanted to spend a little time with my mother here in Missouri. Okay. That's how I got here. Like more of a finality kind of. Sure. Wait, and your mother, where did she live? Well, at the time she lived in Rolla because her parents had been there. Okay. But then they moved to Sykston because that's where my grandmother was from. My grandfather was from Bloomfield. Okay. And so eventually she ended up back in Sykeston.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

I see. And so then you were here with her.

Meet Steve Beydler: Coach, Producer, Educator

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Yeah. Okay. So eventually we m my wife and I moved from the Farmington area down here to Sykston.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

I didn't realize you lived up there.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

And so the the older kids at the time were year-ish or so, maybe. Oh. And so my kids are Sykston kids. Not born in Br not not born here, but pretty much raised here. And they went through all through the Sykeston public school systems. Okay. All four of my children are are are from Sykston. So that's kind of how the thing happened, but I wasn't working as an educator at the time.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

That's what I was getting ready to ask you. How'd all that come about?

SPEAKER_01 49:48

I actually was working, I I I had gone back to school to finish my degree. I went to Oral Roberts University for two years back in 78, 79, whatever, I quit to work. It was expensive and I had you know limited resources. Yeah, sure. And and so when I when I was working, I had an opportunity to finish my education. So I took it. And so I went to SEMO.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

Got my bachelor's degree, and upon the finishing that, I immediately was offered a position as a graduate teaching assistant in the English department, which gave me the opportunity to have to get to get a master's degree for free. Right. Yeah. Paying probably get paid a little bit. The problem is I had two children and we found out we were having twins.

unknown 50:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Right in the midst of that.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

Hello. Yeah. So you had Steven and Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

We had Rachel and Steven. And then all of a sudden we find out we're having two more children at the while I'm just a TA. I think Dee was working at Sears and Cake doing the photo studio thing. So we're like, I look like this with my mouth, you know, for two weeks. I'm like, uh what are we gonna do with two more? So but it all worked out, and you know, now the twins are almost 30. So it's been a while. But when I got out of school with my master's degree program, I got hired at the T at the television station in Cape. I I got hired at the Fox affiliate Cape School as a writer, producer, director in the commercial department. So that's what I was doing. Okay. When one day I heard over the intercom, hey Steve, you got a phone call on line one. Take, you know, so I went to my office to answer the phone.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

Were you living here and driving up there? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Okay. We were living here because my mom had two homes at the time. So she said, Hey, while you're in school, why don't you live in live in one of my places? Sure. With all that being said, so I answered this phone call, and it was a gentleman named Paul Kitchen. Yeah. If you recall Paul, he was the citizen superintendent at the time. He was. And he he chatted with me for a second. He said, We're um interested, we we have this little program called television production at the Career and Tech Center here. And we were wondering what it would take to get a guy who does what you do to come teach our students that stuff. So I basically smugly said, Well, you know the answer to that question. You know, so he said, Would you be willing to come talk to me? So I did. Agreed to come meet, and we had a couple of different meetings, and eventually they offered me a position as an instructor and was uh career and tech center was teaching television production. Was who started SPS twelve? Well it's a long story, but at the time Rodney McConnell. Rodney, at yeah, I was gonna say. And Rodney was Oh, but he wasn't instructing. Well, he actually had been a little bit. Okay. And he was more of an engineer type, and he really didn't want to be an instructor, but they kinda they found a way that you can get 50-50 money if you're part of the career and tech centers world. And so they they really enjoyed the fact that you could record the sports, record all this, record all that. And they did have a ch a channel on Charter, I think it was Charter at the time, might have been before even with Falcon and all that other stuff. Right. So and they had a quite unique setup there. And one of the only schools that had this thing.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

So that's correct. Anyway. Public access TV is what I recall.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

It was. It was a public access, which you know, they have public education, educational, and then government edu, you know, right. The the peg channels. And so we were the education access, which actually I think if you get back into the the full story, we were actually the government access because the city didn't want to do it. You know, because a lot of cities will do their city council meetings, council meetings and stuff, and they did not want to do that. So anyway. Oh, I recall they basically handed over to the school system to run. And that's what they did. So I I recall they would show the games live, but then they would show We would have replays Tuesday night at seven.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

You could watch the game again.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Back in the day when you recorded on those old VHS tapes. Right. If you can remember those. Oh, I do. So anyway, Ronnie really didn't want to be the instructor, so they brought me on to do that. So he and I Did you have to come up with your own curriculum and all that stuff too? We in the beginning, yeah. Wow. In the beginning, yeah. I mean that that was kind of what do you include? And this is before I didn't have a single computer. Right, right. I mean, I was we had a couple cameras. We did have some old-fashioned editing systems, some tape-to-tape editing systems.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Well, no, not not technically cutting.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

It it was it was nonlinear, but I mean it was actually it was linear at that time before we got computers. Okay. But so that's how I became an educator, so to speak. I snuck in the back door. I came in as a j as a older person, which got me to retirement quicker.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

Experienced.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

Yeah, I was experienced with four children. Yeah. And and quite frankly, it ended up being the best thing that I could have ever done because of the retirement program as a teacher in the state of Missouri. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 55:13

So that's that uh people just me being on the school board, and people ask me, What do you think? And I'm like, you know what? I'm not sure you're gonna get rich teaching, but the the pension at the end is pretty doggone nice. And you and retiring I know you came in later, but if if I started at well, 25 would be old. Let's just say twenty-five. And you I mean by fifty-five you can be done. Yeah. I'm I'll well I'm fifty-four. I won't be done at fifty-five unless I win the lottery.

SPEAKER_01 55:43

Right. Or unless I have some rich age. I see. My age plus my year is equal to eighty-six. So that's how I went out. I see. But they went to the water. That was three years ago now? Yes. Okay. This is I believe my third year. Okay. And but they wouldn't let me go. No, that's right. You know, superintendent, superintendent called me and said, Hey, what are we going to do about this, this, and this if you retire? And I said, I don't know. I'm not going to be here. And they said, Well, can we talk about it? And so they hi they hired me in in a uh a contractoral position to do the sports streaming. And because no one else knows how to do it or whatever, I I also do some of the audio stuff and do some of the graphics work and things like that. I I was always in charge of the big scoreboard at the football stadium from the from the very beginning of that. And so the problem is when I retired, I no longer had students to do camera work. I no longer had students to help me do some of those things that I did.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

So then we had the class stopped at that because they couldn't find anybody to teach it. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Unfortunately, the program went away.

SPEAKER_02 56:53

I was gonna say it's not that we didn't want to keep it. We wanted to keep it. They tried. Oh, yeah. We just couldn't find anybody that would be the instructor.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

That's exactly right. So it was unfortunate the program ended, but the jobs that we did did not, and they did not want them to, because people have gotten used to that in this community. They're used to watching their sports.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 57:14

So what we ended up doing was I've hired some past students of mine, the school has, and and paid them to be camera operators and stuff. But a lot of it fell to me just by myself. Right. But then all of a sudden, and and along the way, I I got an opportunity to meet Philip and Luke Carter at Acorp um media. Yep. Acorp Media Sports eventually. Right. And they came one time to do a football game. Yep. And they were impressed with what we had accomplished here.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

With limited means and limited reach, a school, a school button.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

They did not know what they wanted to become at the time. And they knew I was gonna be retiring in the and originally Philip had had said that maybe when you retire you can come work for us. Well, then the school kept me, and you know, and I I wear a lot of different hats. I mean, I have other part-time jobs as well.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

I was gonna say we've listed several on the thing here. I'm not sure that got them all though.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

No, I I also work for my church doing video. I'm in charge of two different services there with the video, audio, and media.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

So, yeah. So I I have a lot of hats. It either makes my neck strong or you know, I'm surprised I still have hair from wearing all the hats I wear.

SPEAKER_02 58:27

That must be why I don't have any.

SPEAKER_01 58:29

So yeah. But anyway, along came Acorp this past year and said, Hey, we've been considering doing this thing, and we'd like to see about maybe joining forces and having a partnership with you guys. And it was because we had the infrastructure already established. We'd already had it. And you had Luke on, and he was very kind, probably overly kind about it.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

No, he was he was he was terrific. No, he was it was it I would say it was a combination of everything. I mean, just in general, and I and I don't mean this any bad way, but what if you you know you always you hit your head on one of those open drawers and all of a sudden you forget how to do this, and all we're like, now what do we do? Right. Who do we call? I'm like, well, I I can't do it. All I'd do is put a headphones on and start talking.

SPEAKER_01 59:15

Right. I so I don't know anything. They have come in and they've purchased some new equipment. They have giving uh they have given us people to help. Yeah. You know, I still use my own people as far as camera operators, but if I don't have one in a spot one night, they will bring someone. Correct. They'll send someone. Correct. Um, and it's it's been fantastic. I mean, every football game, one of the guys has been there to help to do things, and we're getting ready to move into the field house for basketball before long. We're gonna have the uh well, a little over a month we're having SEMO conference. Correct. Anyway, so I already had a good relationship with them. Right. They were impressed with what we had.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

So You did some stuff at the Final Four. They a couple years they were the Final Four uh volleyball broadcaster, correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:02

That's fairly new. Okay. That's fairly new. I think they did that last year for the first time. I worked at the state championships as a statistician. I've done that since it was when it was in Cape.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

Is it not there anymore?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

It's moving for the first time for a long time. It's going to St. Joseph. And so I'm not going to St. Joseph to be a statistician. Oh goodness gracious. Completely opposite side of the channel. I was just gonna say which, you know, the people from from K the Kansas City area who were in state had to come to Cape. So it just kind of makes things fair. And who knows? The boys started last year. Is there a I mean two years ago, I'm sorry. They did it at Maryville University two years ago. Last year it was in Cape.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Spring or fall?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

It's basically end of winter to the spring.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

So they have only one class the first year. I think they maybe move into two classes.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

I was going to say that's a fairly new phenomenon. It's very new. Very new.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

So I still do that with statistician work with at the boys' championships. Okay. I was going to say, you're not And if it ever comes back to Cape, which I've I I've heard rumors that it they might end up doing that one day.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:06

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:08

Well well, how did you and we'll we can get we'll get into more of that too, but how did you how did you get into volleyball? What what kind of led you to that? Do you have a background?

From TV Station To Classroom To SPS TV

SPEAKER_01 1:01:17

I mean kinda uh you know when I was Do you play with Karts Karai or something?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

Actually older than Karts.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

When I was in school, I just happened to be good at volleyball. I mean, there was no boys' volleyball teams. Right. There were no men's teams, no boys' teams.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

Wasn't there was there Olympics?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

You know, had I been a California boy, maybe. Yeah, maybe. But I I wasn't. I'm an East Coast kid. And then so. And when I went to Oral Roberts University, they had a huge intramural program. And I found out in that intramural program, I was one of the better volleyball players at the university, even though they didn't have men's program, we just did intramurals. And and we won the championship. And so I just kind of took to that. Okay. And I dug into and started learning things. And just by a fluke, it was gonna be my third year as an educ, you know, teaching at Sykston. The coach was gonna retire.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

Was that Janie?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:21

It was Janie. Janie started the program in 1975 and she did it for 25 years. Wow. So she's the only coach they'd ever had. Right. And so I went to them and said, Hey, I have a little knowledge of volleyball. If you need help, I would be willing to help. Thinking in my mind, what I mean is if you need an assistant coach. And then um at the time, I think Tom Williams was the pr was becoming the principal or had just become. And so sometime later he came back and he said, You know, you mentioned helping. And I said, Yeah, I I'd be willing to do that. I think I could fit that in. And he goes, Well, we'd like you to be the head coach. I said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on. I don't have any experience as a head coach of a high school program of any kind.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

But it ended up that's what I they offered, and I decided after some time to go ahead and try it. I was, you know, extremely nervous. And we did very well the first year. I think we were 23 and 7 my first season. So we had some very hungry athletes and they were ready for a change, and it just worked out really well that first year. Awesome. Yeah, it may have gone downhill after that. I don't know. Anyway, so that was uh the year 2000. It was the season of 2000, fall 2000. So it was my third year teaching, first year to coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

So you how how many years did you coach? I coached for 19 years, which means that the program had two coaches for nearly 45 years. That's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:57

The continuity of that is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

It is pretty much unheard of now. As we found out, because after I had retired as the coach, I still I still wasn't retired as a teacher. I still taught for a while. Yes. And so after 44 years of this of only two coaches, I was gone for five years. They had three coaches in that time. Yeah. Which there's just not a lot of coaches out there. And so, you know, there things are different nowadays. The kids are different, parents are different. There's a whole lot of reasons for what occurred. And you know, everybody has their own way of doing things. And my biggest problem as a coach was my assistants were always females. That's not a problem. But they wanted to have babies. Yep. And when they have babies, they don't want to work as a coach anymore. Well, yeah, right. I completely understand. I lost after five years, this one left. After five years, this one left. After two years, this one left. Because, oh, by the way, I'm pregnant, I'm going to have another child, you know, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:00

Well, and I think it's important, you being a male, to have a female, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

Oh, it was absolute with me. I said I have to have a female.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

You can't you can go in the locker room, but only after the all clear sign essentially is given.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Never in all the years that I've coached have I been in the locker room while the athletes were in there. Because and and it's really funny because the volleyball office is inside of the girls' locker room. So you don't go in there regardless. I do not go unless there's absolutely no athletes in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:32

Oh, okay. I would I when I said all clear, that would have been like the coach.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:36

I've never done a chalkboard talk at half you know, between sets or before a match. From there, I always they're always held out in the inside the the venue, the field house or whatever. So yeah. It's just something that I decided upon. Well I took I I I made that one of my rules from the smart from the start, even in 2000.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

I mean, it's the way the the society is, litigious as society is, I think that's it might seem over the top, but it's probably not, frankly. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

It's protecting yourself and and the and the the young ladies that I'm 66 years old and I'm back to coaching. Yeah. These players are half the age of my youngest child. Right. So I'm like everybody's grandfather, older than their grandfather.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:22

So is that so what's been the kind of the biggest change since you like you only been gone how long five?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

I was gone for five years.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

What and then has there been a lot of change in the five years?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

In that five years, there wasn't a ton of change. The biggest change was they went from two out of three to three out of five sets. Oh. And so that makes your evenings longer. Um I think percentage-wise, I don't know that a lot of changed as far as people have come back and won matches they wouldn't have in the past. You know, I I think there's you know, some statistics about that. But it is it is the way it is now. And it's but along the way from the time I first started coaching through those first 19 years, we saw rally scoring come in.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:05

That's that's what I was getting ready to talk about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

We went to fifteen. Oh, not twenty-five? No, we went to fifteen. Side out scoring. You had to serve to get a point.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

That's what I was gonna say. Explain the difference. Side out is if you're not serving and you get the point, it doesn't count.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

I mean, you get the ball back, but you don't get a point. Yeah. So that's how yeah, that's why we only went to fifteen. And rally means there's a point every time. Every single every single time a ball is served, someone's gonna score. Yeah. Either the serving team or the non-serving team. So when you get the ball back, you get a point. If you win as a serving team and get the ball back, you get the you get a point. So I did not like a rally scoring at the beginning, but it didn't like I was just old school. And in all ways, I'm still old school in many in many different things.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

So side out was all you'd ever done. Right. When did that change? Do you recall?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:55

I don't recall, but it was the early two thousands. Okay. Uh I don't remember for sure. Okay. But along with that came the fact that the ball could hit the net when you served. It could hit the net and drop over. Whereas before, it was like tennis. You had they called a let's serve and you had to reserve, or you that was it. So anyway, that was another change that came along. Interesting. And then the libero came into play.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

So that always hasn't been a thing?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:20

Nope, it's not always been a thing. So what's the one? Which gave a the libero as a defensive specialist who they differentiate them by putting them into a different colored jersey. And they can actually come in and not be counted as a substitute. So only one person can play that position, and I can have a libero who plays for two different people. So other than when they're out for half a rotation, they're in the whole match. So I have a defensive specialist in my back row at all times. So when you say defensive specialists, can they return serves and stuff like that? That's what they do the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:34

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:35

They serve that they return serves, they dig, but what they can't do is attack from the front row.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:40

They cannot be in the front row. Correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:42

They can get up there, but they're not allowed to send the ball over from the front row.

unknown 1:09:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

And if they attack, they have to do it from below the height of the net.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:50

So that means all they can do is basically set from the front row.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:55

Well, they can only bump set. They're not allowed to even use their hands above their head to set if they're in front of the two football. They can do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:05

But And they could send it over with that if they were the third.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:08

Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:10

That was a big change in the game. Now what's going on? It hasn't filtered down to the high school yet, but now they've are allowing two liberos in club volleyball, and they've been toying with it in some other areas. So they're still not allowing more than one on the court at one time, but you can in in some like with club, you can use two different people.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

So can you when you say you only allow they they don't count as a sub, do you only get so many substitutes per game? Substitutions?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:38

Yes. In high school, it's quite a few. We get 18 or 16, whatever it is. So but in club, we only got twelve. Because I do keep I I've all even though I quit coaching at the high school level, I continued to coach my club team. Yes. With the club that I was. Is that NSSC? I'm with NSSC. What does that stand for? It stands for North Scott and Stoddard Counties. Oh. Because Carl Ritter, who started the club. Is he a Bloomfield guy? Advance. Advance. Okay. So when he started his first club, he had girls from basically those those counties. And so where it came from, I don't know. I don't know where it came from. And at one time he was considering changing that, but we'd already had a couple teams that went to nationals. We kind of became a little more known as time progressed.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:25

And so there's no reason to change it, then nobody would know who you were.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

Correct. To be like, well, who is this? Yeah. So anyway, I I basically he asked me once about a name, and I said that's a silly name for a volleyball team. Just keep it in a session. And he did. That's all he has. But you know, back to any other changes. So when they're they continue to like like with club, we only get 12 subs. And I ran out of subs quite often this past season in my club team. On my high school team, I guess you get 16 subs. And so they would come to me and say, hey coach, you got four subs left. Hey coach, you got two subs left. So at this point, if you're in a a tough match, you got to decide what six do I want on the court. So you gotta be careful how you sub out. So but so is there six plus a libero or six including Liberos continue to switch. It does not count as a sub. So if they were switching with, say, for instance, my two middles, they can continue to do that even though you're locked in at those six people.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:26

Well, no, I'm saying so is there six on each side or six plus one? There's six people. They are one of the six. So okay, so there's five plus a libero, essentially. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:34

If you want to use a libero. Not everybody does. And you don't have to use a libero. Correct. Okay. It's an option that most people use.

Building Bulldog Nation Broadcasting

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

Don't the six, don't they have to rotate front line to back line kind of thing?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:45

They have a very specific order, and you can't go out of order. Matter of fact, you can't even line up out of order on serve. Or it's a an infraction. It's part of an overlap rule, and then they'll call it, and then you get the other team gets a point. I see. So you gotta be careful. And you can get very creative in that, but you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:06

Okay. So that's a yeah. I mean, I I watch volleyball, I've seen it. I don't know the as we say, the strategy of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:16

I I I use the same term a lot. My players look at me like, what?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

Yeah. Well, you know, one interesting thing that I I think has been a positive. We talked about some other positives with the Bulldog Nation Network. Not only resources, the equipment, updated equipment, the frankly more bodies. More more knowledgeable people, not more knowledgeable than you, but more than one knowledgeable person. Correct. They have, like you said, uh Josh and Matt. They they come very knowledgeable as well, besides their techs that they have.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:52

Now that I'm coaching again, every other year we have to do the Dig for Life tournament. Yes, and I have to miss Friday night because I have to be with my team. Right. They don't really want the team to go without a coach. No, but we still every other year have a football game on that Friday night. Yeah. So this year, as part of the A Corp Sports Media and the partnership we have with Bulldog Nation and A Corp, we have a built-in group of people. So they they sent someone to do my job. We never missed a lick. And just we just kept rolling. Right. That's the And I think I showed up towards the end of the I I got there and I just looked around because I didn't have anything to do, which is fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:35

Right. Well, but what what I think what I think has been another positive development is the fact that they are now showing volleyball games. I don't know how you could have been a producer, director, and the coach, but maybe you could have tried it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

They were they did actually broadcast four of our home games this year. Right. Which, knowing I was the coach, correct? They knew they had to bring her crew in. And now didn't Rachel do some play by play? Lauren Ray. I'm sorry. Lauren did. Okay. I'm sorry. Lauren was one of the uh I think she did color commentary. She did. And she and Philip. And Philip. Did he do all the people? I th he did at least three. She might have done one with someone else.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

Yeah. Yeah. So I I to me I think that's a positive. Other games and other teams or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

I know I did a couple district games. I did some regular season games. I even did a quarterfinal or sectional with them over at Advance. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:33

So I think that's the city, I guess. And they had started showing volleyball games don't hold me to this two or three maybe years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:43

I would say probably three-ish years.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

I I think that's a huge positive for our school that now we have that they are showing those.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:53

And as a matter of fact, on the way here to you to your place tonight, I got a text from Phil. Have you had a chance to talk to the girls' basketball coach anymore? Because I I I I talked to Emmy and Emmy and I said, Hey, we're gonna do a few girls' basketball games, or are any ones in particular you think would be a good one for us to do? She's not gotten back with me yet, and I'm waiting to talk to her so we can s uh schedule some girls' basketball games. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:19

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:20

We're not gonna do them all. We're you can do we do pretty much all the boys. Yes. Just because we always have, and you know, people and people have always said, Why don't you do girls, why don't you do girls? Well, we didn't have the people, what have you got to do?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:30

No, we did we did a couple of yeah you know we we did one or two last year.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:36

We've done a couple wrestling matches over the years, but we didn't do a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:39

No, well now again I was part of the initial conversation. Right. They want to build slowly. Correct. I mean, we don't want to overload our themselves and overload our people and all that stuff, dipping their toe in. Like you said, they did four matches, they're gonna do some wrestling matches, which I don't know that I think I've done I've done two or three over the years.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:02

Right. But usually no more than one at season. Correct. And I would, you know, the the wrestling coach would say, Hey, this would be a good one. It's gonna be a try meet, we're gonna have more stuff going on, or have you.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:11

And so that they are picking that up. They are also, again, doing some girls' basketball along with boys' basketball.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:21

In year two, we're discussing the possibilities of how we can work it out in some of the outdoor venues. Yeah, yeah. We don't know. Soccer, baseball. Correct, soccer, baseball, softball. We we don't know how that's gonna because like our soccer program is way over in the complex and they'd really don't have Ethernet. So we gotta figure stuff like that out, you know. You know, those kind of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:48

The one thing we I recall talking about with Luke was they did some summer baseball with with the squirrels, and the temperatures really took a toll on their equipment.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:58

Well, in in the heat of the summer, that would be in in in the spring, it's not typically super hot, but we might get more rain then, and you don't have to cover that stuff up.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:08

And we don't have the number of cameras that they have to choose from for different shots. So baseball would be a very tough one, not impossible. Right. So we're we're we're talking about in in the future. And I know that they're speaking of maybe even having another school added maybe next year or the year after, so maybe even a couple.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

But he said before we expand, we were going to get yours right, basically. And we're we felt like we're in a business sense, quote unquote, first to market, that we get that we were the first one, I won't say we're the first one that had this idea. We were the first one that took action on the idea that I feel like that sets us apart that we that we have this already. We have our own network. And and we already did with YouTube with you and and what you did and and other schools had, but this I think this may it different is because it's a partnership with an actual media company. Not that what you did was terrific, the graphics were terrific. The equipment for what we did, like you said, they were very impressed with what we had, but they've just kicked it up a notch. I mean, they just they have the resources that a school doesn't have.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:27

Right. It's it's it's been fun, it's been nice. And hey, it was a learning bit for me because I realized because I'm I don't know what they call me. They call me director, producer. That's why I put director, producer, and know what I'm considered with them, but I I'm the head guy here. Let's put it that way. But I learned early on that some of the stuff that I've been in charge of, I don't have to be in charge of, even though it's our school. Now they say you still are the head guy, you're the one, but they're doing some of it and I don't have to. The graphics have taken me a bit to get I don't want to say hands off, but just realize I don't have to do all this myself. Don't have to worry about all that. You know, like for football, they got a guy that creates all their graphics, and so the graphics package is dropped into a drop box. I then inserted into my local stuff here at the school, and wow, I'm just but in the beginning I was like, I don't know how I feel about this.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:31

Right. Kind of kind of taking stepping in marking marking their territory, so to speak, right? Yeah, no, I understand that. It's it's it's different. Yeah, they've got their own 7 a.m. alarm. Was that you or me? I don't know what that was. That's all right. That's not it'll it'll cut it out. Well they have they have a guy that sits at a computer and he runs all the commercials. That's a little different than what you had. We never had a commercial.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:00

We would just Derek and I or whoever Well actually we never did it because technically as an educational program we couldn't. Correct. Because that was one of the things I had to I on YouTube, I have to say, are you know, are you being monetized or are you not? If you are, there's things you gotta be careful of. Yes. So we didn't monetize, which meant I couldn't run commercials. Right. I could run PSAs. Yes. And we did that occasionally. Yes. But I got to the point where we didn't even do that very often. No.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:28

And that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:29

When I had students, my students would create PSAs to play.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:32

Click it or tick it or whatever.

Volleyball Evolution And Strategy 101

SPEAKER_02 1:21:34

Yeah. Yeah. But normally Derek and I would just hit mute and that would be our commercial break, and then we would come back on.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:41

And if you want to be honest about it, we got kind of lazy when it came to that kind of thing because we could have easily had a public service announcement by Misha. We could have, you know, we we could have done all kinds of things that we did not do. Right. But we did do a lot of things well in a lot of things. Of course, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:56

Of course. I recall one time the the field house was playing a song and it picked up on your YouTube and shut us down for copyright. And you were like, What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:10

And I you know, that that's exactly what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:12

Freaked out for a second, then I guess you got some sort of notification and then had to reset the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:16

I had to be very you had to be very careful. So I basically talked to the guy who plays music and said, please, during halftime, don't play ACDC because whoever owns the rights to ACDC is the most strict, stringent group to go out and cut off your stuff. And some now that they got to the point where they would just mute us during that time. We wouldn't be claw, we wouldn't be lopped off, but we would be muted during that period of time. Right. Well, and I and then later on I have to answer a couple questions and say, Do you want this removed or you want to just keep it you know before you upload it, so to speak? Well, it's already been uploaded. Oh. And which is the reason why we got knocked. Anyway. Anytime my boom mic, which which just to get ambient sound inside the fieldhouse, people clapping, cheering, and uh, you know, the squeaking of the shoes on the floor. Right. It picks up those little snippets timeouts and things. Uh-huh. As long as you guys are talking during those, it's not a big deal. But during halftime when you guys are taking a short break, I gotta be very careful about that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:23

I see. Well, it was I do recall you were kind of like, what are we doing? What's going on? And then I'm like, you're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:30

Why did we just go black?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:31

Right, right. The screen just kind of went blank, kind of thing. Right. Well, it's it it it's a it's an interesting proposition, and we are we're blessed to to to have them, and we're blessed to have you that with the knowledge and all that stuff that that we have to frankly bring top top quality, top notch programming to our folks. I mean, that you can that literally now with the advent of YouTube and the internet, you can watch it from anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:02

I think I I started, I I moved us away from charter probably around the year 2017-2018. Because at the time we we we had a charter provided us a educational access channel. And things were all turning to high definition. And so I went to Charter and I said, Hey, can we have a high definition channel? And through a process of emails through their corporate whatever's they decided they did not have to do that. It wasn't part of the contractual stuff that they needed to provide us. Probably if we did it today, they would do that automatically.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:45

I look at that now and I'm like, I I gotta put glasses on. And I was like, this is fuzzy.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:50

Yeah. Yeah, isn't that crazy? So high definition, I I I had high definition cameras, but I didn't have all the high def monitors and stuff that has to go with that, and you have to purchase new equipment for all those things. But I did have the ability to record in high def, and I also had the ability to play it back if they would have provided me the bandwidth to do that. Yeah. The the ability to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:13

So when did when did you switch to a YouTube channel?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:15

It was 2017-2018. Okay. So finally, and I did this kind of on my own. I didn't even like go to anybody and ask permission. I just quit doing stuff on charter completely. I just cut us off. And then people, of course, would get those complainers, especially the old people who had basic cable at the time. Right. You know, that they wanted to well, in the beginning w the basic cable people couldn't even see us because they moved us from channel twelve.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:40

989. 985. 985, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:44

You know, I had badges that said SPS TV twelve, SPS TV twelve, you know, these stickers, SPS TV twelve. Except where the 985. SBS TV 985 just didn't have the ring. So anyway, I started just said, you know what, I'm going to figure out this YouTube thing. And I did, and so we started doing that. And so where are all those games that were recorded before that?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:08

Do you still have them?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:09

Well, that's the issue that people don't understand. All the things that were recorded back in the nineties and the early 2000s were done on VHS tape. And VHS tape was never meant to be a long-term media to save stuff. Does it so anytime anytime someone would say, Hey, would you play that championship game from nineteen eighty-seven, you know, my son would like a copy of that because he was the senior that year, you know, whatever. Those tapes are gummy, degrading, sticky, and they would break, and it would it that it would really gum up the heads on our VCRs when we're trying to get those recorded for people to be put either on another piece of tape or onto a at the time I was able to do it to a DVD. Yeah. So we have a lot of tapes that are sitting over in our Z warehouse that if I tried to play them, they're brittle and they, you know, because it was never meant to be that long. If you were to go digging, you know, like my at my house, my children all in their 30s now. We have every Disney movie, we have all these kitty movies on VHS before we started purchasing DVDs. I would be afraid to actually run those through a VCR if I could find one.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:33

I was just gonna say, I'm not sure I haven't seen a VCR in quite a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:38

So anyhow.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:39

I I d I didn't I didn't recall I didn't didn't I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:42

Yeah. So we have a lot of things that were never archived because when we tried to do some of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:50

How do you get that? Is there any other way to get that off other than play it?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:53

Technically, I guess you could send it off to a company that conditions the stuff before they do it, but there's no guarantee it would be you know very good. Because I have people all the time say, Hey, I got this old Super 8 film, you know, and I'm going, sorry, you know, I used to have a projector because someone gave it to me so I could do theirs, you know, and then I would but no longer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:15

What's the so we talked obviously a little bit about the technology. What is a what is a behind the scenes, what does that look like? Like let's say last Friday we had the game against Charleston. What does that day look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:30

Well, it's a little better now.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:31

Oh, well, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:33

I have camera people, and so what we what we do is we have three camera shoot, so we have to set up three tripods, three cameras, and all the connections that go down from on top of the press box, and then they have play ways to plug them in so we get the feed down into the laptop, into the switcher, which goes into a laptop now. And so used to before this year, I would have to do all that myself during game early in the day on game day. Also, I have to change out the scoreboard for the video screen up which is on the field, because that's part of what I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:11

Does somebody else do that part now?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:12

No, I still do that. You still do the scoreboard. I still do those things because I've I've had that since it first came, seven or eight, nine years, whatever it's been. Right. So now I get a couple camera people who I say, Hey, what are you doing around 3 30, 4 o'clock today? So they'll come for 30, 45 minutes and help set up stuff and get things ready. And then we could actually leave for a few minutes before we have to go. But you we gotta prepare graphics. We gotta do things like that. Now, with them creating the graphics for our graphics packages, you know, w which which would include the sc little the little scoreboard that's on screen. You guys, as you speak about the other the opponent's team, we got some statistics from their season, we got it for us. All those things are created now in Malden at A Corps at Acorp Media's home, dropped in the Dropbox, and I just have to insert them into VMix and have them placed where they're ready to roll. Whereas in the past, I had to create all that myself. So obviously took some time. Very much.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:18

So now you're you're because I can hear you from time to time or before we go on the air, and Derek and I, or whoever are sitting there, and you're going, all right, zoom in here, no, back away from here. And you're and you're directing the cameras on get the flag in this one because we're doing the national anthem.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:35

Three camera people, and they're all on intercom with me. And I have camera one, camera two, camera three, camera three, camera two. I need you to get a shot of the band. I need camera three, get the flag get the flag. I need you to get down to the bulldog head because the kids are about to start running out, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:50

Right. So you're you're directing all of that behind the scenes. And then switching between those cameras. That's that's what I was getting ready to ask. So you know, so when they're playing the obviously the Nath national anthem, you're on the band andor the flag. And then then you switch immediately to when the team runs out and the music playing. So yeah, you've got to make you've got to decide. What what makes sense chronologically? Obviously, you don't want to be showing the flag and the team's running out, or vice versa.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:18

And we have a we have a during the mat during the game, we'll have a camera that's basically the game cam. Yep. And then we have the other two that are getting different things. We call them hero cams. Okay. So some guy makes a great catch, we immediately cut to him after he, you know, gets the touchdown or what have you. So we we we give grandma in Florida a chance to see their grandson who just caught a touchdown pass, right? Cut to them and get a close-up of him as he's, you know, waving his hands in the air or handing the ball to the ref or whatever he does. Instead of just having that big wide shot from the game cam.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:54

Well, and the the the instant replay, and maybe you had that ability before, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:59

We did, and at different times we had people who could run it at times we didn't. Yeah. Well now they're just built in. It's built in, so they just click uh the they they click an amount of time they want to drop back and then start playing it at whatever speed we want to play it. Right. We usually play it back full speed, but we can run it at 50, we can run it at 75%. We wouldn't wear that slower. So I could say, stop it right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:26

That's the best one. The Telestrator for me has been the best.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:29

And they were so excited to be able to tell you about that. Oh, I was so fired up. You mentioned that for years. If I only had a telestrator, you know. And I'd say it jokingly. That's right. Why can't I have? And so he came in, I guess it was our second football game. Yeah, it was early. Um I can't wait till Mac gets here because I figured out the Telestrator is kind of built into VMix now. Yeah. And I got my iPad, and I'm just gonna sit in front of him and show him what he can do. Oh, it's and you were afraid to touch it the first day.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:00

Well, I was. I just because I thought, man, I'm gonna mess this up and didn't want to inadvertently draw something inappropriate on there that sometimes I'm like, oh no, that doesn't look right. And then of course now just keep it to lines and circles. I would tell him, All right, I'm I'm gonna do something here, and he would quote unlike turn that on, and then he would turn it off. Well now he just leaves it on. He was like, Look, don't touch anything unless you're ready to do that. Because like if we're at a commercial and I start drawing on something, it's gonna show it.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:33

A yellow or red line or whatever color you decide just pop up on the screen.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:37

Right. So you I have to pay attention. Last week I used it a little bit. There was a the connection was weird. Uh it it kept buffering on the the actual iPad that I had in front of it. I had to keep resetting it. And it I I got it done a couple times. It's it's way we are so far ahead right now of where other schools are with replay and telestrator. Are you kidding me? Right. For a high school broadcast? I mean, are you kidding me?

Partnership With AyCorp Media

SPEAKER_01 1:34:03

And it's nice to have that transition that tells you it's a replay as it goes into the replay, yes, and then when it goes back to live, it says, you know, it's so the whole time you know, hey, this is a replay.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:15

Right. Right. You know. It's they are they are top notch. This is their job. I mean, where before you were edu an educator during the day trying to work this job into that, and now this is what they do all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:33

Right. In the past, I'd had to take my afternoon block on Fridays and say, okay, we're going down to set up cameras. Right. Now I need you to go down and put a microphone on the 50 yard line. I need you to come, you know, and you two go here and do, you know, carry the stuff up top. Did you have three cameras back in the we could have mainly I ran two. I'd have one on the sideline and one on top. Yep. But that one on the sideline was cabled, so we had to basically have two or three what we called grips, people who made sure that the cable was picked up.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:03

Best boy or gaffer. I see all those on the thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:07

Those are a little different.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:09

Yeah. A grip. A key grip or just a grip? Just a grip. Just a grip, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:15

And so they were holding the what they would do is the f the c the guy or or gal, actually, sometimes, would closest to the camera would make sure there was a little slack so they didn't the camera guy didn't take off and go, oops, and then pull the cable out of the back of the camera. So that could be a problem. Right. Yeah. And the only mishap we ever had was a couple times our kids were on the sideline while the play came to them. And one time they got wiped out and the camera landed directly on the lens. Oh, of course. It kind of broke the so we had to get that lens trans that piece re welded, which cost a couple few hundred dollars just to have a little tiny weld put on the side.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:56

I thought it was going to save. I mean, that's exp that's plenty. That's enough. But the lens itself was fine. Yeah. So there one of the things I think we talked about originally when they were wanting to do this. I think it was Andy, maybe. I don't want to throw him under bus I'm not throwing him under the bus, but he we were wanting to get someone on the field and do, you know, those interviews as the coaches walk off the field at halftime.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:20

There was a time when we actually did some of that back when when when Rodney was there.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:24

Well, but I was he I was yeah, they did, but I was talking about like right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:28

And they I I don't know, I guess again.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:30

That takes a special person to handle that. Yep. To be able to know what to say to what to ask. The coaches, you know, it when you watch college football, those guys aren't I feel bad for the coach who's losing by twenty at halftime, headed to the and and they grab him and they say, Coach, what do you gotta do different?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:50

You know, and he's like score more points. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:53

Get out of my face. I gotta go talk to my guys. Right, right, right. I gotta go scream and yell or pump them up, or you know, whatever. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:59

So Right. Right. Well, that's uh I I know we talked about that originally. Maybe maybe more to come. Again, I they say they're dipping their toe in. I feel like we're we're in like chest deep, in my opinion. I I mean I I'm sure there are other things that that Well, they're constantly bringing up what do you think we could do?

SPEAKER_01 1:37:20

Could we do this? Could we add that? You know, and so you know it it it's like everything else. It depends on how much money you want to put into it and how if you got the people to do it. Right. I mean the knowledge is just a matter of acquiring it or getting the money.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:36

I mean nobody everybody's got that, right? It's not a big deal, especially with school districts, right? There's never budget issues at schools. I mean, come on. Right. We've talked about a lot of the technology that's different. Are there any uh memorable like on the air moments or or forget forgettable moments?

SPEAKER_01 1:37:57

You know, you've always got those ones that you talk about, but you don't want to broadcast. So I actually there's been a couple inappropriate things that have been caught in audio. Oh you know, because we have a microphone at the 50-yard line that is live. Oh boy. And so you got cheerleaders on one side of the mic, you got football players right directly on the other side, and you got coaches who get a little colorful at times. So, you know, you know, that there's always those kind of things. Is there one one of my favorite stories is I had a I had a student and he he was I don't want to say special needs, but he was uh he was one that I wasn't sure I really wanted him on the main game camera. I see. But he was dying to do a camera. So we had a game, and this has been a number of years ago, and he was just like Mr. B, Mr. B, can I get out? So I finally said put So I I the kid who was on already, I said, Hey, give whatever his name was, let him give him the give him the deal, give him the hand, you know, let him have the camera. It was on a tripod up top on the press box, but you stay right next to him. Because I just just in case. So we get going and I I said, okay, Mikey, let's say his name was Mikey. I said, I want you to get the shot when the quarterback, whatever happens, keep the quarterback in the play until he either throws the ball or hands it off. Then you stay with the ball. So the first play occurs, the camera is facing right down the line of scrimmage, the quarterback drops back to pass, he's not in the shot. And I go, Mikey, Mikey, get the quarterback, get the quarterback, get the quarterback. Nothing. So they come back, so hit he finally finds the line of scrimmage again. Same exact thing. And so finally I said, Hey, um, give the headset to so-and-so, whoever was on it before. Oh, no, I'm sorry. That was not yet. I said, Hey, Mikey, you're supposed to keep the quarterback and the ball in the shot. And I hear, Mr. B, and I said, Yes. He goes, Which one's the quarterback? Oh no. So I learned then I had to have a little football chat with kids because they may not be aware of what happens in a football game. Right. Like so I would ask, Do you know what the line of scrimmage is? Do you know who the quarterback is? Do you know when there's a punt, what that means? You know, those kind of things. You know, I just said when he said that to me, which one's the quarterback? I said, a hand the headset back to so and so. And I said, Ask him to back up and take the camera back.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:42

So gotcha. That you you never thought you would have to have football one-on-one with your No, not with a high school kid. Right, right. Well.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:52

But I learned, yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:55

Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Well I the the ones we have now, of course I know one's your son, one's your son-in-law, and I don't maybe I've met Elizabeth. I don't I don't know her.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:08

She was a student of mine. Okay. She actually was a junior my last year to teach. So when I left, of course the program went away. So she then went her senior year to Brian's class and went to graphic arts.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:20

Oh, I see. No. And they they they do top-notch work. Can they hear Derek and me while we're talking? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:27

We don't ha have that ability. Okay. If you were doing it for ABC, you know, when I worked with KBSI, we sometimes would get hired on some of our people to do like a college basketball game over in Indiana or over in Springfield. We had the ability to not only but by pushing a button on our camera to hear the announcers if we wanted to.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:50

Well, I I wasn't aware of that and I won't I still won't change what I do, but I still want to give them a shout-out because they they deserve it. Like I said, you and them and the others there. Uh again, it depends sometimes week to week that the guy that's operating the computer is different. His name was Matt as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:08

And Matt and Matt and Matt's a new guy with them. Yeah. They hired him right about the time we started the football season.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:15

The first they had a different guy there, first time or game or two. I can't recall his name.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:18

It was one of their people. Oh, okay. Yes. I think Spencer might have been there, maybe. Yeah, I think he was. And so they hired this guy, and he's that they thought, well, he doesn't live down in the boot heel like a lot of them do. Some of them live in Dexter, some of them live in Maldon, some of them live even further south. And so this guy is like, I don't know, he's closer.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:36

I see.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:37

Blodgett bitten. Oh, okay. Maybe he's got a good one. No, he does a great job. But he got injured and had to have uh some problems. He had some problems with his knee and was unable to come. If you notice when he came Friday, he did have like it was all in big long brace. Yeah, I think it was. But he was able to actually come up the come up the uh stairs to the press box and be able to sit there all night with his leg like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:58

One interesting change for Derek and me, and it I think that first night it took us uh or actually not us, it took Derek a little change was we like there would be a timeout or a change of possession, and we were looking at each other and I'm like, Are we going to commercial? and nothing happened. And finally I was like, Well, what do we do? He goes, You have to tell us to go to commercial. I'm like, Oh. And so I'd nudge Derek and he'd go, We'll be right back. Or something, Bulldog Nation Network powered by A Corp Sports. And then they would start showing commercials because I was like, I thought they did it.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:32

That you would have to throw it to commercial.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:33

Right, right. Because he kept looking at me, he's like, Are they going to commercial? And I'm like, I guess not. And then finally he was like, No, you have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:42

Oh well, you you both become old pros at it now because you do it just automatically. So that's been great.

Behind The Scenes: Game Day Workflow

SPEAKER_02 1:43:47

Yeah, no, I think it's it's uh it it's great. It is it it just a little bit of a learning curve. I think Luke might have been there that first night, maybe. I or maybe no, he texted me, maybe he was watching it just to kind of see how it was going, I think maybe. I can't recall.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:00

Andrew was there the first time.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:01

That's right. Andrew was there, he sure was.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:03

And he's the one that creates all the graphics. Yeah. They they do a great job. And Andrew and Spencer and Josh, those guys are all full timers. Yes, this is this is what this is their job. Right. This is what they do. Right. And like tonight they're doing a foot they're they're doing a football. Well, tomorrow I guess this is not Friday, is it?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:20

No, this is Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:21

They're doing volleyball probably. They're in Bell City or somewhere doing a volleyball district right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:28

Mm-hmm. That's right. Yeah. It's a Leopold advance game, I think. Okay. Is that what it is? It's it's it's one of those little smaller.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:37

One of the other things kind of behind the scenes, they give us like the intro to read. A binder. Yeah. Oh yeah, it's it's just top-notch stuff. It's a binder, comes filled with stats about both teams, schedules, rankings, things for us to read, talking about another podcast that Dave Jenkins and uh Andrew, Andrew Moore, uh and Andrew Moore, Drew, Drew and Dave is what it's called. They have their podcast, so we talk blurb about that. We talk about upcoming broadcast either on Bulldog Nation Network or the Acorp Sports Regional, where they do different games. Obviously, Bulldog Nation Network is just Sexton games, so we have other stuff that we have read-ins and stuff to do. So it's I mean, it's top notch. And again, we walk in, this is just laying there. Right now, Phillip a lot of times will text me on Tuesday, Wednesday, hey, can you get me some stats kind of things? Right. And and and they but all I'd do is get it and just send it to them. I don't I don't want to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:38

Sure. And can you get their lineups, possible lineups, and maybe a couple blurbs from them? Yeah. What what are the what are their keys to the game? Right. Two or three points that they're gonna be like, this is what we need to do to beat this team, kind of a thing. Right. And so we have those talking points before the match as we're watching warm-ups to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:58

So I've done a basketball game. I say I've done probably two or three with Acorp where Sykes and has played somewhere and they're like, hey, will you come on and do the game for us? And I did that. The thing that is to me is different with that is they are we have a monitor. We literally have a monitor where before, again, I'm not being critical, it's just different. It's an upgrade. We have a monitor where Derek and I get to watch the game.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:21

And actually see what's on again. That's how we know when we're back from commercial. See grass. Yeah. We're back. They they have that in basketball. Now they did this.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:35

They probably give you statistics on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:37

That's what I was getting ready to say. They do. Last year, there's a board in front of us with stats for both teams points, fouls, rebounds, turnovers, assists, yada yada yada. And I'm thinking, holy crap, shooting percentage. Yeah. You know, when Richard and I did it last year, we were like looking at each other because I can't talk and keep stats. There's no way. I got I'm not that smart. I can't do two things at once. And all I'd do is go at halftime and take a picture of the scorebook.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:06

You need an iPhone to take a photo of the scorebook to come back up and go over them and then talk about it before the second half.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:12

Right. I could go over points and free throws.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:14

Well, there are other ways that we could bring more information in. Yeah. That you have to purchase pieces of equipment that attach to your your your scoreboard controller or and other things, which we just never spent the money for.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:27

No, no, I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:28

These guys. I mean, they they have people who are sitting there on an iPad doing stats. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:32

That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:33

I mean, they bring when they come, they bring a few people. They don't just bring a truck with two guys. No, especially and they're and their camera people show up and then they're positions and they got and during the SEMO conference. That's what I was getting ready to say. They got a guy who is the he's the interviewer. Right. Joe, I think it's Joe Northern, and and so he and I worked close hand in hand last year because I was doing the recording of him and then cutting his. I was editing and handing it in so they could have it to play back. I see. While the game is going on now. Right. I'm over here editing and I hand them a flash drive and say, Here you go, and they plop it in and say, Okay, at halftime we're gonna play this. It's this interview of the coach for the next game.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:17

Right, right. Either the game that just happened or whatever. Yeah, they'll it's uh I mean it's just top quality stuff, and you see them, you probably if if you're a fan just at the game and not seeing this, down on the stage end of the field house behind the bleachers, like behind where the red peppers would sit, they've got a table of like six guys sitting there of producers and directors and editors and whatever they're doing there, and then they've got one, two, three cameras, four three cameras. Three cameras.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:50

They have a game cam, a hero cam, and then they have another angle down in the corner by the stage. And I mean it's which is what we're gonna do for our for our games this year. Correct. The third one is questionable right now. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:07

At that point, it's all all hands on deck, so to speak, with with them doing that. And so it's uh it's top quality. And again, like we had talked about, I think when we had Luke on here, was you know, the infrastructure's there. All they do is, you know, 30 minutes before the game or an hour, and like, heck yeah, because normally they're there at two o'clock because they're changing every week. You know, they're going.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:29

And one one of the big questions they had for the first football game is do we have Ethernet here? Do we have the ability to do? And I'm like, dude, we got what you need. And I'd say, Hey Kim, hey Steve, we got these people here, you know, and they'd boop, they'd be over in five minutes and hook them into the switch and ready to roll. Rolling. And now it's just automatic. They're right, they already know where to go. Right. Yeah. This is because they've gone to some small venues, they've told me that there's no switch close, you know, and they're trying to figure out how are we going to get this Ethernet to buildings over. You know, we got can we use Wi-Fi, you know, they those kind of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:09

So Wi Fi can sometimes be spotty. It can be it can be buffery and all kinds of stuff, but they're they're top quality stuff, and that and that's what they said. For us to come here and essentially just walk in and start working is is simple. Yeah. The the hard part is them going.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:29

Well, our network people have already opened up the channels for them to be able to use.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:33

Well, but I mean, like if they're going like Sykston, they're here every every basketball game, or let's just say. Even again, girls, boys, wrestling, whatever, all the cameras are ready. But if they go to Advanced this Friday night for a basketball game, then they go to Cape Central next week and Jackson, they're all different. They're there at noon probably, trying to figure out to make sure they're there in enough time to get set up, find the ether.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:56

They've had an advanced crew go to spot all that out. They do, and they make a decision on what what time do we need to arrive with our van to unload, get hooked up, and get it working an hour before the game.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:08

Right. Right. Right. So but yeah, that they this is simple stuff. Yeah. And again, we're so blessed to have them, blessed to have you, the the team behind all this. Again, I I do like I do here, put on the headphones, start talking. It's pretty pretty simple stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:26

If I decided one day I just don't want to do the school thing anymore, I could call up and say, Hey Luke, and he'd say, Hey, join us. Yeah. No, of course. They actually I I am a I am an employee of theirs now. Yeah. I mean, they took part of my contract. Yes. And and they're paying it instead of the school paying it. Correct. Because I'm working with them slash for them. Yeah. And then I still have a smaller contract with the school for things that are not related to these things. Yep. Besides my coaching, which is a different thing altogether.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:54

Right. Right. No, I think everybody wins in this deal. And like I said, it's great for me. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, you're not you don't have to feel like, well, man, if I walk away, then the whole deal shuts down. And and I that's not who you are, so I mean you're just like, well, uh Well, like you said, if something happened to me. Well, yeah, anything could happen. If you're on a you get stuck out of town, can't get back. Or what what if you get COVID?

SPEAKER_01 1:52:20

I do I do the camera, I'm in charge of the camera work for the big screen at the rodeo. And one year my wife and I decided we're going to Mexico, and it happened to be we were taking a vacation during rodeo. I thought it might be the end of my time, and that was an easy way for me to transition out of doing the rodeo, and they had to figure out what are we gonna do, da da da. And when I came back, the first thing I got a phone call was please come back. So whatever they had to fill in didn't work very well. I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:50

So I see you and Steven out there, right? And others? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:53

Is Ben out there too? It it went from me alone standing and shoot one amongst all the mud, the blood, and the beer, and um others and excrement to a second camera person, which was uh I brought Steven in, and he was he's been in a couple different locations to them wanting to now they're on the can't the cowboy channel, which some of that is now being dictated by the cowboy channel. I see. So they changed some of the positioning of the cameras, and so Steven has one that is just a micro, I mean i it's microwave. So he's able to wander around without any cable. Oh and he actually gets out into the rodeo arena during some of the events. And I'm I'm in a different venue, d different spot, and then Ben is up, my son-in-law is up in uh the catwalk or the uh crow's nest, so to speak. Yep. So things have really grown up and gotten better there, or I shouldn't say better, they're different. Different.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:54

With with the cowboy channel dictating some of the things, I think some of the people aren't quite as happy with the fact that they require this and this and this. But that's a big deal. It's exposure to the to the JCP on a national network. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:09

So it's a it's a it's a big deal that we're doing that.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:12

And I've done that for well since 2004, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:17

No kidding. I didn't realize it had been that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:21

Just me and the guy who came along with the board. Oh.

Replays, Telestrator, And Broadcast Upgrades

SPEAKER_02 1:54:25

They bring the board in, they hook it up, and then you know, he and I would chit-chat over the intercom and everything has gotten to be you know bigger and better, and that that's I think that's part of it. Well, Steve, I didn't send you these, but now we've come to the time of the rapid fire round. Uh-oh. I call it like it's almost like the this or that.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:49

Gonna be Can I answer yes or no?

SPEAKER_02 1:54:52

I see the panic on his face. No, these are just these are funny. Favorite gym or venue you've ever coached or broadcasted in? SEMO. Not how the how Show Me Center.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:05

Show me center.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:06

Show me center. It's fantastic. We did two Sykston games there. Yes. Scott County Central. Oh, that's right. We at the time I still I I still had my ex student who was working for us. So the two of us, I think Richard might have had something to do with to Richard McGill. He might have helped us with I don't know, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:25

But anyway, that was I did this I'm trying to recall. No, I didn't do yeah. I think Richard helped with that. I think that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:34

Didn't we win one, lose one? Correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:35

Won the first one, lost the second.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:37

I would say that. So I've kind of taken your rapid out of it by talking too long.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:41

Nah. It's totally fine. Do you have a pregame ritual before like going live? Is there something you do like every like before we like because you look at Derek and me normally or whoever the and go, what time do I want to go on? Seven minutes or ten minutes or eight minutes. Is there something you have like a ritual you do every time? Like, you know, some guys when they go bat, they gotta draw a cross on the ground or whatever. Do you got something like that you do? Not really.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:07

Just look around, make sure everybody's gonna be. Well, that's a bummer question. Let me scratch that off there. Sorry, thanks, Steve. Uh I go to the bathroom for the people maybe. I don't I don't really know.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:18

Harder to manage, a volleyball team or a broadcast crew? Volleyball team. That there was no hesitation.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:25

A lot of moving parts there. I love it. I love it. A lot of connections to players with that people that are connected to them that are part of that whole regular. Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:38

Favorite bulldog athlete you've ever watched play. I have an idea of who they might be. Might be a couple.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:48

Well other than my daughters. That's who I was gonna say. Other than my daughters, I would I would probably say well, I've had a few really good ones. I had one who was a running back that was in my class, and he didn't want to do nothing but edit the football. But I would say probably Fred was probably one of the I just loved to watch him play. Work so hard, play so hard. So intense and just so competitive. Yep. But before that, Michael Porter was quite fun to watch. Agreed. Agreed. That whole that whole group that he was with was just and of course they were the ones that were going against his cousin at the seam. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:26

What a crazy atmosphere that was. My gosh. Do you have a go-to post-game meal or a snack?

SPEAKER_01 1:57:33

No, I really don't. Well, that's a big here's a big deal. Usually if we're in a at that during football, I usually have nachos because you know it's just Adam walking around with nachos a lot. Well he goes over to the world's greatest and gets the really good ones from over the. Yeah, he gets the ones from the booster club. Um I just get a regular set of nachos with jalapenos on it. So I'm really not that hungry. But after a volleyball game, home, we have uh that it's been the last couple years since I've been back. Parents have provided meals by getting sponsors for meals for the girls. Nice. Which is nice. So, you know, we have the Grecian one night, we have Jay's another night, we have Dairy Queen, we have Pizza Inn. I mean, we have every home game, there's a different sponsor that our parents have gone around and gotten.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:30

That's outstanding.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:31

So give me whatever they give me.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:34

So whatever that's your favorite because it's free, right? And it's after the game.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:38

And it's a community thing. Yeah, absolutely from the community.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:41

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:42

It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:43

Unbelievable. I I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:45

Our parents do that. And on away matches, our parents provide snacks and drinks and they put them on the bus. Now there's a particular mother who's in charge of that, but other people have donated or given to that for it to be able to fill up our tub of snacks and our cooler of drinks.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:03

Love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:04

That's that's terrific. Non-alcoholic drinks, people.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:07

Well duh, of course. What's your favorite piece of broadcast tech you can't live without?

SPEAKER_01 1:59:17

I would say it would have to be a camera.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:20

I was gonna say I remember our TriCaster. Tricaster. I was gonna say that was I recall that name all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:28

And we're not even using the TriCast.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:30

No, no, no, I know. Yeah, that was that was that was so last year.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:34

But well no, what we probably well I I don't have to, but I may still use that for like graduation in in the football stadium or in the fieldhouse if it's raining. But yeah. Gotcha. I love the TriCaster. It's so much capability built into one box.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:50

Nice. But I have no earthquake.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:53

In general, we have to have a camera.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:59

Oh true. True. That's essentially what you have with those huddle cameras. Well, and yeah. If you could call any sporting event in the world, which would it be? You mean as an announcer? Or as a well, I'm sorry, I that's what it said call. If you could broadcast any event in the world, what would it be? If you could be behind the scenes broadcasting. I bet that'd be quite the undertaking.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:29

I did a lot of college basketball when I worked at the TV station and I enjoyed that a lot. Yeah. And you get paid a lot of money for it for one game, for one day's work. But um yeah, Super Bowl would just be incredible just to see it all the moving parts.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:45

I c I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:46

And it takes them a week or so to get prepared for that.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:48

Yeah, well, we think a couple of hours is a is a long time. They're they're there the week before getting everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:55

Those guys know their stuff and they're snapping fingers and cameras are changing scene. I mean, it's just crazy.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:00

Oh yeah. That's cool. Last one. More stressful a fifth set tiebreaker or a live stream live stream crash.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:11

Ooh, a crash?

SPEAKER_02 2:01:13

Like we like we crashed out with ACDC.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:16

Probably yeah, probably would be the crash would be the most stressful. Especially if the game is on the line that that we're broadcasting. Because a fifth you know, uh a fifth set is kind of stressful. It's quick. It's a sprint, it's only going to fifteen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:34

But usually it's kind of there's a little buildup to it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Anyway. Well, Steve Mann, we have learned a lot tonight about you, about tech, about volleyball.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:48

I have no idea why you invited me here except, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:52

Well, Steve, I asked nine other people this week and they were all busy.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:57

I was gonna when you asked me, I was like, so how far down the list are we?

SPEAKER_02 2:02:02

No, you've been on the list from it there's a lot of scheduling. As as weird as this sounds, actually, I've not had anyone turn me down. Believe it or not. Well, I have not. And and I I've wondered, I'm like, I'm not, I'm not anybody special. What you get to talk about yourself for an hour, hour and a half.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:22

And you get to talk about the bulldog nation. Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:24

And you well, but we're talking about things that you're passionate about, or whoever that passion, or whoever that person is.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:30

With me, it's the two V's. I got volleyball and video, and that's that's what I do. And you put them together, you got a W.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:36

Look at that. That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:37

It's uh I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:39

It's an easy thing. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:40

So I didn't even get a chance to talk about the fact that my family is all almost works for Sykes of Public Schools.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:47

Listen, spit you put it put it out there.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:50

No, I I was just saying, you know, I was just thinking in preparation for what could potentially be offered answered. You know, you know, Lauren Ray is a kindergarten teacher. Ben teaches at SCTC doing the pl project lead the way engineering thing, yeah, or whatever it's called now.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:04

And um that's Ben is Lauren's husband.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:06

And and my wife is a principal at Wing.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:10

Correct. And Adam works at Wing in the in the cafeteria. Correct. So Rachel used to be an educator. Yes. Of course, she did it in St. Louis and coached volleyball up there, and now she decided I just want to be a photographer because her business took off so big.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:26

She's if you haven't seen her stuff, is it called Rachel Gracie Ray. Gracie Ray. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:32

And those are the those are basically the middle names of her two children. I see. But her oldest Aubrey is Aubrey Grace. Okay. And I've always teased that everybody had to have the middle name Ray, because that's my middle name. So I started calling her Gracie Ray. And then when she had Adelaide, her name is Ray. Adelaine Ray. Oh, that's funny. She took their two middle names, put them together, and has Gracie Ray photography.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:59

I love it. I I didn't know how that came about. Yeah. But I used to tease Is Adam's Adam Ray?

SPEAKER_01 2:04:04

No, he's no. I'm the only Ray in the mail.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:08

But uh Ste Stephen William and Adam Charles. Oh, okay. That's Charles is her father's middle name, and William is my dad's first name. Perfect. Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:17

Perfect. I love it. Well, Steve Man, we appreciate your time. Thanks for uh taking time to come over here. Tell D, thank you for allowing you to come over. If she's like Aaron, she's glad that you're not at home for our time being.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:29

Yeah, she has no problem with me being gone.

Archives, Tech Limits, And Copyright

SPEAKER_02 2:04:33

We uh we thank you, and and obviously, like you said, your family is red and black through and through. Yep. Even though some of it's Maryland red and black. It is red and black.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:44

And black and yellow and white.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:46

That's right. With that weird logo, I what is that? The Maryland logo is the Maryland flag, baby. It's a weird checkerboard.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:55

Well, it's it's two two old families' crests that have merged, is what that is what the Maryland flag is. I I I figured there had to be some rhyme or reason to it. I just see that Maryland is a cult, not a state, is what they say. Because the Maryland flag is everywhere, it's on everything. We have a flag by our, you know, one of those little lawn flags by our mailbox. It's got a crab on it and the Maryland flag. So anyway, that's what it is. It's the rest of the two of the two of the main families that joined together.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:28

Gotcha. Okay. I I knew there was some rhyme or reason to it, but every once in a while they'll put that on their helmets and stuff. I'm like, what in the world are they wearing?

SPEAKER_01 2:05:35

And Under Armour started in Maryland, which is why a lot of Under Armour stuff is uh Okay. It's started in Maryland, and the University of Maryland is all under armor, and so there's a lot of uh available flag stuff through understanding. Sure, sure, sure. Maryland flag. Well, I mean I you know my golf cart here in in South.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:58

Oh yeah, oh yeah. I it's it's everywhere in here. I've seen it. I've seen it. But appreciate your time, Steve. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for inviting me. I know absolutely. I'm I mean one one of the things that you you're like, well, I'm surprised you invited me. We want to get all the head coaches on, and and we're trying to work that in between scheduling and other people say, I can come on in and come on in. So we we've still got a few left that we got to go to. What we're we're trying to get all the head coaches on. We we want to give them their due and we think it's important.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:24

And had we not had to nor not had to, but not talk about the A Corp and all that stuff, we could have gotten a lot different in the talk about the volleyball team as we came with me coming back for whatever period of time it is. Yeah. That I'm back. That'll be up to you. For sure. The story is they asked me to come back for two years. Oh. Actually, what they said was, would you would you be able to come back for a couple years? That's the word they use, couple. And I so I thought about it, said okay. And then recently I went to Andy and said, You know, you asked me to come back for a couple years. And this is the end of two. He goes, Well, Steve, you know it wasn't written in stone.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:04

Exactly. Now you're becoming literal, Steve. We just meant a couple. A couple means two, it could mean twelve.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:12

Well coaches aren't falling out of the trees right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:16

Frankly, for anything. It's a it's it's a it's a tough gig now. It's it's different. It's it sure is different. But anyway, so so anyway, we do appreciate your time. Thanks for coming on. I will speak for Micah for this. Thanks for sharing the knowledge with us and giving us some behind the scenes stuff and talking about tech, broadcasting, volleyball, all the things you do. We appreciate your service to our school and your family service.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:39

And uh glad to be a part of it all. Absolutely, absolutely. And in retirement, it's kept me alive.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:46

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You get to play golf and you get to do this. That's right. You and Reg.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:54

A bunch of old retired guys. But anyway. Reganald says, Steve, you suck at retirement.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:00

Exactly. That sounds like something exactly what he would say. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:06

Well thank you, man. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:07

No, absolutely. And so we end all of our just like we do on the on the Bulldog broadcast. We end up with go we end with go dogs. So go dogs. That's gonna do it for this episode of the Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Sykston, where small town pride runs deep and bulldog grit never quits. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the doghouse, where Sykston stories always have a home.