Ep 64 - Will Holifield - Final Four and Fatherhood

A Final Four run is already rare. Add a newborn arriving in the middle of it, and you get a story our town will tell for a long time. We’re joined by Sikeston Bulldogs basketball assistant coach Will Holifield, a key voice behind the toughness, discipline, and pace that define this program, and he takes us inside the season that ends on the state’s biggest stage in Missouri high school basketball. From hospital logistics to film prep, it’s a real look at how championships collide with real life. 

We dig into what fans don’t always see: replacing five senior starters, building new leaders, and getting buy-in from players who step into bigger roles than they expected. Coach Holifield explains how an undersized group solves rebounding and physicality, why certain December tournaments exposed weaknesses that later became strengths, and which gritty road games helped the Bulldogs believe they could make noise in March. 

We also get nerdy in the best way. We talk skill development, the Villanova-inspired “Nova” jump stop that helps players finish in traffic without forcing charges, and how modern scouting tools like Hudl Assist and Synergy analytics can sharpen preparation without slowing players down. Then we relive the emotional quarterfinal breakthrough against Vianney and what it means when former Bulldogs flood the stands and the floor to celebrate together. If you love Sikeston, SEMO hoops, or building a winning culture the right way, this one’s for you. Subscribe, leave a review, and share the show with one Bulldog fan who needs to hear it.

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Transcript

Welcome And Show Identity

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nature. It's time to get in the dog house. This is where Psych2 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 drip, we've got you covered. You're listening to the dog house, the voice of Psych2. What is up, Bulldog Nation? Thanks for tuning in once again. We're bringing you episode 64, season two, episode 22. And this week our special guest is Will Hollifield, and we'll get to him here in just a little bit. But we're thankful you are joining us again this week, and we're excited to have you. You all right over there? No, I was just trying to. I'm Micah Harris. What you were doing. Oh, my bad. You got to tell me. You got to give me the signs before we start. I'm Matt Tanner. Thanks for listening. Appreciate that.

Sponsors And Community Updates

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Quick shout out to our sponsors, our partners, Mercy Phoenix, healthcare staffing, and they are just not for EMTs and EMSs and all that stuff, but they got all the different things, and they are they we you and I both shared a post. Mercy Phoenix is they're looking for folks to come work for them.

SPEAKER_04 1:19

$40 an hour.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

That particular one was plus per diem plus housing. I think it was like $500 a month housing allowance or something. It's it was very pretty lucrative. Very lucrative. If that's your skill set and your technical ability and your certifications and whatever, they are the folks to call. They've got a lot of positions. Talked to Jody the other day, and he said they may have like up to like 20 something coming online like really quickly. And so they're needing some people to fill them for sure. But we are proud that they're they're a partner with us, and uh, we're thankful to Jody Cheney and his crew for for seeing again what we do, our vision, their vision aligns with what we do as well. Big shout out to Greengrass Guys, they're turf.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

No, go ahead. Congratulations to the new city council.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Oh, yeah, yeah. Thanks for mentioning that. Yeah, Mr. D. Bizzle, Greengrass Guys, he is now on our city council, and he will be a terrific council pro councilman. He's smart, loves our community. Again, very similar vision to what we have here and what we're trying to do, promote our area, promote our our folks, raise the all all the the the tide, uh as we say, the rising tide uh lifts all boats, and I know that that's what they do too.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

And besides all that, he's a maestro of getting your I was gonna say an expert, like professor with green grass.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Absolutely, man. You'll make your yard look like carpet. It's unbelievable. Again, the only downside is I gotta mow all the time, but it looks unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

It's better than walking outside and getting a sticker burr in your feet every time.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Now that's true too. That's very true. Or on your pants leg or whatever. That's true. That's very true. Shout out to Luke for getting our graphics set up. We'll you'll see uh Wills pop up here in a little bit, but uh shout out to him. He does that and he doesn't complain all that much. He does sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

So depends on what day of the week it is.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Mostly his complaint is I don't tell him early enough. Dad, you should have told me earlier. Yeah, my bad, bud. I should have. You're right. I didn't. Shout out to him. Again, shout out to Erin. She's upstairs right now. We uh recorded an episode with a different guest tonight, and she's up there being the hostess with the most, and she has pizza.

SPEAKER_04 3:37

And he'll be on in a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

That's right. He'll be on in a couple weeks. We'll keep you in suspense. Shout out to uh Justin again, our general counsel and general nuisance. General pain in the neck, right? He's appreciate him. Thanks, thankful for uh the help he provides me and Micah. Shout out to Tucker Cheney again for all his help with the editing the video. He's been very, very supportive and puts up with me asking a bunch of dumb questions. And so appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

It seems like we keep running into different people though that have a little bit to add to it.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

We do, and uh hey, I'm uh thankful that they're willing to help. Me too.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Yeah, absolutely. We we get a lot of feedback from a lot of people from in the just when we're out in the community, they were like, you know, a lot of people want to be on too.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

I know I've got yes, we've got we'll we recorded Will first and recording this part afterwards, gave us a list of people and great uh recommendations. And our guest that we recorded earlier tonight, that's coming on in a couple of weeks, gave us some really good, really good suggestions. So I'm we're very excited about what what we got coming. Shout out to Derek James, Brian James for all their help, all their historical knowledge about all things sports, especially all things Sykes and basketball, but all things Sykes and sports as well. Appreciate them for their uh insights and their knowledge that they lend to us. And last but certainly not least, Tyler Anderson Twisted Arrow Woodworking, our cool swag, cool sign on the wall, and appreciate Tyler for all he does for us

Where To Listen And Support

SPEAKER_02 5:12

as well. Don't forget to like, share, follow the doghouse on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. And give us a like, share, give us a comment, give us a shout out. All that helps us reach more people.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Write a review, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah, exactly. Write a review. You can write a review on where I'm going with this now with our podcast. You can write a review on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music. You can write reviews on there. And if if you do, we would very much appreciate it. You that's where you can catch our podcast, and and then on about every other podcast medium, you can you can you can find it. And then we also have a website, the doghouse.buzzsprout.com, or you can and if you go on there, there's an embedded player that you can click on and you can listen to episode from the latest one that's out right now is the Barker, Mr. Or excuse me, we're gonna call him Dr. Dr. Ken Holloway. You can listen to that one all the way back to episode 15 with Coach Hollifield. So you can go all the way back and listen to those, and we're proud to have all those available. And if you need to get in touch with us, you can send Micah and me a message on our personal pages or text us or call us, or you can send us an email to doghouse.syxton at gmail.com. We do have another partner that we're kind of working through some semantics right now or trying to get together on a couple of things. So if you're interested in partnering with us, please give us a shout out, or excuse me, a shout, and we'll sit down with you and see what we can do. Still got our swag available. If you're interested, let us know. And we need to we'll we'll get it to you, but hopefully we've got some other things in the works too. And we will take a break right now, but we'll get right into it.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Yeah, absolutely. I need to give a shout out to my lovely wife. Yes, that has allowed me to be here twice this week.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Now I know it's a lot this week. But we're gonna have a week where we're gonna we're gonna be off. Yeah, we need a week. We do, we do, we do. We've been doing a lot.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

But I do appreciate my wife letting me do this.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Absolutely, absolutely. I appreciate her too for allowing you to do this. It makes this better, makes makes our podcast better with you on here. So I appreciate your time and your effort as well. So with that being said, hang with us. We'll be right back with our guest this week, Mr. Will Hollifield.

Introducing Coach Will Holifield

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Hey, thanks for sticking with us after the break. We're back with our esteemed guest today. It's uh assistant coach Will Hollifield. Yeah. All right. Ready? All right. Today we're joined by assistant coach Will Hollifield, one of the key voices behind the toughness, discipline, and winning culture of Sykeston Bulldogs basketball. We're looking back on a huge season, talking about the moments that shaped the year, the lessons from a Final Four run, and what's next for the program. We'll also get into a life moment. Coach Hollyfield will never forget as he and Chelsea welcomed their new baby during the week of the Final Four. Basketball was big, the family made that week even bigger. That's it. Coach Hollyfield. Welcome to the doghouse. Welcome to the doghouse. Thanks for having me back. Absolutely. And as we said, our first return guest. Our first return guest. You've made history again.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

I'm honored. It's a privilege.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Well, we appreciate you taking your time from baby girl number two.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah.

Baby During Final Four Week

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Yeah. So during the final four-week, yeah, but we my wife and I had our second daughter, Charlotte Hollefield, and of course we have our oldest Vivian Hollifield. And so our little family just keeps growing. It's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Tell us, for those that don't know, in and not in gory details, they say, tell us how the logistics played out. Because it was kind of hit and miss. She her due date was around the quarterfinals, and we're like, oh my gosh, maybe she can have it between district quarterfinals kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

So well, so so it's actually the due date was the 25th. So it was going to be the week after the final four. So we had some time, but you know, as you start getting a little closer to those due dates, it gets a little touch and go. But you know, she got to go to the Beyonne game. She was really excited to go and do that. You know, I I could tell, you know, you start getting that late in a pregnancy, you're just ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

But you don't want to sit on the bench either.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

No, as they say, she was greatly with child. Yes. That's what the Bible says. So yeah. So it's probably a little uncomfortable for her.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Yeah, but she, but you know, that week in between, we just kind of kept thinking, like, okay, so what are we gonna do if you know, if it happens this day, you know, early in the week or later in the week. And ultimately that Tuesday, she had her appointment, and the doctor said, Yeah, it's go time. So it kind of worked out. Where so Wednesday morning, I believe it was it was March 18th, daughter was born, and we got to spend the day there in the hospital. Then the next day we took all the girls home and got everyone settled in, and then that Friday morning I rode up. Uh so the bus left Thursday morning, that Friday morning I rode up with Shannon and Clara in August, and we went up there, and so I got to join the team after that.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

You did not get the ride on the on the uh big alert bus. No, they had a charter bus. Yeah, yeah. But you you did make it in time and everything was good. Yeah, that was I remember talking with Coach James beforehand, and he said, You know what? I hope I said, Holy crap, you know what how's that gonna work out? And he goes, You know what? Hopefully we have that issue because that means a lot of good things have happened, right? That's right. We're in the final four kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Uh-huh. Yep. If we're having to figure it out, it means we got a healthy baby on the way, and it means we were going to the final four. So I was glad to be able to work it out. And I'm I feel like every it worked out really well to where my family and then my team also got to have the most of me. So that was great.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Yep, yep. I think that's terrific. And again, congratulations. Thank you. Baby girls, healthy, looking good.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Yeah, up on a month old almost now.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Yeah, yeah, a week. So three weeks today, yeah, is so she's three weeks old today, and then next next Wednesday will be a full month. Yeah, one month. So it's crazy. Time's flying.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Awesome. They do grow quick.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

So

Coaching Journey Back Home

SPEAKER_02 11:21

let's talk. So last time you were on here, we talked a lot about you, which is fine. You told us about your obviously time and and with the bulldogs and then post high school and stuff like that. So tell us a little bit about your time first starting. When what was your first year back? I can't 15-16. 15-16. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

And as I relate most years, that would be Fred's sophomore year. Yep. That was Fred's sophomore year. That was a final fourteen.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

That was actually that was actually my first year really watching. Yeah, was it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Because we got married in 15.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Oh, that's right. We we got him, we drug all that nasty blue jay out of him. My sister got dug her claws into him. Okay, okay. So, okay, very good. So tell us kind of let's talk about you and your time coaching here, and then we'll kind of get into the season two.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

Right. So 15-16 was my first year. It was a great experience just coming right out of college to be able to, you know, be a part of a staff that took a team to the final four. There was a really good team. You know, you've got Fred, who was a sophomore, you've got Kevin Jones, who was a freshman who started as a freshman. Then you had Marquan Nelson, Dominique dies. Uh, Dominique set all of our shooting records, a couple of which are still holding, even after Kobe's prolific season. But and then you had Jawan Kimball as your other guy, and then several role guys off the bench. It was just uh, that was a great team and just so fun to be able to step into and just uh coming out of college, being able to be there and coach with Fred and Kevin and those guys. That was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah, yeah. And so so this year marked would have marked your 11th year then? Or yeah, okay, yeah, okay. So that's correct. And I'm not gonna put you on the spot because like when your dad was on here, we're what's your favorite team? You know, that's not fair because they're all they're all favorite or they're all have things that you remember in their in their own right. Right. Tell us looking back at this at this year's squad, what what what do you think what what's made you the most proud about this team, kind of what they've been able to achieve, obviously not just them, but you all together, the staff and all that too.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

So

How This Team Defied Expectations

SPEAKER_03 13:28

last year's team was so you know, it was heralded. You had great players all around, you know, you had PJ, Tristan, Trace, LaCaryon, Chris, and you know, some of these guys that played this year off the bench. And whenever you have five senior starters that graduate and go off to play college basketball, everybody thinks that you're gonna take a step back. And these guys all stepped up in the offseason, and outside of the hard work that they put in for themselves, how hard they just pulled for each other. Guys accepting their roles of maybe it wasn't as prolific of a role as maybe they'd hoped for or whatever, uh, or having to step up more than maybe they even thought they had to. Just the the coming together and then having to step up together. It was just so beautiful. And then young guys, of course, having to step into some big shoes in big roles as well. I mean, that's a you know, that's a that's a fun dynamic, you know, especially having to do that.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

We pretty well got almost the same situation this year as we did last year. Five very similar, isn't it? Five, five players, five starters, yeah, seniors, and now we're looking at what the younger class is going to be.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah. And, you know, of course, you return a lot of those sophomores who contributed, you know, I I think that we are already making natural strides with them. You know, they've been working really hard in the weight room since the season's ended. You know, this is the time of the year you really try to get a little bit more bulk and strength than going into the summer, and that way, you know, you can make those natural uh maturity and strength strides as well. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Now you go ahead. Go ahead. Good. I'm I'm good. Um just you guys lift now a couple days a week.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Is that yeah, we uh we try to do lifting two days a week with guys that aren't in a spring sport. Obviously, you've got some guys doing track or baseball or golf or whatever it is. Uh but if they're not, you know, we'll we have weights twice a week with them, and that's been really good. And then, you know, they learn what to do, and then they also, those of them who really want to see like considerable, considerable strength gains, will go do some more on their own. And we try to balance that with, you know, a lot of guys are starting their AEU seasons and stuff like that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

And most of the kids that I can think of off the top of my head, just about all of them play somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Yes, most of our guys, you know, they play at different spots throughout the state. So it's it's a good, it's a good fit. And I think, you know, they're pretty sought after in terms of players. I I think guys want them to be a part of their AAU teams, and we're proud of that.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

So yeah, yeah, absolutely. Over so let's go back just a little bit. When you said uh how this team came together, what do you think this team what did they what did they prove to themselves, you all, the Bulldog Nation, and naysayers even th outside of here. What do you think they proved?

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Well, I think that they proved that they deserve to have their names up in the rafters with those great teams. I mean, there's very many teams that we've ever had go to the Final Four, let alone a state championship game. And, you know, some of the guys that came in this year, you know, you have a Kobe Thomas who steps up and is the CMO conference player of the year who's just dynamite. Jaharis Goodwin, who kind of had to play out of position at a five spot, but just battled every night against sometimes giving up four or five inches, twenty, thirty pounds, and just, I mean, in the Viani game, he's giving up almost, you know, a foot, almost and just, you know, I was I was going through, been making highlight tapes for every player after the season, so they kind of have a little thing that they can reflect on and be able to enjoy and then share with their families. I'm not done with all of them yet, but I'm close. But I was watching Jaaris's and just some of the moves he had to make against not just Viani but Festus and these teams. I mean, they're just big, strong bodies in Jaharis, just the guts and will he showed was so impressive.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Well, Ernst.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Yeah, Ernst Jack's and battled him. He's a great player. And yeah, well, heck, not to say even, but Puxico had a six-six. I mean, he literally just about well, Hayti got a 6'6.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Yep. Every night, you know, he was giving up several inches and just played with guts and so good. And of course, Marquel was so good, and his unselfishness was, you know, it was a big catalyst for us. You know, he was always a kid who he never really cared how much or when he scored. He scored when he had to, but his unselfishness really, you know, it was just so big for our team. And then I was so pleased to have Ben get to come back and be able to finally play after two straight injury plague seasons. What a blessing and what a great moment for him to be able to step back and play a full a full season. He didn't miss a game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

I of course we didn't talk about this on here necessarily. And of course, Brian ever I know you guys are close, and Brian and I are close. Brian and I graduated, and Mike and I talked about this sort of off the air at just different times during the season, and how Brian and Emily almost every game are like, okay, he didn't get hurt. It's all you know, okay, we made it through practice, and I I know that they're so proud of him, and and they have every right to be because I know they were just hopeful that he finished the season, and this year is just a blessing to be able to finish it at the final game.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Literally the final game in Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

The last high school mission sanctioned basketball game in Missouri.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Ben was playing in it. He was, and he was so tough and gritty. And he, you know, we talked about it him and I the other day, and he's like, I never really turned it or anything. It felt good all season. So, you know, kudos to his doctor and just Kyle. Yeah. And Kyle, of course, Kyle got to give Kyle. And him for doing the rematch.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Well, Ben, that's right, right.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Yep. And just, you know, I'm I'm so proud of him. And then, of course, got to make sure to shout out Will, our final senior and starter. You know, he did so great, just his toughness and grit. And then, of course, last senior as well to shout out was Drake, who really bought in was just such a team guy. Got hit with a little bit of a flu bug in the middle of the season that kind of hamstrung him, but he was such a team guy and just so proud of him as a teammate.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

Well, you talked about him, the importance of him being the shooter in practice. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

They had to know where he was. He would he could fill that role and push his teammates, his brothers, so to speak, his senior brothers that were like, hey, you guys, I'm gonna push you. You're gonna have to find me. And man, could he fill it up too? Yeah, great kid. He terrific kid. All of them are winners. They all played so hard and and we're very proud of them for what they did.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

That's the one word that I I feel like this team is winners. They're winners. Oh, for sure. For sure. And they're going to continue to be winners. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Yes. It it would have been easy not to harp on one kid, but like a Marquell. Actually, it surprised me that a kid with that level of ability thinking he I won't say most. There are kids, there are examples of kids with that level of ability that think they need to try to score 40 points a night. Right. He actually was the opposite.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

He's like, I hope I can kick it to somebody that scores 40.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Yeah. Kind of thing. Yeah, he's got some pure point guard instincts, and I think that uh Mineral Ari got a great got a great addition in him. And I think Coach Irons is going to be thrilled with him and just who with their team and him helping to run that.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

They had a they had a good squad this year.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Yeah, they did.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Did they did they end up going to Hutch? Yeah, they did. That's what I thought. I I I followed them a little bit, and then of course I followed Lane Belou that was there with his squad, made it to the Final Four essentially.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

That was a great uh great run by his team. I you know, I followed them on social media, so yeah, that was awesome for him. Great area of representation, too.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

It's his second year at that school. Second year head coach. I mean, to do that was quite quite astounding. But anyway. And he had a pretty good record last year, too. I mean, like, right, right. They were he said they're how do you say f three three teams in their league are like in the top ten in the country? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Whoa. Yeah, that's a that's a tough uh region and area down there. Right in Florida, right? And that's yeah. There was always teams in from that region and area, you know, just especially whenever I was at Three Rivers, you see the smattering of teams, and there's always several teams from that region that are very good. Iowa, that Iowa's got eight teams up there.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

That's a that Iowa, the one they beat.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Indian Hills is always really good.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Indian Hills, and there's one more, like Iowa Community College or something.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

There was always several good teams from there. Yeah. Don't get me on Arizona Western. I'll got I got a good Arizona Western.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

I was getting ready to say, I I already know where this is headed. I remember.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

We were playing Arizona. On a Western, whenever I was at Three Rivers, we were in the Mesa invitational tournament. This was my freshman year. I was actually coming off an injury, had not been playing much at all. In this game, I had not played at all. And I believe our other shooter had gotten in foul trouble or had fouled out. And there were 10 seconds left in the game. It was a tied game, and Coach Bess said, All right, you're going in. And I said, Oh my gosh, I haven't played the whole game. And he said, just spot up. If you're open, shoot it. And our best player drove. He got double teamed. My man helped off and he kicked it to me, and I hit a buzzer beater. So it was uh hit a three. And it was pretty uh pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

That was awesome. I forget. I remember texting you, and I forgot.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

I think people miss out on not see watching Juke Cobaye basketball. That's great basketball. I mean, I I've watched quite a bit of it, you know, back in the day. And I it's very good, very talent. Yeah. Very competitive and definitely. I totally agree. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

Well, I'm a Proud Three Rivers alum, so I of course, you know, played for a Nay Smith Hall of Famer there. I always got to give Coach Best a shout out there. So you did you you guys never you didn't make it to Hutch, did you? My freshman year.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Oh, you did make it to Hutch. Holy crap. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Uh we had a great run through the uh is there 16 teams there, is that right? Or can't remember. Maybe more. I think it's more.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

It's like the whole week of games.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Yep, it was exciting though. We had a great run and really competitive and kind of we were not a high seed in our tournament. We were kind of a mid-level seed and ended up just knocking off you know three or four different teams. It was awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

And it on ESPN plus, I mean, yeah, now it's on ESPN.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

It would have been probably a little harder to watch that then, but yeah, now it's on ESPN. They had, I guess every game was on there. Most of them are.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

I mean, I know most of the coastal yeah, Gulf Coast.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Yeah, I know I watched those, but sure. With the team that we we just had, was there any time during the season you're like special? Yeah, we we we got a chance here, we've got you never look ahead. Right. I know that. But you're like, okay, if we can do this, we might be able to do this. What did you I mean, was there any point that said we're we could get to the final four kind of thing? Or well how does that how does that work as far as uh crazy nut fans were like, we can do it? But I mean, you know, you you have a little more realistic look, suppose.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

I mean, like you had five seniors coming in or six seniors coming in. You knew that did you know going into the season that you had a special group of kids?

Finding Toughness On The Glass

SPEAKER_03 24:27

You know, we definitely we played a specific style of basketball this year. We were a lot smaller, and a lot of our success was predicated on making shots. So, you know, on a given night, if we get going, we knew that we could compete and beat most anybody, and maybe if shots weren't falling, it'd be a little tougher. You know, rebounding was always a constant issue just when you're so outsized, uh, it is a problem. We kind of saw that exploited in the St. Dominic tournament where you play against Holt and St. Francis Howe, Francis Howe Central, who both were quarterfinal teams. You know, Holt.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

By the way.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Yeah, Holt took MICDS in the quarterfinal to double overtime, and then it Francis Howe Central played DeSmet in their quarterfinal. So that was a really good tournament for us this year. Wait. I thought we had a week.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Oh, I thought that we've been told it's a weak tournament.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

Well, it it's just, you know, it's uh it's a little further north, it's out of kind of the main some of the main St. Louis dairy.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

McDonald's politically correct. Right, right. I understand. I'm that was a little tongue-in-cheek for those that don't follow basketball as closely as we do. There are some experts that tell us that our schedule's not very good and that this tournament's just a piece of cake. So yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Well, it was you know, it's good to us, and of course, Kevin Roberts, the former Notre Dame coach, is the AD and head coach at St. Dom, and they just take good care of us. They do and it's a good tournament. I mean, like I said, we played two class five and a class six quarter finalists, and then it was good. They really did exploit some of the areas we knew we were weaker in, which was that physicality and rebounding, at least with this team. You know, we were a little smaller and we didn't make shots, and you know, we got beaten two close games. But after that, you know, we were kind of able to see what we you know, we're able to kind of see some areas that we were weak in. We started making those improvements. We did get so much better. Our guys really bought into after those games, improving and rebounding. We started doing a drill from from three rivers, actually, circled the wagon, and it just I thought it exponentially helped our rebounding. We got so much more physical and tough on the boards, and then by the union tournament is where we really did start to feel good, you know, winning that in back to back-to-back games because that was the week of all the snow. So you had to play three straight games. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

And, you know, Washington was really physical. Um, you know, that was a really tough game, and that was a good tournament. There was not a team in that tournament below 500. Right. So that's a, you know, across the board, a really solid tournament. So you play. Yeah. You know, and then you play Washington, then you play Union in the next round, who has a Hall of Fame coach now who's just excellent and has them, you know, who's that? What's that guy's name? Van Lear.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

The guy that was up Pacific forever. Yep. And his son Colin played at Mizzou.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

There we go. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's that's what I was trying to remember. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

And so they are, you know, they're on the up and up. You know, they had a really competitive season. And then, you know, play Borgia, who was just classically a rival for years for us in playoff basketball. You know, that's been such a good tournament for us because we do get to gauge where we're at, particularly in the St. Louis private school, you know, because they kind of play a lot of those teams, and we kind of get to see, like, okay, this is who we know we're gonna have to beat. You're gonna have to beat a Viani or a team of, you know, or a Westminster or you know, Webster also, but they're not private, but they play all those teams as well. So you're kind of able to see where you stand when you play Borgia. Um, and so that's a great it's a great tournament for us, and we felt really good coming off of that, playing back-to-back-to-back games and how well we played.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

That's a back to back to back is a tough stretch. Yeah. It is, regardless of who you play. That's that's three on the road and kind of all that together.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Hard to scout that. And mean you kind of know what you're doing, but you mean you're a lot of tournaments come down to the better team. It's gonna win. Yeah, I mean, right.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Yeah, there's uh quick turnarounds on film and stuff, you know, like you win the first game, you watch the second one, you just watch you know immediately what they're doing, and then maybe you just try to pick out, you know, two or three things that you know you want to key on for that next game because you don't want to overwhelm your players either. You know, you get into those positions, sometimes you can get paralysis by analysis. And Coach my dad, Greg, always says, Coach Halfield always says the confused player cannot be aggressive. So if we over-analyze, over-confuse them, then we lose that aggression that makes us special in who we are.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

Well, you know, like in football, they talk about playing fast. That's kind of what you're talking about there, is being able to react.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

I mean, to to playing. So that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

I I I I have not I've heard your dad say a jillion things, but I haven't that's that's interesting. And that's is very accurate too. Yeah. Because then you're not sure what to do. You just kind of get hung up and not able to do anything. Well, that's was there So after okay, so we won union. Well, actually, I was just sitting here, I thought about it when you said a while ago. You talked about the two losses at St. Dominic. Well, we didn't lose again until the final game. Correct. That's yeah, that's a pretty nice what it ended up being that would have been I don't remember off the top of my head. 20-ish games it was a good streak.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

20-ish straight games or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

Yeah. I would say rebounding, rebounding, rebounding is what made that streak what it was. Our guys got so much more physical and bought in on the boards, and they made that that leap that we had to get, you know, maybe improving our rebound totals by five or even you know, ten per game. And you know, when you're doing that and have the shot making we had this year, you know, you can really you want to talk about like two games at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_04 29:41

I mean, I know they're on our uh one of them was on our schedule every year, Jackson, and then Scott City.

Games That Tested Their Grit

SPEAKER_04 29:46

Yeah, how important was that for Viani?

SPEAKER_03 29:48

I think both of those were incredibly important. You know, obviously Scott City at Scott City, they played fantastic. And you know, an important thing too is that's a back-to-back. You have a rivalry game in Cape Central, but anytime you get into the playoffs, it's all back to backs. So you have to have emotional games followed by another game sometimes. And you know, we try to schedule games like that. You don't want to do too many because you know, you get back to backs too many of them. You know, even the NBA, they don't do that. That's where you can kind of get some injuries and things like that. Right. But you have to learn it, be able to learn how to cope with that because in playoffs that's how it is most of the time. Especially when you do Final Four. Of course. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. And so Scott City, you know, coming off of that, playing Cape Central that Friday, and then coming into Scott City that day, you know, that was just a really good game for us where we had to learn, we had to figure out a way to win. And we had several of those, but you know, I we they they made shots, they were tough, they were physical, they really exploited some of the things that we weren't as good at this year, and to see our guys still find a way to win that game, making big shots was incredible. And then, of course, you know, Jackson, but you know, no, no, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

I was just sitting here thinking the thing that as good as we shot the ball and as much as we scored, it was interesting. Those two games, we won with our defense. I mean, literally the last play, and then of course one of them was a rebound.

SPEAKER_04 31:04

I mean, I mean, like the the Jackson game was Markel securing that rebound.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then kicking it down to Kobe for a layup that the that what the crap's that kid's name from Jackson, that Reagan or my gosh, did you see how fast he was?

SPEAKER_03 31:23

He's very fast.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

I didn't realize it uh watching the game, but going back to watch the highlights, I went, holy cow, he almost got to him, and he started at the other free throw line or whatever. Yeah. That of course it's impressive. Didn't he win like something in state like that? Yeah, when he had 100 meters or 200 or something like that. Holy moly.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was definitely Jackson was also kind of one of those big, big moments where you're able to see, like, okay, you're on the road in a tough environment. Although we brought a great crowd. I was so proud of our guys and just proud of our town, how well we traveled for that one. May have been the best crowd of the season just as a whole. You know, that was a packed gym. We were their only loss to that point. So it was for the CEMO Conference Championship, and that was a great atmosphere, great game. You know, Coach Toma, their head coach, and then Coach Brownsberger, who's always great to us. He sends us scouting info. They play several St. Louis teams. You know, we knew that they would be prepared, and they were, and it was just a great game. And to win that, you know, you you really do feel like, okay, I think that we can really legitimately make some noise in the playoffs because uh we had a lot of respect for them. And to watch them go and play Webster, you know, they played us on a Friday, they and played Webster on a Monday. And you know, it's between, you know, if you can win our district, you're gonna play Webster, Viani, or Westminster. Yeah. And so seeing, you know, how well they competed with Webster, you're like, okay, we can do this. Yeah. Like we can win this next game. Now, of course, Viani end up having a big win over Webster, and so you're like, oof, they're good.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Yeah. But interesting side note, and this is totally not even on what I sent you today. So there's a gentleman that works with Aaron in our the first state insurance agency where my wife works, which is in partners with the bank. He lives in well, his son, his his boys go to Sekman. Gotcha. Which is part of the Fox School District, by the way. I I was not aware of that. They've it's like two separate high schools.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

I thought I think they separated. Sekman's not that old though, is it?

SPEAKER_02 33:22

I don't think it's super old. But anyway, his son, guess who one of his son's best friends is? Who? Omar Long Long.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

Oh man, that kid can shoot.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

I said, holy crap, that kid can shoot. And he said, yes. And he said, he's of course he said he long story. He said he went to St. John's Baptist and they were they don't they didn't care for Viani. And I was like, well, okay. Yeah. Same. Oh no, they uh we have a terrible. They have a great program. They have a terrific program. I'm not I just as a fan.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

Of course. Yeah, no, Coach Wals does a great job there. You know, he's a excellent coach, and they are they're probably the best shooting team in the state. It's unbelievable. They are no statistically, they are the best shooting team in the state. Oh my gosh, it's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

And he has a brother, is it Brody or Brady?

SPEAKER_03 34:07

You have Brock and Omar Long. Brock, who is one's the point guard, one Brock's the point guard, he is a junior, and then Omar's the other shooter who's just sophomore. Uh sophomore. Yes, and his last, I think it was like his last three games, he was something like 21 of 24 from three. It was just unbelievable. Of course, he hit a ton against us, but what great players you know they are and what a great program they have. And you know, what a that's one of the best games maybe we've ever had in school history. That you know, that was just a high-level basketball game between two great teams.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Agreed. And my blood pressure or my heart rate showed it. It was only about 140 after the game.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

Kind of going back to to on the season, one of the things that I that was big this year is we had several freshmen JV and varsity games. Jackson was one of them. Oh, yeah. Like good point. How I mean, how important do you feel like that will be for future? You know, I mean, yeah, getting more games for freshmen.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Let me let me just tack on to that real quick. This typically, maybe last year was the first year, I can't recall. Typically, the freshman season's over Christmas-ish.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

Yeah, the last few years we've extended it a little bit just as one purpose. Yeah, and it's just kind of how it's worked out. You know, Coach Dennis does a great job with those guys, and you know, it's just kind of gotten worked out to where it's gotten extended a little bit. But in terms of triple headers, of course, we are love that. Yes, we're huge believers in the more games, the more you can play, the better you're gonna be. Even, you know, our three sophomores who contributed a lot to the varsity, J. Ray Quay and Sean, they played a ton of JV. We are big believers. We want guys to play, play, play, play. The more you play, the more confident you beat you will become, regardless of the level. Whether it's freshmen, you know, you had BJ and Jarian who played a ton of freshmen, and then also were main JV contributors for us. Correct. And so the more you play, the better we often feel with guys.

SPEAKER_04 35:57

I've even seen it like going back to like Peyton Howard. I think I bet you Peyton Howard probably played more games at Sykesman basketball than he played anybody. He played a ton. I mean, like, because he played a lot of JV and he played a lot of Archie.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Yeah. And by the I was gonna say, by the way, I think I think we mentioned this before, but he's back. Yeah, he's back with our baseball staff. So we proud as pie to have him back. Yes, I love him.

SPEAKER_03 36:19

Yeah, I keep he he subs a lot in our building, so I get to see him and we chat, and he, of course, will stop by, you know, during season, he was all he would always pop by and just talk. And we tried to recruit him into that student versus teachers game. Um, I don't think we would have lost in overtime with Peyton, though.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

You would not have lost with Peyton. He just he's still a college athlete, basically.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

They had me trying to carry the having to help handle the ball. Poor Caleb was just getting hounded by guys everywhere. So that was great.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

You just couldn't get it into the schedule that day, huh?

SPEAKER_02 36:47

That I think that baby just about went viral, man. Oh my god. Luke Randall had it on KFS, made a big post about it. Dennis had a big write-up about it. So it was fun. How long have y'all been doing that?

SPEAKER_03 36:59

It's just this year. They said they wanted to do it. Oh my god, it was the inaugural year. Yeah, they uh they said let's do it. And we're like, oh gosh. All right. Of course, we did it right before was it the Viani game or was it the districts? I can't remember, but one of those two.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

It was it was it was the week before y'all went to it was the week before Viani, wasn't it? Yes, I think so.

SPEAKER_03 37:18

Whatever it was, it was before a huge game, and I'm scouting non-stop. It was post-district, so it was Viani. So of course I'm just like, oh gosh, is this really what I want to be doing right now?

SPEAKER_00 37:28

You want to twist an ankle out of it. Or worse. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Yeah. But long as long as you can sit down and scout, you'll be fine. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 37:38

That would be fine. You meant to pull some of them younger ones back in, like like Peyton and uh I know, I know. Well, Julian came and played, and of course, Coach Dennis was there with.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah, come on, Clark. No, they didn't they didn't want to do it. So get them back. Come on, let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 37:53

My my Achilles tendon was hanging by a thread after it. So my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Maybe we play alum versus students or something.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

We're gonna it's gonna have to be half court. Right then we're in good shape.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Yeah, I think, or go play in the girls' gym or fifth and sixth gym or like a shorter floor may may help everybody. So this year's squad, was there what games told you you talked about rebounding and that got tougher? What games in there was there a couple of specific games maybe it said, man, we we were really tough tonight. Not just rebounding necessarily, but just tough getting loose balls, guarding defensively, regarding tough and things like that. Were there some specifics there that you could think of?

SPEAKER_03 38:38

Well, you know, both Dexter games, of course. You know, Dexter had us on the ropes twice, and Coach Allen does just such a great job. Their kids were so physical and tough.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

They play us they do so tough every time.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

Well, Coach Allen's a wonderful coach. Oh, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. He's gonna come in. I mean, they're uh they're a quarter final team.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Yeah, I mean that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

You know, and you know, they they were in a great position. You know, Clayton made a good run in the second half on them, but I mean they were playing really well as well. But you know, Coach Allen's a premier coach, he does a great job, and he's always gonna have his guys prepared, and you know, they definitely come in with a game plan for us, and you know, two times you kind of have to you have to make a run to win the game. You have to make plays to win the game. That's huge for you. Um and then, of course, you know, we hit on it, but Scott City and Jackson, and then Festus. You know, those are three games where you just have to grid in, get tough against teams that are have a height and size advantage on you, and you just have to find a way to get a rebound, to make a shot, to make a play to win the game. And our guys did that.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Something that we talked about on here that I think you or Brian or maybe your dad told me later in this after maybe it was before, maybe right after, that I didn't realize going maybe into the Festus game, so I guess it was after, that the 6'4 kid that's playing baseball at University of Michigan had kind of missed a lot of the season, so he was a factor.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

I I don't know if it was that kid, I thought it was maybe a backup that came that came off, but he uh you know was a kid that played a ton of minutes for them. Yeah. And they had a kid, yes, it was the kid I can't remember his number off the top of my head, but he was another 6'4, 6'5 body. But their coach said that that guy gave them depth, and that was depth that they were really lacking. And of course, you know, they you know, they had an early season a little bit of struggles, but you know, they also made a great football run. I was just gonna say. And that was a quote, Ben and Kobe. They said that that was pound for pound, the strongest team we have played all season. Said, holy cow, they are so strong and physical. That's pretty impressive because Kobe was like Jackson was yeah, yeah. He said Lane Reagan guarded him harder than anybody for the year. Now, I will say I I haven't asked him that since we played MICDS. They they were a wonderful defensive team. Yes. And you know that, you know, but prior to that, they said Festus was the strongest team that we had played, and they were just so big and physical. And they were, you know, they played well in their cards.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

Six four, six five, six eight kind of yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

Are you seeing a difference in that like in high school with strength, like teams being more like actually doing things like you're talking about adding strength and and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_03 41:10

Yes, and no, you know, it just depends. Obviously, you know, they they have a little different philosophy and approach that than we do. You know, I don't know if just unless you naturally have a kid who's like Fred, who's just naturally just strong. You know, a lot of our guys we emphasize more skill, finesse, those things, but we do we try to focus on functional basketball-related strength. And even if our guys don't necessarily have a lot of bulk, we want them to have strong hands, strong shoulders, strong cores to where they can strip a ball out or grab a rebound or block a guy out. And so that's definitely the things that we focus on. But you know, it is you know, like I think it just really boils down to the program. You know, like Festus, they have Fest is a football team. Yes. I mean, they're a football school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Right, and a darn good football school and a darn good team, basketball team as well.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

Right, right. I mean, I'm just saying, like you think of football, you think of street.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Sure, right, right, right, right. Were there how how did this squad well let me back up with this question because of the stretch that that this that we have enjoyed here not functionally the 06-ish season till now. Yeah, we've had what we we've gone over the numbers for. I mean, we've averaged 20 wins a season and you know, in a in a shorter period, averaging 25. Well, averaging almost 26 these past four years, with Kobe and Ben and those that group of now seniors won 105 games. Yeah. There are expectations, not necessarily you guys don't come out and go, okay, everybody expects you to win. I know you don't put that kind of pressure on them, but the kids know the town's like, hey, are we gonna be good again? That's uh about June when we start going to the Rip City. What do you think, Matt? What do you think? And I'm like, well, you know, of course, I always optimistic. Yeah. You know, probably um blissfully optimistic, so to speak. Even going back to like Andrew and uh Dave on here.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

Oh, yeah. They were like, what's gonna be like I was like, Yeah, we just I don't really see much drop-off. I mean, like, I mean, but I knew we were I knew we were replacing a lot, but I was like, as far as wins, I yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

You know, one of the things that we take immense pride in is our skill development. I think that we develop players as good or better than anybody in the state. I think guys, when they're with us, they make considerable improvements. All of the players we've sent to college recently are one of the things that they talk about with our program is that they're so used to paying playing at a pace. We if you ever come to one of our practices, it is a it is a pace, it is fast pace, it is up and down. And you know, we've really even taken further strides offensively with our shooting and different footwork things that we're doing. So we take a lot of pride in those things. In regards to other things, we we try we kind of talked about that with our younger levels. We really try to keep winning going with our young kids. You know, the more that they can play, the more that they can win, the more that that grows off of each other. Uh we always say that winning breeds winning, but unfortunately so does losing. And so you try to keep guys winning and keeping things positive and you'll grow. We also, you know, we have goals every season, you know. So we're we're we're pretty aware of where we're at as a team. You know, we always have goals of we want to try and compete for the CMO Conference Tournament Championship. We want to compete for our two other tournaments. We want to try and win those, want to win a regular season conference, and then you want to compete and try and win a district. And you have those goals, and whenever you get those goals, especially, you know, you win a district, then you're like, okay, now let's see. Because sometimes, I mean, in our quarterfinals, we we play juggernauts. I mean, you play good. Viani beat the class six state champion DeSmet twice by 20. I mean, you don't have to fool yourselves about who we're trying to beat to go to Final Fours and win state titles. I did not realize that. And DeSmet beat them once as well. But I mean, they took two out of three from the class six state champion. And then, of course, MICDS beat Viani in the regular season, and then MICDS also lost to Principia, played them closer than anybody in the state. I think Principia beat them by six. I think they're just really good teams you're trying to beat, and we think we're a really good team, but you know, it's fun. We want to win a district, and then we want to put ourselves in the best position to win those games after.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Wow. Wow. So they're you're sitting here thinking this, I'm sitting here making notes. You talked about your skill development and being on the outside and going to a lot of practices, and we talk about that.

Nova Footwork And Player Development

SPEAKER_02 45:48

One thing that I and I talk about it on our YouTube broadcast of the games and talked about it on here some. I think the Nova drill that you've that you have stole. I mean, everybody steals everything, right?

SPEAKER_04 46:00

The the Nova drill to where imitation is both the best form of flattery.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

That's right, that's right. But where essentially I'm gonna try to describe it, it's where when a kid drives into the paint, rather than just barreling into the basket, you come to a jump stop to where you don't create a a charge situation. But I'll be honest, we don't we don't get a lot of charges.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

No. Because of that. Well, and we always j say, and guys from the last five years can tell you how obsessed I am with Villanova, especially when they had Jay Wright and Jalen Brunson and all those guys. Right. But essentially, we just say Villanova jump stopped their way to two national championships. And we caught we've rebranded the jump stop essentially as a Nova. We call it Nova, and we just constantly are working on that, beating your guy off the dribble, Novaing, and then making plays for each other. And it's been great. I mean, we are averaging as much or more than anybody in the state points per game the last you know three or four years. You know, you couple those things already with our fast pace system, our secondary break, our Carolina break. You start adding those things in, it just makes already so much of what you do that much stronger and more powerful. And I think that's where you really have seen some of these shooting numbers jump up as well. You know, guys are creating for each other, they can get to spots, get off two feet, and then they're not rushed. They can kick or they can make plays. I mean, if you saw it in the Viani game, I was just with the Kobe. Kobe made a great move, got right there to the seven-footer and utilized his footwork, our Nova footwork, and just made a great move.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

That's yes, I swear when you were saying it, I was like, Kobe drew that seven-footer to him, ball faked him, he got up in the air, then went right around him and scored it. It was unbelievable. So I'm gonna go back just a hair. We were talking about something came up. Have you heard of the AI scouting? What the heck? What did Lane call that? I can't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_04 47:51

It was basically it was basically where it's a program where they're Synergy? I don't know if that's yeah, I've heard of Synergy. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

We we use that some in college, yeah. Whenever I was at SEMO. But yeah, I mean it's he said now, and maybe it's even different than when you guys used it.

SPEAKER_02 48:07

He's like in hours, they could have Oh, he said he wakes up in the morning and it's broken down the game film. Yeah. Telling like how many points did Matt have or will have against Zone,

Scouting Tech And Analytics Balance

SPEAKER_02 48:17

or how many points did he have against man? What was a shooting percentage from three? What was a shooting percentage from two? It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Oh, yeah, it's great. The tools that are out there now, you know. You know, I have talked about like the Dr. Dish and just you know, there is all there is a new tool for everything that you want to do in basketball. Synergy is great. We use Huddle, and Huddle has great analytics. You know, we have we send everything, all of our games to Huddle Assist. We can see all of our advanced analytics where guys are shooting it well from, where they're not shooting it well. I didn't realize they've had that on there. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

Well, I've I've just got the Huddle fan, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

It's it's a it's a scoche bit different.

SPEAKER_03 48:53

I will say Synergy does take it, there's a there's a it's a different level. And that's uh, you know, it's a lot of college.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

It's expensive.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

Yeah, and I mean Huddle is as well. Oh we pay for Huddle, but it's you know, Synergy's what most colleges are using. It's a it's a great program. Yeah, um, it's that you know, it does have a lot of those features though. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Yeah, Lane Lane said that that's what they use. And I I Googled it and clicked on the website, and I think they they've got some high school college, and I think like the NBA uses it too for for lots of things too. So I don't know if we need MBA level analytics, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

I mean don't get me going. You know, I want you are you an analytic guy? I like it all. I like to be able to see everything and know everything, but sometimes you know, coach has to kind of talk me off a ledge because I can also get a little wound up. Yes, I'd be like, well, we gotta keep this guy from this exact spot and things like that.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

So you know that's that's I mean, there's some science behind that. I mean a lot of science behind it. But at the same time, there's also some intuition.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

The confused player cannot be aggressive. Good point. You gotta keep everything in a in a capacity to where guys can they are able to just play and not think. When players start overthinking, that's when bad things start happening. I'm sure there are kids that can handle that and other kids can't. Yeah, I mean, maybe, maybe not. I mean, you know, I think to pay to play the pace that we play, I think that it's more intuitive for our guys to be able to be able to just play instead of thinking maybe if we played a little bit more of a slow grind methodical game, you know, you can utilize more of those analytics, but that's not that's not really who we are. The flow of the game would change. It would, you know, dramatically.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

Big time. Yeah. I'm I'm a fan of the pace. I like the pace.

SPEAKER_04 50:39

Yeah, the pace is who the pace is what made us who we are. I come from watching Coach Mac back in the day play, like just stall it almost and play defense to fast pace. I I like it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

Coach McFarron's arguably the most prolific defensive coach in the history of the state, and you know, just the success he's had and how much he's done. But it is, it's just diametric styles, and you know, he's had he had so much success, and just you know, that and I'll say this though, how we play has been really good to us, and we and I think it is it's been a catalyst for a lot of excitement for our fans as well. For sure. So, you know, it's fun.

SPEAKER_04 51:17

But I I mean I went from watching teams like play Charleston. If you hit 30, you were lucky. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Oh yeah, they can it was unbelievable how well they guarded. I, you know, especially just hearing about it, especially because I didn't get to see Coach McFarn's Charleston like in the 90s, yes, 80s and 90s. I was I wasn't born or was a pump then, so I didn't get to see much, but it you know, it was always you know it's very still talked about.

SPEAKER_05 51:42

It was more impressive, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

Well talking about this year's team again, what what do you think what did this team accomplish that maybe they only know or the coaching staff only knows? Like really was there something that that they accomplished that not everybody really fully understands how good it was? It was it the rebounding that you're talking about that really an undersized team, so to speak, got to a 29 and three. Is that yeah?

SPEAKER_03 52:10

It's just hard to say. You know, I think so much of winning the district, and then I don't want to say, you know, we weren't satisfied making it to the final four. We wanted to win a state championship. Yeah, but you know, that quarterfinal game had been such a roadblock for us. I mean, you just play great teams. I mean, Cardinal Ritter, Webster Groves, Vianni,

Vianney Win And Program Brotherhood

SPEAKER_03 52:29

and you know, you see all both of those, except for Viani in 24, Cardinal Ritter and Webster Groves won a state title. Yes, and Viani had all the tools to win a state title. They uh Desmet won it at our class that year, and they had split with Vianni that year. So, I mean, that's a you know, they had great players everywhere. But, you know, just overcoming that. I mean, if you you probably saw me after the game, I was in tears for about 10 minutes. So it was such a powerful and moving moment, you know, when you're having to beat just these such high profile teams, and we we consider ourselves a high profile team, right? Especially after last year, you know, last year was such a heartbreaking loss. You know, that one's still I uh I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night like oh sweating. Yes, I understand. But you know, just for our guys to finally be able to, you know, break through this group in particular to break through and win that game in such a dramatic fashion, such an emotional fashion. That was just a great and the thing that I loved most about that game, we won the game. It was great, it was emotional, and all of the former players, especially from the last few years, I just I just remember I just kept saying, like, I'm happy, all my guys are here. I got you know, every almost every single player from the last several, you know, six, seven years have was there, and it was just like that we're all here together, and that was such a good feeling. You know, we care so much about these guys, and you know, especially I've been especially close with the last few years because I coached them in junior high. Yeah, and then for some of them, you know, like last year's team, I coached them in junior high, JV, and then was their varsity assistant. So, you know, that's a you know, that's a long time with a group of guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

You get really close. It's funny you mentioned that because we talked about this on I don't remember what podcast. So I when we were in Columbia, I started writing down all the all the kids that were there, and I'll just read them to you. Now Jadis was there. I wrote him down, but he's obviously he's I think he's a Sykston fan.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

He's honorary now. He was at the Beyonce game. We'll count, we'll count him in. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Don Trez, Parker, JT Jones, Chris Appleton, Julian Beard, Creighton Sarakis, Coach Sorakis, Carson Beard, Garrett Taylor was there, but he was uh he was the 95 uh Final Four guy. He's not a Hollyfield guy. Trey Sadler, Lontez, Clark, Nick and Zach Harrison, Kevin Jones, Peyton Howard, Tristan Wiggins, Chris Artis, and Gage Rowling.

SPEAKER_03 55:01

Yeah, uh Dominique McRae was also there. I did not see Dominique. Yep, Dominique was there. I know we've missed another. Yeah, and I said I I saw that Malachi was there.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Oh, Malachi.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

Malachi Davis, Malachi Kellum was there. I'd realize that. Carson, I Carson May not May. Carson Beard. Yeah. No, he was. I said him. I saw him, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He was there. Clark. Yep. Yeah. So I mean there's there's even more. I mean, there's 20 plus former players from the last, if not more. And uh LeVar Morgan was there too. Yeah, now that I've said that. I don't know. That just that was the best part. I just remember the bliss that I was in after that game, just being with those guys, savoring that with them, especially the guys who'd been a part, you know, the last you know, four or five years who had won a district and were just trying so hard to break through some of those great teams because they were, I mean, these are some of the best teams we've ever had as well. And just for their joy as well, for their former teammates and their program, it was one of the most uh it was just it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

How and we talked about this last week when we had Ken the Barker on about how you look out on the floor and everybody's out there hugging. I mean, yeah, I'd be the Beyond a game at Park Hills. Yeah, Park Hills. We knew instinctively, even I say even the fans, the fans have heartbreak, not not like a player, I understand, and and coaches, and because you guys were there every day and grinding the season out and working.

SPEAKER_04 56:32

Heck they're already working on next year.

SPEAKER_02 56:33

No, right, right. That's what I'm saying. And so I I can't say we felt it as bad as you, but we feel it too.

SPEAKER_03 56:41

We feel it bad. We wouldn't be who we are without our fans in our town. Right. That's the thing that makes a place like Sykeston so powerful and important, is it's it's total community pulling together. Agreed. And that's what makes Friday nights at the field house so special. You know, you get you get half the town here, and that's what's fun.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

Agreed. And so we we just commented how everybody's out there on the floor. We're all hugging. I saw tears. Yeah. I mean, I could stop I could stop crying for 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

I was so I know ecstatic. A lot of that was just those former players all there. Yeah, just being there together. I mean, that's those guys are your family for so you know, so many months out of the year. I mean, we're we're together more that we are together more throughout the year than we're not together. So that's a good point. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_04 57:31

Realistically, we may not I mean, we're we're doing something every month. We talked about that even with the fans. I mean, like, it's almost like a letdown whenever even if we would want to state it. I mean, like, we're not gonna see a big part of our family for yeah, for a few months.

SPEAKER_02 57:45

Yeah, yeah, we and we we talked about this. We need to rectify that. How do we do that, Micah? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

I guess start coming to Rib City. I don't know. Start having a little uh fan section at Rib City.

SPEAKER_02 57:56

Imagine that, us showing up to Rib City in that place.

SPEAKER_04 57:59

Yeah, or we just in June need to have a bulldog bash. That's what we need to do. Just uh fish fryer or something.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

I don't know. That's what we need to do.

SPEAKER_04 58:07

Get hey, just come out like fan alumni and all that'd be fun.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

Yeah, I don't know. We we've we've talked about that because that's you know, you get to see but like Ken and Maxine, you know, the the Barker, you see them and then uh you see them a little bit uh between now, but about you even talked about you even talked about like when Erwin Porter was on here, he talked about how Coach Bess was at the book signing and just being around those people.

SPEAKER_04 58:34

Like, how do you create those moments? Without all the work, I don't think those moments would mean the same. I mean, like, but I mean they wouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 58:42

They I mean that's why I was so emotional. We you know, I obviously you're guys, and I get that too, but you know the work that you've taken now this fourth year in a row to try to get past this game. That I mean you've just you've poured your heart and soul into it and worked your tails off to try to do that, and then it yeah, gosh, hanging the balls hanging on the rim. But as I uh as I looked at Micah and I said, I s I maybe it was afterwards, I can't recall, but I was like, I knew when that ball hit the rim, there was nobody in that gym getting that rebound under than Markwell.

SPEAKER_03 59:21

Yep, he got a little extra high on that one.

SPEAKER_02 59:24

Oh my gosh, there was nobody getting that rim, and not that he because he had a good player right there with him, too.

SPEAKER_03 59:30

Chase Dukes, who's there, Bianni's leading scorer, was right there with him, and he went up over him and got it. It was impressive.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

It's because he jumps so fast off the floor, too. Obviously, very high. Yes. But because he jumped so quickly off the floor, he was able to secure the rebound and they I don't think he heard the buzzer because he kept still trying to elude him.

SPEAKER_04 59:47

And he's one of those kids that can just play fast anyway about it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh Lord. But under control. Yeah. I mean, like, I'm I'm I'm more impressed with his passing than anything.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

He's a wonderful passer. He made the best pass I think I've ever seen in a high school basketball game against Notre Dame in the CMO conference tournament.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

He said it three times.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:05

He took that left hand and spun it out in front of the movie. Yeah, it was wonderful. That was the number one play on uh his highlight reel. Whenever I did that, I started the highlight reel off with that. I was like, I don't know if anyone realizes how good of a pass it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

I've said it that's I don't remember who he was playing last year, but it was it was in the Simo Conference tournament, I believe. Maybe like when he had one of his first games or whatever. He just passed a ball like the entire court. Yeah. I mean, and hit the guy on stride. I mean, like the guy just had a lay. I mean, I can't remember who that was, but I just remember like, how in the world?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:35

I asked him, I said, why do you throw he goes left-handed? He said, because I'm left-handed. And I said, You shoot right-handed. He goes, Yeah, but I'm real comfortable using my left-handed.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

He's one of those special guys. You know, there's some guys that are real they're extra hard to guard whenever they're, you know, they're better with that uh that offhand than they are with their primary hand, and that is such a matchup problem for guys. Al Young. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Al Young was one of them. He was right-handed, but if he got going left, you couldn't really keep him off the rim.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

Yeah. And he was tough. Had a couple guys in college that were that way, and they were always shifty and hard to guard for opposing teams. Because there's still plenty good going to that primary hand, too. Right. Yeah, it's you can't overplay them one side for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:17

We we've talked a little bit about the seniors, and you've kind of gone down person to person. What do you think those guys did for the culture? What what what I don't know, maybe expectations, example. That what did they set for our guys?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:31

I think the biggest thing that they set was, you know, maybe in the years past they hadn't played maybe as much as they wanted to, or maybe they had to be more of a practice guy. And not waiting your turn, that's the wrong phrase, but you know, when you get the opportunity like they did this year, making the most out of it and sticking with

Seniors Set The Standard

SPEAKER_03 1:01:51

the process. Wow. You know, there were so many guys that you know, there's just several guys this year. I mean, none of the guys who started this year they didn't start last year. That's a good point. They all had to go through their own processes of development. And whenever they got their shot, they made the most out of their shot and their opportunity.

unknown 1:02:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:09

I I I've never never considered the only thing I've ever thought of, like, and you know, just kind of watching it from afar, like Web City and Lamar in football. There's players that I've kind of talked to like from that played at Web City, and that's kind of what they've talked about was that culture of like they played and practiced the majority of their life to be able to play their senior year on Friday night.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:34

Wow. It's you know, obviously, you know, there's there's gonna be there's gonna be expectation. I mean, not expect exceptions to the rule. I mean, like there'd be kids that come in and play as freshmen, there'd be kids that come in and play as seniors. Had some this year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:48

Yeah, we've had that, you know, we've had that before where a kid's a predominantly JD kid his junior year and then has to be a varsity ready player by the time he's a senior. Marqu Mark Marquan Nelson. Marquan Nelson, yeah. Or you have guys that are thrust into that position, maybe it's because they're good enough, or maybe because there's a dire need at that position. You know, Kevin, Kevin was good enough, but he did have to step up because we needed that extra guard play. That's tough on a freshman. Yep. You know, I I had to step in as a varsity player as a sophomore, and I was a very average varsity player, but we didn't have much shooting, and I was the best shooter in the program at that time, and so I was able to help fill a role. And so it just depends. You know, we had some roles that needed to be filled, and we had, you know, three sophomores who really stepped up and helped carry a lot of that, and they were so good this year. I can't brag on Quay, J-Ray, and Sean enough. They were just all three such big moments that they grasped and took and competed in. It was just great.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

I I didn't feel like with that group, and I know I as we say I looked through everything with rose or with black and red glasses, but I didn't feel like there was any moment that they felt like was too big for them. I thought even not even, but I thought the quarterfinals, those three, yeah, in in their minutes, in their moments, I thought they played very well. Obviously, Sean hit a bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

You know, those kids have been playing high elite basketball since they were fifth, sixth grade.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:14

Yeah, like literally. I mean, yeah. And they've you know, they've been good. You know, they've come through the program and won a lot of games in junior high. You know, of course, just having, you know, early in the season, especially our young guys, you know, we we had a lot of guys early in the season. We had some that kind of that kind of our numbers got a little thinner as the season went on. We don't have to talk about that much. But you know, early in the season, we were essentially doing like these long bulk practices with, you know, some guys ended up going four, four and a half hours every day. And those three sophomores in particular, uh, they they went long. Yeah, and they grinded and they made huge strides in you know, a month, month and a half of getting varsity ready in that time of just so much effort. I remember uh one of them just after practice about two straight and it's like, my god, I can't move. I'm just cramping so much. It's like, it's okay. This is gonna pay off. This is gonna pay off. And I'll say this, it did. They stuck with it and they were so good uh down the stretch.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:17

Yep. They're in and again, it's not uh it's not a four-hour practice of running line drills, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:24

But it's it's up and down, high pace intense basketball with a ball in your hand. We do very little without a ball in our hand. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:31

I I I literally told somebody that the other day I haven't seen over it's been several years now, and I hate to try to put a number on it, but Coach Hollyfield uh uh other than maybe as punishment, as I would say kid misses practice or silly in school or whatever, yeah. Does he say, Okay, you owe me a pro set or you line drills or sixteens or whatever? Outside of that, that's the I say this so often that's the Genius of conditioning your kids and they don't even know it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

They're playing basketball.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:05

Yep. We do that as well or better than anybody. I do tell these kids now, though, that they have it easy because whenever I was in school, he was the cross-country coach as well. And he made it made us run, it made at least some of us run cross-country. But Caleb in particular had to run cross country. I was out there running in my baggy gym shorts and my uh Jordans trying to trek through the miles.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:27

What is it? Is it like three miles or something?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:29

It's a 5K, whatever 5K is.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

Whatever that is. It's too many K.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:33

Too long. I hated it. But hey, I was I meddled in the Jackson JV meet my sophomore year. Did you really?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:40

Yeah, I took 10th place. I did not realize that. And it and the problem with uh cross country, not only is it several miles, it's not flat ground.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:48

It's terrain. Sykeson is not the best place to train for cross country. We're very flat whenever you go over to Bluff or Jackson, whenever you're like, my gosh, what is this? We don't have any of this in the hill.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

Right, right. Yeah, you need to train in Dexter or something. Yeah. Oh, or run up the bitten and print. Go to the levee or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:05

Run up and down.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

Yeah, right over here to the phone. Complex and run that hill.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:09

We used to run the little hill right there by the the board office, or whenever we would run down, we'd run down to the pond back here behind your house. We'd run that little hill a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:20

Take me over to you know where they have a little sled at on Ingram. Like oh yeah, going down to the complex off in Ingram.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:27

He used to send us out to run, and I'd have to run straight out of that 5K right into curl cut.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:35

Well, hey, you were in shape. Built character. That's right. Book character, that's exactly right. Got me ready for three rivers. It did do that. We ran a lot there too. I heard I heard that. Yeah. You and you have a uh stress fracture. I had a stress fracture in my freshman year.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:52

Yeah, I was there were those you know me. I've got tight, heavy legs, and they just got a little extra tight and a little extra heavy.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

You shouldn't have cracked anything in those legs. I don't know what the heck's going on. You weren't drinking your milk or something, right? Yes, yeah. I don't know what the heck was happening. So we talked about seniors, we we've talked about them individually and what they meant. I you know, we're gonna miss those guys obviously next year, but that's just part of the process. You know, every team has graduation. M I C D S it's gonna be they lose four of their top five. Yeah. Yeah. You would expect maybe a drop. But I you know you never know. If I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, Viani will be class six next year.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:35

I believe that's correct. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:37

That's what we uh we've talked about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

Now St. Dom drops down to class five, and they are very, very good. They had a they had a kid ill in their quarterfinal game, and that may have cost them quarterfinal, final four appearance in class in class six. But you know, Coach Rivers does a great job. We'll see them in their Christmas tournament, and that'll be a good gauge for us to see. Now, if the alignment, I don't know if it'll change, but if that holds, that would be a state championship opponent, I believe. I think that they would be in that place with like Winsville Holt, who played in my CDS in the quarterfinal. Ah, okay. Well, then but you know let's hope we're playing them. Hey, if we're playing them, good things have happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:16

I just gonna say, as Coach Bryan says, a lot of good things have happened if we're playing them at that time of the year. It will be a it'll be a pleasure to meet up with them again. Were there anything in particular that this season, like you're you're leading your team or helping leading this team, was there anything about this season that teach you anything, more patience, that we need to work more on this, do this, anything like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:40

In regard to this team, it's a little different of a team than maybe we've had in the years past. They were a little looser, a little freer. Free spirits. Yeah. They they had definitely kind of their own personalities, and in some ways it kind of kept us loose as well. If you ever watch me, I'm more kind of an uptight, like that I I really I didn't notice that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:05

Hey, I'm the calm guy in the stands. I get it, I understand.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:08

But uh I'm more along the lines of watching him at the restaurant after the fast food and picking up the no Lord, that that's all when the season's over.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:18

I don't miss uh the team. I I miss the team meals, I don't miss ordering and dispensing the team meals. That's always that's bust up. You know, this group of guys, you know, they they always kind of stayed here. They didn't get too high, they didn't get too low. And I think that that that way also helps you perform in those big moments, though. When you don't get too tight, you're just kind of they are a little bit looser, and you know, they they were in one of the tightest moments in school history there against Viani, and they they just executed and they played together. They made there were a sequence of just totally correct plays made in a row there that won us that game.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

And what what were some of those, if you don't mind? Well obviously the shot. I'm putting I'll put you on the spot here.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:04

But you know, I go immediately to the you know, we went into our half-court trap and our guys executed that and Marquel. Sean picked off the pass. Yep. Marquel kind of deked the guy and made him throw it over the top, and Sean made a great play on that. Sean didn't try to force it down, he drug it down into secondary break. We had ball reversal. We kicked it to Ben, who was open in the corner. Ben didn't force and he penetrated and he made a great play. I mean, he had two options. He had Kobe and he had he had Sean with one defender to make a decision, and Ben looked him off.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:35

Looked at Kobe. Yep. I think it I think it was Duke's shaded Kobe and he looked him off and made the correct pass to Sean. Sean was down shot ready, made and executed it.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:46

And actually, I went back and looked and I didn't recall it at the time. You know, sometimes they it wasn't war, but they call it like fog of war. You know, you go back and look at it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:56

Heat of the moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:57

There we go. He there we go. Heat of the moment sounds better. The the big kid that guarded Ben initially.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

Yeah, he went out to contest the shot.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:05

Yeah, Sean. I didn't recall that being watching the game, and I went, he kind of got there.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:13

I mean, you know, he had a decent check. It was late, yeah, uh, but he still got there to contest.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

I mean, you got a seven foot whatever kid flying at you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:21

And then our, you know, we were able to call timeout. We still had some left, and then our guys really executed well. You know, we fouled them and made them reset several times. You know, there was just a high level, and you didn't foul in a way to where it would tempt a ref to call a flagrant or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:37

Or intentional or whatever. Playing the ball.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:39

And our guys just really executed that well and had a pretty good check on long on the last shot as well, and then a great rebound. Just that sequence uh was really good high-level basketball on our kids, high basketball IQ moments that that win you big games and was really pleased with that.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:55

Not just one person either, it was a whole team.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:57

Yeah, yeah, it was one through five on the floor at that point. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:02

What what excites you about just like the future? Like what what what do you see with and not necessarily.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:10

I I don't want to Yeah, we don't want to pinpoint next year, but I mean like is it Well uh we can't you may not want to say specific names.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:17

I don't want to put pressure on kids if they listen to this. Oh, we expect him to do you know get 20 points or whatever, but no that's not what I'm trying to do. Just with just the future in general. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:26

I believe I may be wrong. I think we lost three games JV through seventh grade. So I Correct. Uh I think freshman lost one, eighth grade lost one, and seventh grade lost one.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

We lost six, we lost six games as a program. Those three, and then twenty-nine and three. Yeah. So fourteen and one, fourteen and one, nine and oh. And then seventeen and oh. So we f oh five games. We lost five games then. Yes. They lost two. Yeah. Seventh and yeah, freshman was undefeated, and so was JV. Is that right? No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:56

Seventh lost one.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:57

Freshman lost one to Jack.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:58

Seventh, eighth, and ninth each lost.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:00

There we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:00

The freshman lost one. JV was undefeated.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:03

There we go. You know, we have a lot of winning coming up. Guys who are ingrained into the program, who know our system, who know how to pay our play our pace, who have won and want to continue that winning. I'll say this in terms of you know, weights or individual skill development that we're doing, we have guys working as hard now as we've ever had players in the past work. I think that they're eager and hungry. We're going to be very young, but I think that we have a great foundation for the next several years, and I think our guys are really excited to put their own stamp, just like this senior class, who really a lot of them got to play this year. Varsity,

Next Wave And Offseason Plan

SPEAKER_03 1:14:40

heavy minutes. They put their stamp on the program. I think our coming guys are really excited to get to put their stamp on the program.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:46

You you know, and and maybe we talked about this earlier. You just talked about being young. I felt like we were an old young, if that makes sense. Like you said, I mean, none of these kids started. Now, they all played some minutes. Uh Ben didn't play at all last year. Will played sparingly last year. Mark Will played some. Kobe had some big minutes last year. Uh he was a he was an off-bench guy. Right. But we were in a senior laden team that was kind of young. Yeah. Now, they got old quick. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:18

I thought that they really matured through the season really quickly. These guys have just played so much basketball, you know, our senior class has. They have played forever and played forever together. I mean, they have just played a ton of basketball. And they're gym rats, too. Yeah. Yeah. Really good feels for the game. But I would say that our young guys have a very similar makeup in terms of their gym ratness, their desire to improve, and you know, kind of that mutual camaraderie of pulling together. Yeah. So I think that we want all that we can ask for coaches as coaches is that we make the natural strides that these players are supposed to make. You don't want we're not going to put pressure on players. They just have to make the strides that they're naturally going to make and help them make them. And that's our job as coaches to help them make that. And I think that they all will. I think that they have the dedication, heart, and grit to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:07

I agree with you. Is there are there anything, are there any particular priorities? I mean, uh, if anybody knows how to do this, please let me know. We uh get uh Sean to about 6'7 and Quaid about 6'4, and J Ray 6'9, you know. Which we are gonna be bigger.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:24

We will. We will her JV was one of the biggest JVs we've ever had. We had great size at the JV level. Uh people would probably see our team come in and they would see our JV, they're like, my gosh, and then they'd see our varsity be like, that doesn't equate right. But we uh we had great size at the JV level. But to quote John Wooden, you can't worry about what you can't control, you have to worry about what you can control. And we're not gonna worry about you know height or anything like that. Good point. But we can get skilled, we can get to where we're shooting that ball at a high clip like we did this year, and we can get to where we can handle and make high basketball IQ plays, and that's our objective for each of these guys in their development. And they'll they'll probably get tougher as the season goes. And they'll get that there's a big difference between a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, and there's a bigger difference between a 16 and a 17-year-old. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:10

For sure. Cool. Well, we're anything else that we're leaving out from the season that you that that that we've missed. We talked about you know your biggest priorities into the season. What are what what do you think? What's the biggest thing that your strength maybe uh? I mean, you know, obviously. You work on that every year, really.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:28

You want to help guys make their natural strength progressions. You know, we're trick we're pretty diligent about getting them in, doing upper body, lower body work. Our guys love getting on the Vertimax, improving their vertical jumping. You know, we have a really good Vertimax product program, so we're good with that. You know, we were getting some new tools. We got a couple of the form basketballs as well. So those cube looking things helping just a couple guys that may not have as their mechanics quite where they want them, helping them get to reputable shots and doing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:54

And that's when you do I I I've always said, and I think you'll agree with this, but guys make their biggest strides right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:01

In the offseason.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:02

Yeah. The phrase is March to November, individuals develop. November to March, teams develop.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:10

Oh, never heard that. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:11

Yeah. It's right now is the time for our individual players to make their improvements. And then once we hit November, we've got to make team strides. Of course, you want to make team strides, you know, we're going to play as a team and stuff, but you know, it becomes a little bit outside of the individual focus. It becomes it's kind of like this, you know, high level of individual development with you know, moderate team development in the offseason, and then that flips. We still do individual development in the season, right? But it becomes not as high of the focus as team development, but obviously because individual development's also taxing on you as well, and vice versa. So you have your priorities, and that's kind of where our priorities lie with each season as it goes.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:48

Okay. Okay. Any have we have you got the summer schedule, so to speak, worked out yet, or is that still going to be.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:56

I haven't seen it. I know Coach has got it and he's working on it, but I haven't laid eyes on it yet. I know he'll have that here in the next week or two. Yeah, because it's finalized. We've we've got you know different things we're looking at. But random question here. Will the Rib City be back in Dexter this year? I thought I talked to Coach Allen. Maybe I don't know. It might be. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:16

It just Deeds and I asked him last year, we're like, why is it over here? What happened? They were redoing something in the Bearcat event center or whatever it's called.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:24

That 20-minute drive is a lot better than the 45-minute drive. Exactly. That's uh obviously for a for a selfish reason. I like the shorter drive. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:32

In the summer on a school bus, it's with no uh air conditioning, conditioning 9,000 degrees. Yeah, it's it's a lot easier going 20 miles for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:40

You mean the bus don't have air conditioning?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:42

Yeah. Roll the window down at 70 miles an hour whenever it's A C. Yeah. It gets that's why I don't mind riding in the in the conditioned air back to Dexter or Sykes in my personal vehicle. It's it's not too bad. All right. Well, listen, we're gonna get into the lightning round, kind of like a this or that. Yeah, we're gonna put you on the spot here real quick. What was one moment maybe this season that will that you'll remember the most?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:08

And maybe you've already touched on it a little bit, but I mean you have to go with the Viani game, but also the district championship. You know, that was a big weight. We put a we put a lot of stock in winning a district, and I think everyone was really eager to try and win that quarterfinal game, but there's a little bit of tenseness in that district championship, and you can't overlook anybody. We knew how good Festus was, especially as physical as that game was early. That that was a really sweet moment after the district championship. I enjoyed that. Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:37

I I I have those are great moments. There were we we've talked about a lot of them on here, but you know, it I was hopeful, and we talked about this sort of off the air, and I started to say it a couple times for obvious reasons. I was hoping we were going to win that final game, but I was really gonna like the parallel between the dads and the sons. Yeah. With you know, you and your dad, and then Brian and and Ben.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:02

Um I think they talked about that a little bit on the on the broadcast.

Lightning Round And Season Takeaways

SPEAKER_04 1:21:09

I you mean the guys actually doing the game? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:12

I I haven't gone back to watch that yet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:14

I was hopeful. I think it was I think it was Friday night's game because I didn't get a chance to.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:18

I was, you know, I was hopeful obviously to win a state title, but that would have been kind of a really cool parallel.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:23

We've had two coaches, three coaches' kids, including myself, who've been a part of three of the most special moments and teams in school history. Um yeah. You know, we obviously we won a state title my senior year. Creighton was on that team that had probably the best, most exciting district championship in school history. And what a great moment that was. David versus Gladys. Yeah, and then of course, Ben just this year and the Viani game, and then the final four beating Raytown South, and then getting, you know, we we play, I thought we played really well in the state title game. We just we would have liked to have gone into half. We were up one, and I, you know, we were right there going in at about a six to seven point lead, and you know, you know that they're gonna make a run. They came out, they got extremely physical, and we could if you're up a little bit more, you can withstand that run. Maybe they even have to stretch themselves, play a little differently, and you know, they kind of got up on us and you start pressing on shots, and it just kind of snowballed. It does happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:20

Yeah, yeah. I'd much rather go in up six than one. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'd I'd almost rather be down. He always says we need to be down one. I'm like, no, let's be up 20. How about that? I mean, if we got to be that close, let's yeah, how about just be up 20? Well, just it's a different mentality of like coming out, you're yeah, you're gonna be more aggressive because you're down.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:41

Yeah, yeah. And you know, they hit a couple shots, they weren't a great shooting team. Right. And two guys hit threes who weren't great shooters, and that kind of got us a little, you know, kind of took away from our defensive game plan and kind of stymied us a little bit. Yeah, but you know, that happens. Kudos to them, they're a great team. Right. And they were as good a defensive high school team as we've ever played against in wow, Sykes in history. That's what I praise. I mean, they held us, who's one of the highest scoring teams in the state, to however many we had. I mean, that's whatever it was, yeah. That's an impressive effort. They also held Viani to 40 something. Yeah. So to hold those two teams to that, you know, you gotta give you gotta have you have to give them their flowers, as they said. Yeah, which credit is due.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:20

Coach, you know, their coach, Coach Wallace, I believe, does a great job. And you know, we we actually play, we were talking about it, so we played Reggie Morris, who's Raytown South's, and the MICDS's coach, we played them both in the 2018 Final Four because Coach Morris was at Grandview, who ended up winning it that year, and then Coach Wallace was at Jennings, who we played in the third place game. I did not. And our hope was you know they beat us both that year in the revenge tour. We were we wanted to beat them both this year. That was our goal. But you know, we got to got to play Coach Morris, his uh point guard from that Grandview team was his assistant, and he was a super nice guy, and Coach Morris is a great guy. And then, of course, you know, we this year we did fall a little short, but you know it was a it was uh we were so proud of the season.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:03

Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:06

What made this and team enjoyable to coach? Just their camaraderie and coming together and just who they were as a team. Just I loved watching how hard they pulled for each other. Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:18

What did this group teach the coaching staff?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:25

I don't know if they taught us this, but my dad definitely had more of this idea of like sometimes you have to let guys be who they are, and I think he did a masterful job of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:35

Yeah. Interesting. I recall I don't remember what game it was, but Cord, of course, you talk to Cord probably quite a bit too, or text him, whatever. He texted me one game and he said, What's up with all the shoe colors? Yeah. And I I I texted him back and said something along the lines of I think Will and Caleb have had to talk him off the ledge a little bit. You know, everybody wear the same shoe, and he's and he said, Oh, I bet he and I I think coach has kind of learned to lean on you guys a little bit for some of that stuff, like you said, is allowing them guys to be who they are.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:12

I don't know, some of that's coach himself.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:13

Me, I get a little bit more like we don't need the green and the yellow. Yeah. So some of that's a blue. Some of that's coach himself.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:21

He's like, eh, you know, he's he he li he wants them to be comfortable. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:27

There we go. There we go. We hit on this a little bit, but what kind of legacy do the seniors leave?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:34

Well, I mean, they're one of uh three teams to go to the state championship game. Is that correct? We went in 06, we went in 11, and we went this year. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:47

I mean, I don't know if y'all keep a record like this, but like as a shooting, as a team shooting percentage, probably one of the highest.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:55

Yeah, it's the best shooting three-point shooting team we've had, which is very close. 16 was also one of the best we've ever had as well, but they I think that this team did surpass them.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:05

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:07

I mean, like I great question. I mean, that just stand out to me. I mean, like, I just yeah, like they had to be one of the top shooting, great shooting team.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:14

That's awesome. I I guess I didn't think that. I would have I would have said just me sitting here thinking about that, I would have said maybe like 18-19 with Parker and Owen and Kevin.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:28

They got they had that tough loss in the district, and they would have if they had played you know five or six more games.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:34

Okay, okay. Well that makes sense. Yep. That makes sense. What do the younger kids now need to understand about how they earn what they get, so to speak, in the program?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:48

The biggest thing is obviously you need to be a hard worker, but that has to come into tangible results on the court as well. You know, there's gonna be guys that work really hard that maybe are a little tighter in the games, and that does happen, but you know, you have to be able to work at a place and a pace to where you can get out there and just be ready to perform, especially where we're at. We play at a pace and there's big crowds and there's excitement. So just be ready to feed off of that and not let the moment get too big for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:16

Awesome. Okay. What should what should we in Bulldog Nation, what what which what should we be excited about coming up?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:24

I think that you have a group of kids coming up that are really bought in or excited to be Bulldogs. We're kind of getting into that second and third generation of winning now where kids who are coming up in junior high and even our younger high school kids have never known anything other than Sykes and basketball being great. I mean, there are players that we have in our program that weren't alive when we won a state title. That's shocking, you know, whenever you think about that. We have freshmen that were born in whatever, twenty twelve, maybe some of 'em, or maybe eighth graders at least. Wow. I mean, if you think about it, our freshmen are fourteen, fifteen years old. Well That's true. So it even if they were alive, they don't remember it. Right. But the only things that they do remember is how good we have been for how long. And you know, that's the thing now that we're kind of getting into is it's becoming ingrained into our do appeal to the younger like kids start watching early, early and oh they want to be mold.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:21

There's kids probably in kindergarten right now want to be a bulldog basketball player. No question they do.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:25

And we're we want that. We want them to be excited to be a part. We want them to want to be a part, and we want it to be so deeply ingrained in them that they expect when they're high school and junior high and it's their turn that it's their turn now to show up for the program and then to win and make their own stamp within the program. Oh man, I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:48

Actually, we've got two questions left. If you had to sum up this season in one sentence, how would you do that?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:55

It was one of the most special teams we've ever had. I mean, it's hard to I mean, I know that that's kind of you know cliche is cliche, but I mean just their effort, their will, their the biggest thing I keep saying is their camaraderie, them pulling together and pulling for each other. It can't be understated. There were ego list moments that just uh help you get over the hump, and that was so special.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:22

That's I I think we talked about this different times, and it it it I I really will say it was reminiscent even of the 2011 year. On any given night, you could have had three or four guys get 20. Yeah. I mean, really, Mark Will obviously could have scored 20 at probably any given time. Kobe, of course, yeah, Ben just hits takes a few more shots, yeah. All of a sudden he's at 20. Yeah. Sean definitely can go get you 20 if you needed to be. Very reminiscent.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:50

Those guys, oh yeah, Quay Quay, yeah, Jaharis. I mean, any of those guys. I mean, you know, and we had some bench firepower as well, which helped. You know, that's kind of one of those things when guys come in. We always loved that, you know, that was kind of the staple of the 2011 team. Of course, you had your five, you know, your five starters that were really good and we played well and had a great flow together, but when our next group came in, they just kept hammering on teams both offensively and defensively, and that makes a special team. Yeah. And we kind of had that this year where when our you know our younger guys came in, they gave us oftentimes a lift. You know, maybe they were a little quicker, more active, up aggressive ball pressure guys, or whatever it was. You know, they would get up there and it was, you know, they could cause some havoc, and that pays dividends in the long run for a team.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:34

Awesome. I I again I'm the internal optimist when it comes to bulldog basketball, but I I see some more of that coming just because of the kids that will be freshmen this year. Yeah. They're a really special group. I was fortunate and certainly coaching in a air quotes coaching last year. Yeah, last year. They were seventh graders with some of the now freshmen. I mean, this eighth grade class has they've got size, they've got shooters, they've got ball handlers, they've got speed. Yep. I'm not saying it's gonna take till the eighth grade class gets there, but I'm saying we've got some kids that can backfill some of these kids that will now be juniors next year. Yeah. And there's some other kids that played a lot of key JV minutes that are gonna have to make a big step next year, too.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:31

Did we have a junior on the team? Like there were one or two.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:34

By the end of the season, Talon had gotten injured. Yes. But yeah, yeah. He I think he's, you know, his rehab's gone well. We're really excited about him. He had huge JV moments for us this year. Yes. Um, even had some pretty, you know, against Union, he played well varsity wise. Yes, he did. So, you know, he's another kid. He's a great shooter, and we're excited to get him healthy and see if he, you know, hope help him make those strides that we're hoping he will.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:59

Didn't he hit a big shot against St.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:01

He hit a bunch of big shots against Jackson and against St. Mary's. St. Mary's was the biggest.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:05

Oh, that's that's that's right. That's the one. I knew there was a couple of them in there. Yeah, he's a terrific shooter. Absolutely. Expect a lot out of soon to be seniors that step up. So one last question. Sure. And we're hour and a half in. Awesome. I love it. I love it. Three people that you suggest for us to get on here. I think I texted you that today. Whoa. Really put him on the spot now. If you can't think of some, we'll we'll come back to the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:34

Well, I don't know. You had most of the most prolific Sykesonians on here. Um I'm working on Vishon.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:42

We we've we've we've gone back and forth. I can do a virtual deal with him. He's in South Carolina, North Carolina somewhere. Yeah. And we've we've uh messaged back and forth several times, so I'm trying to get him on. He got a big shout out from Lane when we had Lane Bellew on here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:58

Have you had Peyton on? I have not. Peyton would be good. He's always a good interview, good talk. Clark, have you had Clark on? Nope. Clark would be good. You know, Parker's at Three Rivers now. Parker. We got Parker coming. That'd be good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:10

You know, those guys are always good to chat with. I had some of the current players hit me up, and I said, Well, let's wait a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:21

I think it's always good. Get him to summer. Oh, for sure. Let them be brief.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:27

Exactly. We did that last. We did. Well, we we got them after. We got Trace and PJ.

Guest Picks And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_02 1:33:33

We had some memorable moments.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:34

Well, I think you always got to get Brian on more, too. I think that's important. Brian and Deege first off are the words of wisdom within.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:42

You know what we need to do? We need to get them on. Can we get them all together? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:46

I just want to be a fly on the wall for that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:48

Well, you can come in and you can be. I think you had Sarah. We can bring the whole coaching staff.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:52

We can bring it up. We could bring the whole coaching staff in.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:55

We've got enough cookies. Oh, we've got dude. I've got eight mics. There's four more.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:00

Well, you see group episodes of podcasts. Sometimes you get too many cooks in the kitchen, and it gets to be a lot. So I think I think a good get get the James brothers on together. I think that that is peak entertainment.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:12

Oh or as we say, it's like the brothers Tanner, the brothers James. That's uh I agree. Those are great. Maybe we should bring your brother in on that one too. Oh Lord, that might be too much uh too much head space in here going on with all that. There'd be some melon sizes going on with that.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:31

Getting him in here, Lord advertising. I'd just be sitting back, I'd be the fly on the wall.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:35

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, I'll tell you about that phone call when I get off here. It's a as a goodness. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:46

No, uh, but that that's about you know, Dontrez. If you haven't had Dontrez on, he might be working on that. Yeah, Micah works with his mom. You know, he could be good. You know, he's had a ton of success. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:58

There's a lot to talk about with him.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:00

Yeah. Yeah, we that's an interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:04

We'd like to have a perspective that he probably can only bring to us right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:09

In I an NIL perspective.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:11

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:13

We we had we had Brad Corn on and Brawley Palmer last summer, and they provided they were so good. Of course, they were almost like not slapstick comedy, that's not the but they really They were like almost like brotherly. Yeah, like brother and sister. It was it was hilarious listening to those two kind of go back and forth at one another. And Brad kind of has a deadpan kind of uh funny coach Nutt would also be a good guy, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:37

Speaking of SEMO, you know, he's at Nazooo now. You know, that's my that's my man, you know. I like Coach Nutt.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:44

I saw him at oh, we saw him at the Final Four. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:47

Yeah. You know, he's he's the best, and he's you know, he's a part of that Mizoo staff, and he's he may have the world's record longest podcast to get him on here. He may he'd be dynamite at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:59

I agree. Ah, thank you for that. Yeah, that's great. There you go. I've you have full stepped up. You give me one you give me two four five six. Look at that. Yeah. Thank you. That's awesome. Ma'am Will, first off, congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. We're congratulations twice on the child and the season.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:20

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:22

Oh, are you finishing that up? It'll be Dr. Hollifield.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:26

I'm not calling you doctor. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:28

I want it announced at every game. I want it plastered everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:31

Assistant coach, Dr. Will Hollifield calling paging Dr. Will Hollifield. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:37

Well You've been working on that a while. I have. I'm tired of it. I'm ready to be done.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:41

I mean, like, it's been years ago since seven.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:44

It's uh started the program in 2019. Oh, did you really?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:47

It's been a while. Chelsea's way ahead of him. She's already been there.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:50

Yeah, she's two or three years ahead of me. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:52

I just remember they they actually kind of interviewed me back in the Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:58

Or part of your whatever. Just early early assignment or something. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, congratulations on that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:06

Gotta defend it success successfully first. So you can congratulate me next time.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:10

As your dad says, get down in a stance and guard. Hey, that's the stuff. And that's how you defend it. Get down in a stance. Sit down, as he says. Sit down and guard. That's right. I love it. That's awesome, though. Well, obviously, congratulations on baby number two. We I heard tale last night of maybe a basketball team number five, but mama says not five.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:32

So Yeah, five would probably be too many for us at this point.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:35

Somebody last night we were talking about it at the after the bond issue. We were kind of getting together as a as a board, and your your dad and Shannon were there, and I said something about kids, and I said, I heard five. And he somebody goes, Is he going to get a part-time job too? I already have one. I'm a professor for three ribbons. He's an adjunct professor. That is correct. Hey, I'm I'm a man of many talents.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:55

You're going to need another one if you have five kids. How do you manage that in the season?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:01

I get a lot of angry student emails typically of like, why haven't you graded this yet? And no, it's all online. So, you know, I usually block off time on like Sundays and do my grading. And I try to, you know, first thing whenever I sit down at work in the mornings, I pull up my email and respond to any student emails and those things. Now there's some times during some stretches where those emails may go a little unread, but you know, when we're down a playoff stretch. Yeah. But usually I'll start pushing some assignments back, and that helps everybody feel a little better.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:32

Everything's as we say, everybody calm down. Everybody take a chill. Everybody back up just a minute. Yeah. Well, it congratulations for that. Thank you for spending some time with us, dropping some knowledge, talking about the Bulldogs, one of our obviously our favorite subjects. Thanks for taking time away from your babies for a little while and getting out of the house and you're back to work now, right? Oh, yeah. I know Chelsea she's off for a while, so good for her. Be with her babies. That's very important, obviously. Yeah. And we want her to spend time with her babies.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:11

Any any usually have a question, some some sort of I really don't have one today.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:19

I'm putting him on the spot. Well, you know, one I always asks is what can we do to help y'all? There we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:24

Great question. As a community. Yeah. Just continue supporting, make sure the fan engagement stays high. I know the broadcast is awesome, and everybody, it's so hard to sometimes leave the comfort of your home, especially with you know, Acor, and then of course our great our Andon does terrific. And of course, our great play-by-play guys and color commentary, but you know, it's it makes it more special when we pack out that field house. So keep coming to the games in person, make it a community event, and just you know, keep supporting. That's all we can ask. There we go. That's that's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:58

That's it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, for I'm Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. And we we ended with Go Dogs, obviously. Right. With Will Holofield, our our assistant head coach, or assistant coach, excuse me. Thanks for thanks for dropping some knowledge and being our, again, our first repeat guest. I love it. You are the man. We appreciate you. Thanks for coming by. Go Dogs. Go Dog. That's going to 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

Keep The Field House Packed

SPEAKER_02 1:40:38

with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the Dog House, where Sykston stories always have a home.