Ep 71 - Chris Lambert - From Triple Overtime to Friday Nights

A triple-overtime buzzer beater can make you a local legend, but what happens when the guy who hit it comes back decades later to coach the next wave? We welcome Chris Lambert, Sikeston Class of ’89, civil engineer, and the newest Bulldog assistant football coach, and we get into the real work behind “Bulldog grit”: relationships, daily effort, and building a culture players can believe in. 

Chris tells the story of how coaching started at Kelly, how his surveying skills helped shape a football field from the ground up, and why he’s always valued being an assistant coach who does whatever the team needs. We also talk about balancing family life with coaching hours, how different athletes need different kinds of motivation, and what he learned coaching both football and girls soccer. 

Then we dig into Sikeston football: defensive identity, takeaways, tackling, leadership on the field, and why being competitive matters before the win column turns. Chris shares the mindset he wants in every rep: control your attitude and effort, compete against the guy in the mirror, and never let your second effort disappear. If you care about high school sports, small-town community, and building winners the right way, this one hits home. 

Subscribe, share, and leave a review so more Bulldog fans can find the show, and then tell us in the comments: what does “winning” mean to you?

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Transcript

Welcome To The Doghouse

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nation, it's time to get in the doghouse. This is where Sykes and Pride lives, where we tell the stories that make this town special. From the legends of the past to the faces shaping our future. Whether it's basketball, community, or just that good old Bulldog grit, we've got you covered. You're listening to the dog house, the voice of Sykes. What is up, Bulldog Nation? Thank you for being patient with us. Thanks for joining us again. The reason I say thank you for being patient with us. You took a week off. We did. It wasn't by design, it was just a scheduling mix-up, let's say. Hopefully we've got all that corrected, and we've got just telling Micah earlier, we've got five or six weeks out now, and I've got some schedules upstairs, and so hopefully that's not a challenge anymore. And that's but that's hey, that's part of show business.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

That's part of it. That's I mean, we hadn't been able to put any in the can, so we can't.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

No, no, we kind of got one ahead and then we it kind of got away from us. So anyway, thank you for thank you for sticking with us and and coming back this week to listen to us. You are Maga Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. Thank you uh again for joining us. We're ready, we're glad to be back.

Sponsors And Community Shout Outs

SPEAKER_04 1:20

And without further ado, we'll mention our sponsors and our partners. Big shout out to Mercy Phoenix, healthcare staffing, Mr. Jody Cheney and his crew. They are your go-to for your healthcare staffing in this area. And again, if that's something that you need, or if it's a job that you're looking for, give them a call. Or excuse me, you can find them on their Facebook page on mercyphoenix.com, and mercy is spelled M-E-R-C-I. And they were also, you can also contact them via their website at mercyphoenix.com. Our next partner is Greengrass guys, Mr. D. Bizzle, Mr. David Bizzle. They are your turf management specialist, and they are terrific at what they do.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

You send them to mosquitoes now too, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:08

They are doing some mosquito spray. Spray, repelling, control. I'm not sure what term that they use for that.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

We may learn more about that in the next week or two.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Yep, yep. Supposed to have D on here, and we're looking forward to that and talking about how he takes care of all the fields and they look terrific. It's funny. He called me about a week ago and he was working on the football field and he had done some stuff to it and then he put some sand on it. They they punched it, they say punch, you punch holes in it, but it's water and aerate it. Yeah, thank you. And they do this to the greens at cut at golf courses and stuff like that. Well, then when they get done, they put sand on it. Then that helps he can get into all that. But he was it had started greening up, and then when he called me and he's like, Yeah, I want to be out there, so he was it's like eight o'clock. I went out there, it's dark, he's got the tractor and he's spreading sand around. He's got this big like a wagon and it's spinning in the back and it's firing sand everywhere. Well, the next day I get a text from our good friend John Hobson. He goes, Man, the football field died. And I'm like, No, it didn't. That's just sand on it. And so because it was brown all of a sudden. Yeah. And so D will give us some some background to that. So yeah, no, it's it's gonna be good having him on. And and again, they are they are top-notch, just like our other, again, like our other partner, Jody, Jody Cheney and their crew. They are the absolute best, and we are so proud that they're partners with us. Giving more shout-outs to Luke. Luke set up our audio and our video things tonight, and actually during uh you'll you'll see that on the video if you watch it with our guest, it kind of played out in the middle. But we'll we'll fix it. We'll correct it. I can uh I can put an overlay on the video uh when it pops up, and you'll never know. Except for me getting up to well, you know, hey, that's that's uh that's show biz, as they say. Shout out to Erin. Thanks to her for keeping our guest keeping them occupied occupied being being good company while Micah and I are uh doing our thing. She's normally able to keep them entertained as well. Shout out to Justin, our general nuisance and general counsel for all his help sometimes with our with our tech stuff. But now another shout out is to Mr. Tucker Cheney, the son to the aforementioned Jody Cheney, and he works with Jody at Mercy Phoenix. But Tucker, shout out to him for his help with our audio, excuse me, our video editing. He's been been a great resource for that, and and he'd been a lot of help for me to be able to kind of figure out how to do some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

It takes the army to run this thing.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

It does, and they're he's he's very helpful, and he's he he's always willing to help me when I when I need it. I sold to Derek James, Brian James for their sports history, their analysis, their stats, lore, comments, knowledge, they're not. They're just their overall knowledge, yeah. They are truly, truly a resource, and and I'm proud to call our we're proud to call them friends, and they are they're they're a great resource for us. And last but not least, shout out to Tyler Anderson for a cool sign on the wall, Twisted Arrow Woodworking. TA, thanks, brother. We're always appreciative of that stuff. And if you guys don't mind, we appreciate you very much for listening, but we would love for you to go like, follow, share our page on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube that supports us, that that helps continue to drive us. And it's important to help get our message out to what we do. And thank you for doing that, those that have done that, and we just ask that you continue. It it means so much to us. Tells it there tells us that there is a desire for the content that that we put out and we appreciate it very much. And our our folks are our our guests that come on, they're always very appreciative and they're they're very honored when they come on, and and we couldn't be more honored to have to have folks be willing to people want to come and sit and talk to us. They do, uh exactly.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

You know, I know I know when you first started talking about the knuckleheads, it'll be like Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

We're a couple knuckleheads. And they're and they're they're willing to come in and sit down and talk to us, and we we've got a really special guest that I hope we can get worked out, and I'm it would be our absolute honor and privilege to have this guest on here. And so we're hopeful we can work it out. Trying to do that as we speak, and really looking forward to it. And we'll just leave that as a teaser. That'll make you pay attention to it, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:59

We've kind of got a lot of the summer schedule though, don't we?

SPEAKER_04 7:01

We do, we do, we have a lot of the summer schedule already. Don't forget to catch our podcast on Amazon, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, iHeartRadio, and a whole host of other things. You can also catch all of our podcasts on our website, thedoghouse.bussprout.com. You can go listen to all of them on there, and then you can also go back on. We have two Apple feeds, and I've talked about this before. One of our Apple feeds goes all the way back to the first one. The other one only goes back to the 15th where you started, and Coach Hollifield was our first guest. So uh if you if you have if if you have if you want to go back and listen to some of the first 14, let me know if you can't find it. I will send you a link on Facebook or I'll text you or whatever, but we'll we'll get those out there to you. You can also uh reach out to us at our email address, doghouse.syxton at gmail.com. And again, if you're interested in partnering with us, give us a shout. We'll be happy to do it. And we still got our t-shirts. We are out of larges right now. Actually, our guest tonight is like, yep, I need a large, and I'm like, dang it. I got some Mr. Hanson's got some on order. He's gonna have them for us, but it will be just a little bit before we get all that in. But we are hopeful to have that here pretty quick.

Summer Basketball Update And Young Roster

SPEAKER_04 8:16

And it's definitely the summertime, Micah, and we'll want to keep this section, try to keep it as short as we can. But the summer season of basketball has begun, and we have started out 2-0.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

2-0.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

The Bulldogs played yesterday down in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

They play tomorrow, don't they?

SPEAKER_04 8:34

They play Thursday tomorrow, yep, at the Rib City. I've got the schedule on my. I think they're playing like Carbondale and South Iron, maybe South Iron and Brooklyn, Arkansas. I think. I think that knew it was out of Arkansas. I think.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

I've got it on my then there's some JV and freshman games.

SPEAKER_04 8:51

JV has three games, freshman has three games. That is correct. And they're all at the Bearcut Center. No, it's in Papa Bluff. Is that a Papa Bluff? At the Libla Center. Okay, yeah. The Libela thing. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that's right. Double check everything there, but I think that's right. If anyway, they I've seen the schedule.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

You if you could check on Facebook, it's on the Ribb City.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Rib City Facebook page. There you go. Yeah. Well, this'll it they'll be over by the time this comes out Saturday, but that's okay. But the Bulldogs beat McNary County, Tennessee, 80 9161, and they beat Dyersburg, the host school 8272, I think.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

So they were full games.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's two full games, clock stoppages, keeping fouls.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Yep, three officials, kind of the whole shooting match.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

But that's a little different with some. It is.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

The dogs look gonna be young, early. We got basically three kids that have varsity experience. J-Ray, Sean, and Quay. And the rest are moving into some roles. So there's gonna be some ups and downs, and there was a little bit of ups and downs the other day against Dyersburg. We were up probably close to 25-30 points, and then they cut it, and you know, we ended up winning by 10. So things you learn as you get more experience is don't take your foot off the pedal, kind of that thing. Still keep playing with that same level of intensity.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Keep that dog in you.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

Exactly. Exactly. So now's the time to learn, time to grow, and have full faith in Coach Hollifield, obviously. So it was a good day. It really was a good day. So without further ado, we'll get to our guest, Mr. Chris Lambert. Hang out and give us just one shake of a dog's hind leg, is how my dad used to say.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

It'd be like really quick.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

It'd be very fast in between now and when we get Mr. Chris Lambert on here. Thanks for sticking with us.

Meet Chris Lambert And His Return

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Hey, thanks for sticking with us through the break. We are now moving on to our is it famous or infamous guest, maybe Micah? Infamous. Might be infamous. Might be infamous. Depends on uh how you know him. But we're moving on to our guest this week, Mr. Chris Lambert. And without further ado, Micah, I'm gonna go ahead and read our introduction. Our intro, because we've had well, we're supposed to start at 5 30. It's almost six, and we've had to cut him off just to get him down here so we can start recording.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

So this one might be an extended version of I do have a little bit of work to get done to get prepared for the the the carpenter to come to work.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

Okay. Yeah, so we so we'll probably just 11 o'clock. Yeah, you know, we'll we'll try to get done before midnight tonight. So all right. This week we're joined by another old dog, Chris Lambert. Chris is a member of the Sykeson High School class in 1989, a former Bulldog athlete, a civil engineer by profession, and now he's returning home to the sidelines as an assistant football coach after spending the last several years as an assistant coach at Kelly High School. For many Bulldog fans, Chris is remembered for his buzzer beating three-pointer against Malden in triple overtime, our senior year. Nearly four decades later, people are still talking about it. I know, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Wow. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

We'll talk about his playing days, his coaching journey, balancing life as an engineer and a coach, what brought him back to Sykston, and what he hopes to help build with the Bulldog football program moving forward. Settle in, enjoy our conversation with former Bulldog and the newest, excuse me, the newest Bulldog assistant coach, Chris Lambert. Welcome to the doghouse. Welcome to the doghouse.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

Absolutely. We've Chris and I have only known each other for a lifetime. Basically, basically, probably seven or eight or nine years old, something like that. We started playing baseball on the same team on the light blue.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Light blue? Was it was it Firestone? Morris Firestone? We had MF on our that did not go well.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

My dad used to laugh so hard about that. It's not good.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

I just hey it is what it is.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

Back in the 80s or 70s, and they gave us a hats and MF on there.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

And sometimes our sometimes our dads was calling us MFs.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

Don't make that air again. Probably. If they didn't say it, they were thinking. Exactly. Yeah, so uh dad always laughed so hard at that, and I'm like, Dad, I don't know. I didn't they gave me the hat. What do you want me to say? I wanted me to do with it. Heck off, I was happy to have that hat and I had on like a brown leather belt with my name on the buckle. I promise, yes, sir. And wearing my first Game Award jeans instead of baseball pants. I don't know what the heck was going on around then. What did we know? An MF, and probably, like you said, in a pack of cigarettes rolled up.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

The bad news marriage.

SPEAKER_04 14:21

That's what we felt like. We should have called Chris Kelly, like Kelly Lee back in the day. Back in the day. Oh my god. That was great. So that's uh that's basically mine and Chris's story how we started becoming friends, and we've been friends ever since. So yeah. Year in, year out. Chris was in at my and Aaron's wedding. We were just talking about that a while ago before we came down here. Aaron said she's great.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

So she'll pull up pictures.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, I think we keep the pictures out. Yeah, let's not bring those out right now. It might have been Matt was back when I had hair.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

Same? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Same. I don't have any anymore.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Exactly. Exactly. So, all right, let's jump right into it. First, how long did you coach at Kelly? What kind of got you started coaching there? And then what how'd you get tell you how how she started come back or coming back, I guess, to Sykeston to coach.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Okay. Getting started was a different, it's a different story. My wife taught at Charleston when we first came back. I worked to be an engineer. Came back. She taught at Charleston. And then she came home one day and said, Hey, I we we've got a baby girl. I want to uh teach part-time. And I said, Okay. That's called substitute teaching. And she said, No, I want a part-time teaching job. And I said, Pam, that's a substitute teacher. And she said, I'll find me one. And

How Coaching Started At Kelly

SPEAKER_00 15:44

I said, Okay, that's good. She comes home later on. She goes, I get hired as a part-time teacher. And I said, Okay, where?

SPEAKER_03 15:53

We got part-time students.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Kelly High School. And she said, I'm working 8 to 12, and I'm off. And I get to spend the afternoon with my daughter. And I was like, She worked 8 to 12 every day? Every day.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

And I said, Okay, great. So she started teaching at Kelly. And then years later, they decided they wanted to have football. Yep. I want we want a football program.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

How long ago has that been?

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Probably 15, 16 years ago. Has it been that long? Been that long.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

It's probably started about what, 11 or 12? Some 2001. Right around now. Right around now.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

I would have said eight or nine.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

And so, you know, the way that got started. And so me being an engineer surveyor, they were like, they were like, hey, your husband does surveying, doesn't he? And she said, yeah. And they said, well, we want to see, can we put a football field with inside the track? Or do we have to build a new football field to get started?

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

So they contacted me and I said, Well, I have to shoot the football field or the track in to see. Because and then I have to go to get a hold of Misha. Because football fields ain't just football fields. They're not just a hundred boxes. They gotta have coaches' boxes, sidelines, everything's got to fit within there, and they got requirements. So I shot it in, put the design on, gave a big presentation, and told them they could they could put it within that track.

SPEAKER_04 17:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Well, in the meantime, my wife, Coach Red, was the first head coach. And Coach Red asked my wife, he said, Your husband play football? And she said, Yeah. Played soccer. And she said, Would be willing to be willing to coach. And she said, I'm sure he probably would. And so she threw you straight under the bus. Straight under the bus. And so the first that the year was the year was coming up. I never heard nothing back. And I thought, well, you know, so basically, so Coach Red asked me, would I be willing to coach? And I said, Yeah. And so I really didn't hear anything back and I didn't think much about it. But, you know, the next year came, and so Coach Red left, and Coach Pyers came in. Lance Pyers came in to be the head coach. And so when we started setting the football field up, he called me and he said, Chris, can you set the football field for me? And I said, the season was over when they started this. So he said, Would you set the football field up for me? And I said, Sure. You know, I said, What do you want? You want the hash marks? You want the numbers? I mean, I can get you whatever you want. I got on GPS. I'll just go mark whatever you want. He said, Okay. So he said, I'll meet you out there, I'll tell you what I want, and you can mark it. And I said, okay. So I met him out there.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

So you did let me go back. I didn't coach first.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

I did not coach first year.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

That was their JV year, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:23

That was their JV year. That was their JV year. So I go out and I meet Coach Pyers out and I said, hey, you know, I'll get you marked out what you want. He said, I'll stripe it, whatever. He said, hey, Coach Red told me, and your wife told me that you'd be willing to help coach. And I said, Yeah. He said, You play football, and I said, I play at Socston. I said, he said, when'd you graduate? I said, 89. He said, really? And I said, I said, when'd you graduate? And he said, 90. I said, from where? And he said, Cape Central.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

Oh boy. You wasn't the one Andy knocked out, was it?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

No. And I said, you know, the funny thing is, I said, that's the difference in social media now. Yeah, I had no idea I played against him.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

And then we get to be really, really good friends, best friends. And I was, it was so interesting that that he played the same time I played, but we never really knew each other. And so he said, Well, would you be willing to do defensive backs and receivers? And I said, Yeah, I can do that. And so that's the start of my coaching career, which was about 14 or 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_05 19:26

Oh, dang.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

So every year I would coach. And in that sense, we got to be really, really good friends. We were really, really best friends. Which was interesting about that, and a lot of people see me as coaching football. I actually helped coach girls soccer at Kelly. Also, and I have been blessed by being able to coach my daughter in a high school sport and not being a teacher. And so basically I got started there, and then the way that worked was when you had football, you had to have something for girls. Right. So they picked up nine. That's right. They picked up soccer. And the reason being is Kelly's really good at fall. They're really good at softball. So Coach Mel was like, y'all pick what you want up, but it ain't. Don't pick it up in the fall.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Soccer's in the software.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Don't pick up volleyball.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

We did, and we went into soccer. So I helped coach girls soccer for about eight years. But that's the way that got started. And so my wife, yeah, my wife to this day is like, I'm the one that created this problem. And I was like, Yeah, now I'm dealing with it. But that's really the way that I got started in it. And just each year kept going back to Kelly and building the relationships with the kids. Yeah. And and got into really, you know, coaching is so much fun. It's it's about the kids. Right. Loving the kids and loving on the kids. And the funny thing is, I have the opportunity being outside, not a teacher. So then when I come, you know, I always try to build a relationship with the kids.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

It doesn't matter what you're doing. Gotta build a relationship. Build that relationship. Love on the kids. And every time I go, usually go, I'll get my kids and say, Hey, how'd your day go? What'd you do today? Well, coach, I had a test today. Well, how'd it go? I don't know if I did any good, you know. Get something to to to make sure that you know they love you. You know, you love on them and and and get that embracing that relationship.

SPEAKER_05 21:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

And the greatest thing about that is it rewards you so much by doing that. Yeah. It really does. I've had I've had players that call me and they'll say, Coach, I'm having a kid.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

You know, or coach, I just got married. And I got one receiver that I coached, and he's man, oh gosh. He probably played Kelly probably around eight, nine years ago. The funny thing is, when my Lauren was little, I coached with Rod Anderson out at the youth soccer league. I coached his wife there, and she remembered me. And they both now was like, hey, coach, we're getting married. Now they've called, so we have we're having a kid. That's cool. That is, and that's what it's about. I mean, that is exactly what it's about building them relationships.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

I mean, obviously, you're competitive and you Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. You want to win.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah, you never go out to lose. Oh my gosh, yeah, you don't go out to lose.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

But winning is the relationship.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yes, that is winning. You know, and one of the you know, one of the stories that I had that that I got that is real interesting is that Coach Powers, when I With Coach Pyers, I was assistant coach. I love being assistant coach. Head coach is a lot of work. It is a lot of work. I'm sure. And this way, being an assistant coach, it's a lot of work, but it's not near the work they got. So I was always a JV coach, you know, always, and especially when we had soccer, he was varsity coach, I was JB coach. And we always would be together, typically all the time. But now you got to understand, soccer was different. So we did soccer, we got our soccer. Well, our girls, you know, there was very few that actually played soccer. So they had no experience. No idea. No idea. And so we're not playing Chaffee. We ain't playing Oran. We're playing Jackson, Notre Dame, you know. And so one year he comes up to me and he said, Coach, I said, What's up? He said, You're going up to Hillsborough this weekend. And I said, Okay. He said, You're going to be playing three games. And I think it was somebody like Hillsborough, Windsor, and somebody else. Anyway, he said, you know, I'm not going to go. And I said, okay. And that's why I told my wife. My wife taught part-time. So at noon, she's off. At noon, she'd lock her door and she'd leave because they still had class till 3:30. Well, I told Pam, I said, hey, what you need to do is leave your door unlocked. Because on Friday, we're not going outside. We're going to classroom time. We're going to go formations. Who's running forward? Who's running, you know, goalie, who's playing what, midfielder, all this. And she said, okay. And so we get in the classroom. I got probably 20 girls in there, and I get on the board and I'm writing on the board. You know, here's the formation, here's what we're doing, yada, yada, yada. And so this little girl turns around. I turn around and I say, So, anybody got any questions so far? And this little girl raised her hand. She said, Yeah, I got a question, go. I said, Okay. She said, Why are we doing this? I said, What do you mean why we doing it? She said, We're getting the crab kicked out of us. We ain't gonna win. And I said, Okay. And I said, What's your definition of winning? And she said, Well, having more points on the board than the other team. And I said, Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

This is a start.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Which is start. And I said, okay. And she said, that's not your definition. I said, no. You want my definition? And she said, yeah. And I said, now that we're being honest about everything, let's just be honest. Who's going to play the U for the U.S. Olympic team? I see hands going up. Anybody gonna play for the U.S. Olympic team in here? I said, I don't see no hands going up. I said, but let me tell you what's gonna happen. You go up here and you give me half, half effort, and then we get beat two to one, and I come back and I lay in bed tonight and I'm gonna go. Well, if she'd gave me 100%, we might have won three to two, but I'll never know. And you'll never know. I said, but here's what's gonna happen. I said, half of y'all in here are gonna be nurses. You give me half on that field, and when I'm older and you're that nurse, don't take me to her, she'll kill me. I see what she did. Don't take me to her. I said, but if you give 110% on that field and we get beat, by God, we got beat by a better team. They're better, they're better than we are. At least today they're better than us.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

I said, but when you give 110% and you're that nurse, take me to her. Yeah, she'll do everything to say everything she can to save my life. Take me to her. I said, when you're that wife or you're that mother, you'll give 110%, then you win. You might get beat on the scoreboard, but by God, you win.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

And that's my definition of winning. And she said, Coach, I never looked at it like that. And I said, in this classroom, wherever you do, give 110% and you win the game.

SPEAKER_03 25:57

Be better at what you did do tomorrow than you did were today.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

The same, Mike, that's exactly my saying. I've got the saying of be better today than you were yesterday, be better tomorrow than you are today. That's the two things. Be better today than you were yesterday, and be better tomorrow than you are today.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Don't compete against the other person, compete against yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

I tell my kids the same thing. We were we were doing weight training, and when I and I got to be junior high head football coach at Kelly for three years. And I told my weightlifting class one day. We were sitting in the classroom or sitting in the weight room, and I get them, I get them lined up.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

You know anything about lifting weights?

SPEAKER_00 26:32

No, not a thing. But the funny thing about that is in junior high.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Did y'all skip leg day a lot?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Yes, we did.

unknown 26:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

I do not like squatting. I do the I do a little bit of the RDLs, but you know what? Screw that squatting. The funny thing is we're in the we're in here, and I've got my backs with my backs, receivers, receivers. But in junior high, it's about form. I don't care how much you lift, it's about form. Right. That's all I can do.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

Doing it the right way.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Do it the right way. That when when you're a junior or senior, you got 315 on your chest, you better be doing it the right way because if now you're gonna pull out a shoulder. So I'm like, okay, well, I see these kids in the corner, and there's three of them, and they're they're my receivers. And I got two lifting and one watching. And I was like, eh, this ain't gonna work. I said, so I walk over and I was like, hey dude, why ain't you lifting? And he said, Coach, coach, I can't. And I said, first of all, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't say the word can't. I don't want to hear the word can't come out of your mouth in this class in a classroom. I don't want to hear the word can't come out of your mouth ever. I said, first of all, I'm gonna show y'all how to help. I said, I'm gonna get behind you. You're gonna get this bar and you're gonna push it up. You're gonna do everything you can, and I will help you get it up, but you're gonna do the effort. Yeah, and you're gonna get down here and do this. And so at that point, I thought, wait a minute, I'm gonna I'm gonna get a hold of these kids. Wait a minute. So I stopped everybody and I said, Everybody look at me. Everybody look at me. I said, let me tell you something. You're not competing against the guy next to you. You want to compete against somebody, compete against the guy in the mirror every morning. Get up every morning, the guy you look at in the mirror say, I'm beating that guy today. I'm beating that guy in that mirror today. And that's who you need to you need to beat. And that's where I came up with. Be better today than you were yesterday, be better tomorrow than you are today. Beat the guy in the mirror. That's who you need to compete with.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

Any, any, any, like well, think about Michael Jordan. Who was he competing against?

unknown 28:23

Himself.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

I mean, I know he's played that about himself, but himself. He was always about Kobe. It was always about getting better. Getting better.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

I mean, like never content where they're at. Carl Lewis. Never be content where you're at. Never be content where you're at. Always compete to get better.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

Because they were beating people. I mean,

Relationships That Outlast The Season

SPEAKER_03 28:41

like they're already at the top. Who are you going to compete? Exactly. They're competing. I mean, like, they're I on paper, it looks like they're competing against other people. Really, they're competing against themselves. That's exactly right. I mean, like that's what I'm saying. You're exactly right.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

So you were there. So what did we determine? How long were you at the time?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Well, I believe around 14 years.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

Okay. So how'd you get back here? Tell me how that went. I think I got an idea.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah, okay. So, you know, I I'd been at Kelly and Greg Klein, one of my best friends, he coached at Sykeson last year. And so he calls me. You know, we played golf together.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

We are we are blessed to have him here.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Yes. And and and I will say that, man. I am so blessed to be able to do that. We're blessed to have you too. And I'm absolutely you have no idea what it means to come back to my mouth. That's great, man. I mean, it is it is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

You know, took some Scott City boys to get you back, isn't that something?

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Yeah. That's what's interesting about that story, isn't it? Yeah. But Greg calls me.

SPEAKER_04 29:40

Greg and Jim May. Yes. Great.

Effort As A Definition Of Winning

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Kind of like us.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Yep. And so Greg called me and he said, hey, Chris, I I need you to coach D-Backs. He said, here's the thing. He said, if I become DC, I really need you to coach D-Backs. And I said Was he coaching?

SPEAKER_04 29:56

Is that what he coached? That's what he coached. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah. And that's what he played. Yeah, oh yeah. And he said, and he said, so I mean very slow. I'm surprised he was. And then he said, Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. I mean, slow guy, man.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

I don't know why he I don't know why he didn't play line. He's one of the fastest people humans I know.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Man, I played softball with him. I mean we both did.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

Yes, and he was just about hit ball beats about balls second base.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yes, he was fast. He was very, very fast. And so he calls me and he said, Hey, it's time for you to leave and come back to your alma mater. Which I had, you know, I coach Pyers, phenomenal friend of mine. Yeah. Great Christian guy, one of the best head coaches I've ever seen. Well, really, really great guy. And so I was torn, you know, I was like, man, I hate leaving. You know, and he's like, but Greg's like, man, you need to come back. And I had always wanted to come back and coach at Sykeston, you know, but I never really had an opportunity because a lot of times you had to be a teacher in order to coach. So I really never pursued the issue.

SPEAKER_04 30:52

You know, it's just really we I know being on the school board, we've we've always had that. That's it, it's not a rule in Nisha. Right. We've finally decided there's some teaching shortages, and we've we've we've also found that in some cases we'll have tea uh ladies and men that don't want to coach anymore, but they still want to retain like a PE position, which is totally fine. Right. But that's typically where you put a coach, and then it's hard to find a coach to be a head head coach of a well of any high school or high varsity sport and teach math. Right. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I mean Brett Collins was, right, but in general, you want your head coaches to be a PE. Correct. First off, they're with their kids, they can work on that particular sport during that time. So it's all it all got to the point to where other schools are doing this. We finally were like, well, let's look into this and taking and we've got a vetting process. We don't just want anybody to come in.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

And Kelly was the same way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

You know, you you have to and you, and there's requirements you have to meet. There's requirements by Misha as well. Yes, you do. In fact, I just took my CPR training. You have to take your CPR training, you got you got to go through, you know, Title IX stuff, you got to go through all that stuff in order to be coach. You know, you gotta do background checks and all that.

SPEAKER_05 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

But yeah, back to that. But you know, Greg called me and he was like, hey man, I really need you to. If you if I get to be DC, I really need you to be there. And I was like, okay. He said, think about it. And so he calls him back and he's like, hey man, I'm DC and I need you to come to come to DCS defensive coordinator for a new defensive coordinator and a new defense offensive coordinator.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Is that called?

SPEAKER_04 32:40

So who's is Jim calling plays this year?

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Jim is calling plays, yes.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Yes, he will be he said coach and and Charlie called him. He did, he did, he did last year. Which that's who you played for.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

I saw Coach Vic today, as a matter of fact. Yeah, his hair cut.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Coach Vick and play for Coach Vic, coach Dement, you know, played for both of them. And the funny thing is, is that Greg comes in my office and he's like, hey, because he told me, he said, Peyton's gonna help, you know, and I need you to help Peyton. He's John's normally help. You need to help him. And I was like, okay, great. Peyton is Greg's son. He's Greg's son. And so Greg comes in and he's like, hey man, you thought about this? You coming? And I said, I yeah, I think he said, Well, I think you're coming now. He said, Because Peyton's got a job at C-Mode, and I really need you. And I'm like, Okay, I guess I'm coming. He said, Call May, text May, you know, let him know. And I said, Okay. So I text Jim and I said, Hey, I'd like to meet with you. You know, I think I'm gonna I'd like to come to Sykeston. He said, Okay. So he set up a meeting with me and and and Matt Johnson, you know, AD. And they said, Man, we would love to have you here.

SPEAKER_04 33:43

Yeah, and and you remember Matt, he's just a couple years younger than us.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Yep. And it was just a blessing to be able to coach, you know, and not not not actually teach there.

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

And it was, you know, the and I don't be sentimental about nothing, but we had we started weights about three or four weeks ago. And so it was like, hey, here's a schedule, we're gonna be there. And when I got to the field house and I walked out on that practice field, man, I was like, Man, man. It's good to be home. There is no it's good to be home.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

Were there any coaches that are from Sexton originally? Besides you, trying to think in the staff. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

You got McDowell, you got King, you got uh.

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Yeah, no, you're the only one. I mean, Andy McGill was, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

And he's superintendent, yeah. Um, no. And the bad thing is I had to say this. And I was talking to Coach King the other day when I walked in. I was like, I'm the oldest cat in this place. Say good. Jim's about our age, isn't he?

SPEAKER_04 34:47

Is he a year, maybe a year or two?

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Yeah, he's a couple years younger than us. Oh, okay. Yeah, him and Greg are about the same age. I think they both 92, I think, is when they graduated.

SPEAKER_03 34:56

If I remember correctly from Whipper Snappers.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're the young guys. Yeah, we're back in the 80s. Yeah, we're late 80s, but we're still there.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

The only reason I kind of remember that I graduated in '93, and I know that like Clone was like a year ahead of us because a guy I went to high school with in Charleston, Steve Ledbetter, played with him at SEMO. Right. Yes. And and I think he was a year ahead of us. Yes. And that's how I kind of those Dame Whippers. Yeah, young guys. So young cats.

SPEAKER_04 35:25

That's right. That's right. So besides the sentimental stuff, what what's getting you excited about coming back? I mean, is it just sentimental or is it no?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

I think you know, being able to come and and and a new group of kids to be able to to to love on them and to get them. And uh, you know, kids that that and I haven't got to know all the kids yet, but some of these kids are gonna be the the grandparent, grandkids of the kids that we may have gone to school with.

SPEAKER_04 35:53

Well, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Which is the third, you know, a couple generations down, which is gonna be awesome to coach them, do hey man, I have I played with your grandfather.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

What?

SPEAKER_00 36:02

You're that old. Yeah, I'm that old, dude. But I think I think and and it being in Sykes, you know, I've had my business here 25 years, and when, you know, me and you are from here. Yep, you know, and to be able to coach, you know, on that field I played on, yeah, you know, and to coach these kids that man, and and and the ones I've got to know so many, they're great. There's awesome kids, man.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

But you could also share some of the history of what Sycle. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Yeah, the doghouse we used to have. Oh my gosh. That's where this name came from. Yes, and I'm like, don't we miss that, you know?

SPEAKER_04 36:32

I was like, man, it's I miss that. Right there where the football, uh where the uh scoreboard is, basically.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Where the scoreboard is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:39

I've looked at man, I I'd love to find some pictures of that.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

I've that would be just had its own stench.

SPEAKER_04 36:47

Yeah. Didn't it though? Wasn't it bad? All the locker room back then, didn't we? They still do, but I mean like you remember those uh those neck things we had in there, you'd strengthen your neck width, had to look like a piston on either side, and you'd have to work your neck and stuff in there. Oh, yeah.

Leaving Kelly To Coach At Sikeston

SPEAKER_04 37:02

And free weights, and it was a big thing, and I never did, but to get to be in the 300 club t-shirt.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

I was never there. You always wanted to be there, but I was never there. 300 pounds on the big expression. If you get 300 pounds, you get it.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

But it was even on the machine.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Yeah, free weights. Yeah, it was on the machine.

SPEAKER_04 37:57

You didn't have to do it on the bar, you could do it on the machine. Oh, yeah. And I remember being in there and Joe White squatted like 500 or 550. Man, that bar was pentless. Oh, yeah. And that's talking about a 45-pound bar.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Oh, when a 45-pound bar is meant like that, that's a lot of weight on that rascal. It's a lot of weight.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

Oh, yeah. It sure is. He's a big guy, though. Joe's a big dude. Big guy. That's JT's uncle, by the way. JT Jones's uncle. You know, yeah. You remember Joe and Shelby K? Yeah. Shelby K is his mama. Yep. That's right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Shelby K was in our class.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

But yeah, to come back to coach is is is just you know, it like I said, it's a blessing. It's awesome. It is an absolute blessing. You know, and a great coaching staff. Well, they are great guys.

SPEAKER_04 38:37

Just switch, switch just for a second. How'd you get into tell us how you got into engineering? Okay. Because I know it's been a while. And then how do you how do you kind of balance all that with coaching in your family? And you have two girls and one's married and you're going to law school. Yeah, that's uh that your your baby girl is at Missous. So how do you balance all that?

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Well, you know, first of all, getting into engineering, you know, we went to school together. You know, I wasn't the sharpest guy in the world.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

I didn't get no scholarships, you know.

SPEAKER_04 39:06

I always told him I was like, engineering, I thought those guys drove a train. Yeah. Funny thing is, I thought they drove a train until I got there.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

You know, you're gonna love that story.

SPEAKER_04 39:15

You decided that when they started showing all that math to you, that wasn't exactly what they did.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Well, you know, that's the funny thing is we commuted together for two years to CEMO. Yeah, and so, you know, in that sense, is you know, the only thing I was good at was sports and math. And nothing else. I loved history of terrible, but I loved it, but I'm terrible at it. So I thought, well, go up to SEMO, you know, I'll get a college degree, you know, got to have a job with a college degree. I'll be a teacher, I'll be a P coach. You know, I like I like coach. I know I like sports. That's what I do. So my second year, I get up here. Well, me and Pam are getting, you know, we're getting engaged, and I'm like, okay, and I I'm with my dad one day, and I'm sitting there and I'm talking to my dad.

SPEAKER_04 39:56

My dad is a surveyor.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yes, my dad's surveyor. But you know, he worked at Waters and there was the engineering surveying. And so I'm sitting there one day with my dad, and he's like,

Walking Back Onto The Practice Field

SPEAKER_00 40:04

What are you gonna do with your life? And I said, Shoot, dad, I'm gonna be a coach. I'm gonna go teach. He's like, Well, you like math, and I said, Yeah. He's like, Well, what about being an engineer? And I went, huh? He said, I bet being an engineer. I said, Dad, I ain't that smart. And he's like, Well, and best, one of the best advice that I ever got, he said, we ain't never gonna

Engineering Path And Family Sacrifice

SPEAKER_00 40:24

know until you try. And I thought, well, what do I got to lose? Might as well give it a shot. Yeah. And so I applied to Rolla, and they were like, Yeah, come on up. We ain't got no scholarships for you, but come on up here.

SPEAKER_04 40:37

But Rolla, you have to understand, is a is a terrific engineering school. It is.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Did you graduate from Rolla? Yes, graduate with a bachelor's and a master's. So, you know, go figure God, God can work miracles.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

I promise you he can. I guarantee it. How do you feel about the name changed? Missouri.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

I can't stand it. I cannot stand it. That wears me out.

SPEAKER_04 40:58

That's true. That's true. Used to be University of Missouri Rolla. Now it's Missouri ST.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

It is.

SPEAKER_04 41:03

Science and technology is a science and technology.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

And you know what I've heard? This is now, I ain't know how true this is, but this is what I heard about this. The reason they changed that is because when you Google Rolla, it didn't come up with one of the top 10 engineering schools. So when you science and technology put science in, it'll pop up Rolla. Science and technology. That's my understanding. That's the reason why I'm saying that's what you say. So it's an algorithm with the Google. With Google.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

I was gonna say, I've always thought Rolla was highly hard.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

It is, but it wouldn't pull up on the Google. When you Google, it wouldn't pull up engineering and this is like up there with like Purdue and stuff, ain't it?

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Yes, it's really big time. It's a good school.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah, you know, and one thing that I love about coaching and telling and working with the kids is you don't get where you're at unless somebody else sacrifices for you. And the one thing is, you know, I will, you know, besides Jesus Christ being my my Lord and Savior, number one in my life, my wife is number two. And she is the number two. Without my wife, I would not be what I am today. There is no doubt. I don't know where I would be, but I would not be an engineer, I would not be coaching. And the funny thing is, my wife sacrificed a lot when we went to Rollin. She worked, and after she worked, she would, she would cook supper, and I would have to, because I wasn't the smartest guy. I'll be I would study till midnight, 11 o'clock at night at the civil building, and she would bring me supper every night after she got done working, just so that I could get through school.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

So were you ended up being there three years or two years?

SPEAKER_00 42:35

I was there five. I went and got my bachelor's and then turned around and got my master's right after that. Holy crap. And got my bachelor's and my master's and then came back after that. And I mean, now I got to teach a couple of TA courses once I got through them. And I was there, I actually got to teach one of the mechanical materials classes after I took it. And lo and behold, me growing up surveying, I got to teach the surveying class. Once I got through that, I got to teach that lab. And they paid me for it. So I was broke as could be, you know, because my wife taught part-time. I mean, she cut hair. She would be teaching before she was a teacher, and she would work part-time and she would have to pay 50% commission to the owner. So I would send my buddies over there. I'm like, hey, dude, go get your hair cut. And so they would go over and they would come back, Chris, I can't afford that. It's $25. I said, Yeah, but I got 12 and a half out of the deal. Come on, man. I'm only going once. I'm only going once. I'm like, okay. But yeah, she she sacrificed everything. And and you say in balance and how you do that with your family. Yeah. Man, she is the one that really gets the the raw end of the deal because she knows that I love the kids and that's why she teaches. She loves the kids and she puts the kids before.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

Is she still teaching?

SPEAKER_00 43:49

She is retired. Okay. She does sub. Okay. Okay. That's what I was thinking. You know, she is she's dynamite. I mean, she is the the best woman in the world. Yep. She is the best. And, you know, even with coaching, she she understands, she knows that's what we'll go to the games and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

She will go to the games and she is a full supporter. Awesome. She is a full supporter of it. You know, but that's balancing that is it's a challenge. It can be. Now, the good thing, the one thing that that really helps here, that Jim has really done a great job. I said, man, it's a blessing to be here. And and like I said, Coach Pires did an awesome job. I mean, he did he's still there? He is still there. Okay. Yes, yes, he's still there. And he's got a great program. It's an absolute great program. And but Jim, Greg's got a full-time job.

SPEAKER_05 44:35

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

And so what Jim May does is he's like, hey man, you guys will do, we'll do six to nine, but you guys get defense first. Say, well, you can leave at eight o'clock and go to your job.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Six to nine in the morning. In the summer.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

In the summers. And he said, now, and when we have practice, you know, we'll start at 315, but you guys don't have to be there at 430. And we'll do defense last. And that way you're not missing, you know, your work. So they're working around our schedules, which is phenomenal. I mean, you know, that it just it it's just a blessing for that. So working around that helps. But yeah, it it it's a it's a struggle. It's a struggle to to balance time. And that's all you have to offer is time. You know, it's it. That's right. You know, but the the good thing that I've learned over the years is, you know, when you invest it in people, it's it's well worth it more than anything you can make as monetary value. I mean seeing these kids and hopefully I can build that same relationship with these kids that they'll give me a call and say, hey coach, I'm getting married. You know, here's when I'm getting married. Right. Or I'm having a kid, and here, you know, hey, you know, I've got two kids, you know, that that investment. But my wife, man, she is, you know, I can't say enough about it. She's just she's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

It's a weird feeling. Of course, Micah coached youth football in East Prairie for about 10, 15 years. Yeah. I coached. Yeah, yeah. It's like saying that's a little bit. And to hear like kids call you coach, I'm like, Coach. Right. Does catch off guard everyone?

SPEAKER_01 45:59

I was like, Coach, I said, Who's he talking to? Yeah, oh, you're talking to me.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Right. And I had one of my kids, we were lifting, and I I have a couple freshmen, I have about five freshmen. And one of them came up to me and said, What do you coach? Coach, what'd I call you? I said, Man, you can call me Coach Lambert, Lambeau. Most most everybody calls me Coach Lambeau. You can call me Lambeau, you can call me Coach Lambert.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

You know, don't call me late for supper. Yeah, that's right. Don't call me late for supper, dude. That's awesome. So are there anything that you did at Kelly that you're going to do here? I mean, you got different kids, but it's coaching's coaching. I mean, it is.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

It is. You know, mostly a little bit different.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

It'll be slightly different. I mean, my coaching philosophy is that every kid is different.

SPEAKER_04 46:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

Every kid is different.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

You know, there's kids that when we grew up like we did, Matt, you can jump on them and they're gonna get better.

SPEAKER_04 46:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

They're gonna be going down that throat. They're gonna be like, okay, I'll step my game up. Some are not that way. Some will will shut down. Yeah. Some will not. So you you you work on that to figure out how can yes, how can I motivate this kid? How can I get the best out of him? How can I motivate him so that that he cares and knows that I love him? You know, that's the thing. And I've had a lot of kids that I've had, and one kid I had at Kelly one time, he was I was on him. He was just lazy. It's one of them. And it maybe had a bad day. I don't care. I don't feel sorry for you. We're gonna play. You need to pick your game. And I mean, I'm on this kid. I am on this kid for a long time. And finally he looks up at me one time and he said, Coach, I said, what? And he said, Well, you're doing a whole lot of yelling at me. And I said, son, let me tell you this. Be glad that I'm yelling at you. If I'm still yelling at you, I love you and I know there's hope with you. You need to be concerned when I'm not yelling at you.

SPEAKER_05 47:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Then I've given up on you and I don't love you anymore. I said, as long as I'm yelling at you, you got hope. And so you figure out the best way to motivate your

Motivating Players Based On Who They Are

SPEAKER_00 47:55

kids. You know, and and I had the the greatest, you know, being with Coach Powers gave me a great, great opportunity because I got to coach girls and boys. How

Balancing Work With Coaching Time

SPEAKER_00 48:06

different is that? Very, very different.

SPEAKER_04 48:09

I've never got girls. Okay. Well, you've raised two girls.

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Yes, I have. And let me tell you the difference. What I've learned in coaching girls and boys is most boys, especially in football, you can jump on them. They're gonna they're gonna pick the game now. Yeah, yeah. Or girls walk away. Or they'll walk away. That's right. And you figure out which way you're gonna go. But on girls, it's kind of like this. If you want a girl to get the best out of her, don't say nothing negative off the bat. Like if she's got a bad stop and she can't control the ball around her on soccer, but she's got a really good pass, the first thing you want to go to is say, man, that pass is really, really dynamite. You have got a great foot. But what we need to do is work on stopping the ball. Get your heel down, you toe up. Let's work on that. But don't go to her and say, hey, your stop's terrible. You need to get your heel down, you toe up because she's gonna clam it.

SPEAKER_03 49:02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

Yes. So you want to be a positive mostly on girls before you get on them about a negative.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

Well, typically, the difference between like men and women, women's number one need is security. Right. So like you want to meet the girls' security. Right. Men's is they need to know that they're the man. Right. I mean, right and and I mean like it that's the difference, and you gotta look at how they're coaching that.

SPEAKER_04 49:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

Interesting. Right. But they are de different very different.

SPEAKER_04 49:31

And even like you said, some of the boys playing football. Some you can they need a swift kick. That's right. In the rear.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 49:39

And that works.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

Yep. And some you gotta love on. Yeah. You gotta you gotta get it.

SPEAKER_04 49:43

You gotta have to have a gentleman.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

And the thing is that you really, you really want to make you gotta understand, and that's why I like to talk to the kids when they get there to say, how's your day going? Because you don't know what they came from. Yeah. You don't know how their day went at school, you don't know whether how their day went at home. Yeah. You don't know, so don't just jump on them and say, I need this, this, and this. Yeah. You know, kind of figure out kind of what that day was and invest in them a little bit before you you just start drilling them on, hey, we're doing this, this, and this.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

That's a that's a real good leadership principle that I've learned over the years is ask questions rather than telling them something. And if you're trying to get to something, if you ask the questions, not and and not leading questions, I don't mean that, and you're not leading them to where you want them to go, but if if you'll start asking questions, they'll tell you where they want you to go. Exactly. They'll tell you with their body language, with their answers, what motivates them. Right. And that's and you you're doing you're doing exactly that.

SPEAKER_03 50:44

You're asking them, hey, you're giving them open-ended questions.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

Yeah, right. You know, how did your day go? You know, talk to me. Let's build a relationship. Let me know, let me let you know that I love you.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

You may be the only person that day that asked them how they're that.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

Yeah. And I've had a lot that have come in. Nobody's asked them about their day, nobody's cared about them, nobody's cared to even know what their day was like. Uh-huh. But when you go out and you say, How was your day? You know, you know, how'd you do it? You know, what did you have? You got any tests coming up? You know, what's your favorite subject? You know, and I'll do that a lot with these kids because they're brand new. I I'm trying to build a relationship with them. You know, one that I've I think I've really, and I love this kid, and I've really worked well with with, he's worked well with me, and and and I think we really got a really good relationship. And we ain't even known each other for maybe two weeks, and that's Jack McGill. Jack is phenomenal, man.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

He'll talk to you about it. Jack is going, he listens to this show religiously.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

He's going to love it. Awesome kid. Jack is a phenomenal kid. He's a great kid. Phenomenal kid. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

He's like one of our listeners. Oh, yeah. Yes. And he is telling me all the time.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

Awesome kid. That's funny. And when he's there, and you know, he's golfing a lot, but he's there and he's working a hundred times, man. He's doing everything he can. Could be a sophomore.

SPEAKER_04 52:01

Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Yeah. Oh yeah. So you you build that relationship. So I'm hoping that I can use that, you know, to motivate them, bring a lot of energy. You know, me and Greg, I hope both of us can bring the energy that's there that we got that we can motivate kids.

SPEAKER_04 52:14

And and by the way, that wasn't a plant. I had no idea he was going to say that about Jack. Oh no, no, that's I'm I'm telling you, man.

SPEAKER_03 52:20

Jack's Jack's a great kid. He is awesome. Let's talk about the defense, man. Like there's a lot of opportunities there. I mean, they were young last year. Very, yes. I mean, they were sophomores. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 52:30

Micah and I talk, so we do this just to give you, we do this same thing during the season, but we start, this will be the second part of the podcast, and during a season, basketball, football, baseball, whatever, we'll talk about, especially during football, we'll talk about the game. We'll usually record on Saturday mornings, so we'll talk about that game. This and Micah said, This, I'm telling you, this team is basically sophomores. Watch out for this team. They're coming, they're going to get bigger, they're going to get stronger, they're going to get better. Just watch out for them. He said that.

SPEAKER_03 53:02

The one thing I'm looking for, and I'm going to tell you on defense, I mean, this is ought to be on your goal. This is one of your goals. Need a goal line stand. Yes. He said, When you see a goal line stand in a in a season, you're headed in the right direction. That's right. I mean, like when you pull together on defense and see that's how a team grows.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Mike, you hit it right on the head. And that's one thing that, you know, you talk about when I played. The one thing that I want our defense to understand and to grasp is that when we fumbled the ball on our own five-yard line, our defense did not look at us and say, What kind of position you put us in? Right. They took it and said, We'll get you the ball back. They will not get in the end zone, we'll give you another opportunity. We will give you another opportunity right here. And they took it as a challenge to go, hey, we'll get this ball back.

Coaching Girls Versus Coaching Boys

SPEAKER_00 53:49

You know, that kind of attitude is what we gotta have on that, on that defensive side. We have got to have that stance.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

But here's the thing is you've got to play every yard like you're on the goal line.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Every yard. Every yard like you're on the goal line. Hey,

Asking Questions To Lead Better

SPEAKER_00 54:00

I think that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Because I think that's just watching the last five, six years or ten years, I've been watching really close psychs in football, but taking place off. You they they get ahead, they'll slack on defense. Part of that is that most kids are going both ways. That's true. That is true. I mean, like part of that. I mean, like, so that's why we need numbers, y'all. Right. That's exactly why we need numbers. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 54:27

That's exactly why you need numbers. First part of the season, it's high. You're gonna get tired, get crack payment.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

But you do need you need numbers. That's why you know you talk to them kids about recruiting in the hallway. Recruit in the hallway. Get as many kids as you can out here because we need numbers. We need numbers.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

I think I've said this before on here, but Coach May, I go to basketball practice a lot, and Coach May, they were doing some drills in the offseason. It's all right. Is it you gonna see if you can get that? Yeah. They were doing some drills in the offseason, they were in the field house, whatever, during basketball practice. And I was sitting there watching him. He came over and he goes, goes, man, man, he goes, I don't need all those kids. He goes, I just need two or three of them or four of them. I just two or three of them kids. And I and I can I can tell you with a hundred or million percent confidence Coach Hollifield encourages those kids to play. I mean, if they want to play.

SPEAKER_00 55:21

Well, Matt, you're just like I am. You know, we were multi-sported. Yeah. And it makes you better what you love.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

Well, I want I want our girls' programs to be the best. That's right. I want our boys to volleyball, football, basketball, baseball. You want a safe title in every sport we can do. Everything. I want cheerleaders to be the best. Sure. Everything.

SPEAKER_00 55:43

I want them all to do that. But like we were. Well, like we were in school, you know, multi-sporting makes you better at what you really love.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

And if you if if you multi-sport, you may find something you really love. Right. You never know. Right. You know, but yeah, making multi-sporting makes you better at what you at what you love.

SPEAKER_04 55:59

I'll fix it. I'll fix it on the video. Okay. Yeah, we had a we had a technical error. It's all right. No, I can't. We'll keep going. It's on the TV. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. We'll fix it. So if you're so you're do you help Greg? Will you help him call plays?

SPEAKER_00 56:21

No, he'll do, he's DC. Okay. He'll do all the play calling. Okay. But I'll help with, you know. Who's on the who's the defensive coaches? You, Greg? Me, Greg, Jacob. Jacob Pride. He's a linebacker coach. Oh, I've got to see. Yep. And Jacob's phenomenal. Jacob is phenomenal. Oh, there we go. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 56:36

That's another Saxon player.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

And Jacob's phenomenal. It's his first year, too. Yes, it's his first year, too.

SPEAKER_04 56:41

Man. Yeah. What a blessing to have him. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 56:44

I mean, we're talking about phenomenal. And does a good great does a phenomenal job. Great job with the kids. Yes. Great job with the kids. Knows linebacker positions. So we'll we'll work together. You know, Greg will be doing a lot of stuff with defensive line, dude, linebackers being DC. He's got it, he'll he'll be overseeing a lot, but I'll be doing a lot with safeties and corners just to make sure.

SPEAKER_04 57:06

All right, Chris. Oh, t this week or for this period of time, I want your your D-backs to work on, I don't know, breaking up passes. Sure. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Does he give you specific things to work on?

SPEAKER_00 57:21

If he's if he's gone somewhere, he'll say, hey, you need to run this, or you pick something you want to run, but this is what we want to work on. Like we're working on takeaways. The biggest thing that we want this year is creating havoc and takeaways. We want takeaways. So this week we worked on punching the ball out. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 57:36

So I'm going to go. Punch the ball out.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

When you're coming to make a tackle, punch the ball out. Punch the ball out, and let's get a takeaway. Because if we can get some takeaways, that will save a whole lot. You can win games by takeaways. And you're going to make the tackle anyway. Yeah. So let's work on where consciously you're making that effort to punch that ball.

SPEAKER_03 57:55

Part of that too, though, is the way that tackling is done now is different than what it was back in the house. Oh, yeah. Face on the ball, you know what I mean? Like you're doing more hawk tackling now than like We are.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

Yeah. And see, we worked last week. We worked on a little row, you know, gator tackling, roll tackling. Yeah. You know, and there's a form to do it. But Greg will sometimes say, hey, this is what you're going to work on today. You know, this is what I want you to work on. Or if he's working on, you know, maybe stance or something like that, he's like, hey, this is what you need. And you can do your own drills. You want to do the drills. Yeah. You know, or he may have me saying, Hey, you know, we're going to do the NFL drill today. I need you to do the NFL drill. Okay. You know, and if he's free, he'll help me. But if not, he's like, this is what I need you to do. Yeah. You know, and that's what we'll work with. But during, and we watch film, you know, we'll watch film, make sure everybody, but when you're DC, you got so much responsibility.

SPEAKER_04 58:42

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:43

It's so much responsibility. Oh, yeah, for sure. So you really need all the coaches you can to go, hey man, I need you to really look at this. And what's going to be big with us, and especially me and Jacob, is going to be you're talking from freshman to you're, you know, freshman class all the way to JV and varstee. And so Greg is DC and he's going to be more on the varsity end going, hey, so he may send us down to work with a freshman to say, hey, this is what you know we're working on. I need them to know now. You know, inside shoulder. Inside shoulder stance, we're we're we're looking at the quarterback. They need to know that now. I don't need them as juniors and teach them that. Yeah. You know, they need help now. So you may go down there, and then I may be working with a varsity doing that. Whatever. And that's what I love about being assistant coach.

SPEAKER_04 59:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:29

My deal is I'm I'm your help.

SPEAKER_04 59:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:31

I am your help. What do you need? That's the way I look at assistant coach. And with Coach Priors, I did the same thing. What do you want me to do?

SPEAKER_04 59:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

What do you want me to work on? I work on whatever you want to work on.

SPEAKER_04 59:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

Yeah, yeah. The vaccine receivers. Oh, okay. And we'll switch down. You know, we're gonna do a lot of, we're gonna create a lot of havoc.

SPEAKER_03 59:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:50

We got a lot of different play call in that.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

We're gonna well and I don't I was just wondering, because I'm kind of like some of the things like you know, like forcing people into lanes. Like, like kind of because that's something I've seen that that's something that takes time to learn. I mean, it does.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:06

I mean it does. And the fronts are big. The fronts are huge.

Defensive Identity Takeaways And Tackling

SPEAKER_00 1:00:09

Yeah. You know, it depends on what kind of fronts we run.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:12

You know, like people should know when the ball goes. Like the linebacker should kind of know if it goes right, it's going in this way.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

Yeah, that's right. We're gonna be we're gonna be filling gaps. Yeah. We're gonna have every gap filled.

unknown 1:00:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Now the the kicker, the kicker to that, the kicker to that is you know, you gotta get the kids to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:28

Yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

And that's where you really that I think back when we played, we had the leadership on the field.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

Now, you gotta have that. Yeah. Somebody on that field has to take leadership on offense and defense. Yeah. And we did. We had our leaders. Bert Applewhite was leader on defense and Britt Walker's leader on offense. Yeah. It's simple as that. Yeah. But they led.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:51

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

And you gotta have that. We had this conversation upstairs. Yeah, and you gotta have that. Because if you don't have that leadership, you know, I I've always said this is and and and somebody has said that. A great coach, and I don't remember who it was, said this. Good teams are led by good coaches. Great teams are led by players.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:08

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:09

Bottom line. Good teams are led, good teams are led by good coaches, but great teams are led by players.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

I had a I had a guy that that I can't even remember his name. Really, uh I met him. He played at Web City. Never really was a big player, but it but he talked about how in Web City They're a juggernaut. This is when they were really this is back in the early 2000s, late 90s. And and and he talked about how like the players led the kids come into practice. Like if you weren't there, and those people were playing, they're playing JV and and freshman ball just to be able to get to maybe play

Numbers Leadership And Player Accountability

SPEAKER_03 1:01:47

varsity their senior year.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

Right. You know, I mean, like they spent all that time just to maybe play their senior year.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

Yeah, yeah. I mean, but the but the kids led the the the boys led. That's right. I mean, like that's exactly they held each other accountable. Like the locker one. Back then there were so many things, street restrictions with co I mean there still is, but I mean there was more restrictions on how often the coach could do it, and it was player lit. I mean, like, right, that's exactly right. And you're talking like Grant Windstrom and stuff like that. I'm like Yeah Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:16

Well, off the we didn't I don't think we talked about it on the podcast when we had Blake on here, he talked about the the older guys in the MLB clubhouses are the guys that held other guys accountable. Sure. I mean, and we were just talking like like LaRussa or whatever. Yeah, those guys did, but it was Albert, it was Yachty, it was those guys. Hey, I haven't seen you working out. Hey, I haven't seen you take an extra BP, you haven't been taking ground balls, you haven't been doing whatever. Those guys held you accountable. That's when you know you got something. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:50

That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:52

Why do you think the Cardinals are paying such big bucks for these players to come back and be in the locker room now that are just kind of just out of the range of where that but these players still know them? Yep. That's why they're paying them so much. Sure it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:04

That's what Blake said any good team in Major League Baseball has that. And it's the guys, and it doesn't necessarily mean what you're making. No, it means the guys that have been there the longest, the guys that have the respect, and they're the guys that are like, hey, not only are they holding them accountable, but they're doing the work. Right, exactly. Chris, he was talking, Chris Carpenters, the ad Wainwrights, those type of guys are holding the rest of their team, but they're also holding themselves accountable. Sure. They got to do the work too. Sure, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

You can't you can't go through and just demand when you're not showing up. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

Right. And the one thing that we always we always harp on is control what you can control.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

And and the two things you can control. You can't control the refs, you can't control bad calls, you can't control this. You can't control your attitude and your effort. Yeah. You can control them too.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:55

And if you got a good attitude and a great effort, we'll be just fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:00

What Julius on remember talking about they're talking about remember Tys? Yeah. Attitude reflects leadership.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:05

Yeah, it does. I mean, in my opinion, I I always substitute the word behavior for attitude. Sure. People say you got a bad attitude. Well, what is that? Well, my It's your behavior. It's that it's your behavior. Yeah, it is. It's your behavior. Yeah. So you can control your own behavior. Yeah. I can I'm not a robot. I'm not a I'm not a feral animal where I can't control what I do. No. Sometimes I don't.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

Well, that goes to all of us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:31

You know, sometimes I don't when I should. I say things I shouldn't. We could get into more psychological stuff on that. Sure we can. Sure. We can. I I I get out of my own head and start acting silly. I can control it. Sure. But and I can also control my effort. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

And that's one thing that I can that we talked about on defense. That's what we want to do. We want to be violent. We want to be aggressive, and we want to go get them.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:55

Well, I'll be honest with you. Defense is what I'm watching this year. Yes. I mean, like I just to preview my thoughts of watching last year, and I'm not in the locker room or anything. Watch the defense this year. Right. Yeah. It's going to make us not. The goal this year, and I'm not trying to we we we want to beat Jackson. Right. But be competitive. We don't want to get beat 35 to be six. Be competitive. We'd much rather lose 21 to earn respect.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

Yeah. 14. Earn respect, be competitive. And without that's what we're looking for. That's what I'm looking for, is be competitive. And you talked about earlier about, you know, it's it's play by play. Don't, you know, my deal is you can't afford to take it down off. You cannot afford to take it down off. You know the ball's not coming your way. Hey, that's exactly right. You cannot afford 11 hats to the football. I need 11 hats to the football. I need to be violent. I need to be aggressive. I need I need every play. Your last play ought to be as hard as your first. And you should play every play like it's your last play. Like you're never going to walk on this football field again. You need to play each play. And I try to tell my kids all the time it's one yard at a time. If you don't believe that, ask the 99 Rams. Oh man. Ask the 99 Rams. Fletcher didn't make that tackle, they'd have lost that Super Bowl. That was one yard. One yard. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:20

That was on the other day on the NFL. Was it? And I need to go back and watch that. Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:24

One yard. Don't tell me it ain't one yard at a time. It's one yard at a time. It's inches. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:30

Well, I mean, like, we went to the Van D Mizzou game this year, and that was inches.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

Yeah. I'm telling you, it's every single play. I need 110.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:38

We went to the uh Auburn, Missouri game back. Oh my god. That was inches. That was I mean, like lost.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:45

Now, Coach May, Coach May and Coach Pires probably disagree with me. I'm a defense guy, but hey, offense wins games and defense wins championships. And I'll say and I'll say this I don't think it'll ever change. No. I really don't.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:59

Defense wins I always said defense wins championships and offense puts butts in the seats.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

That that could be true too. That could be true too. Well, it's kind of like this about two or three years ago, we were sitting there and I told my wife that, you know. My wife, she's not a f she likes football, but she don't understand. She won't really get into it. Right. But we're watching Alabama, because my daughter graduated Alabama, so we're watching Alabama. Well, Alabama scores 50, you know, and they get beat 52-50. I told my wife, I said, there you go. And she said, What are you talking about? And I said, Defense wins championships, offense wins games. I said, hey, hey, we scored 50, but we gave up 52. We lost. You can give you can score 100. You give up 101, you lose. That's a good.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:40

That's a good high school basketball score. You ain't kidding.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

Great win.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Great one. It's funny you say that because Coach Olifield gives me grief all the time when we go in there. And I'll say, uh, Coach, we're working on, or I'll come in and they're working on defense. I'm like, Coach, I gotta go. He always gives me a hard time. Matt, we're working on rebounding tomorrow. I'm like, Coach, I ain't gonna be here. I said, now if we're working on offense, I'm here. Yeah, he always starts laughing. I like that three-pointer, man. And you like the running the lobs, up and down, shooting threes, shooting. Yeah, that's great. He always goes, gotta work on defense. Yeah, gotta work on defense.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:14

I guess a golf turkey, you know, driver show. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

That's exactly right. It's not how you drive, it's how you arrive. That's exactly right. That's right. Hey, you gotta get in the hole.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:29

My good friend Pete Kennard said, I was gonna tell you a while ago, he always said speed don't slump. That's right. It's like effort. Effort don't slump. Nope. If you work hard all the time, it ain't gonna slump. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:40

And I'm not you all the game should be easier than practice.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:44

That's right. Oh, that's right. Well, I remember talking to the kids and at Kelly one time. We were sitting there talking, we had practice or whatever. And and I'm a statistics, I'm a math guy. Yeah, you know, I'm saying rocket science. So we're sitting there, and one of my kids, and he gave me half effort. I mean, give me half, and I'm getting mad. I am fired up. I'm I'm probably saying things I shouldn't say, as my wife tells me you gotta watch that. And I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:09

So watch it come out of my mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:11

Exactly. And this kid he looks at me and I said, and I told the kids, I said, Man, let me tell you something. This ain't hard. This ain't hard figure. I said, you give me 50% Monday through Thursday, and you say, Coach, I'll give you 100 on Friday. Now, wait a minute. You're gonna give me 50 Monday through Thursday. Your body ain't seen 100. How can it give 100 but ain't ain't seen 100? It ain't never gonna give a hundred if it ain't never seen a hundred. And that's simple, that's simple math. You don't make a marathon by running half or half mile every day. Exactly. You cannot give me a hundred if your body ain't never seen a hundred. But if your body sees a hundred Monday through Thursday, it'll automatically give me a hundred on Friday.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:48

Yeah, because that's what it's seen.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:49

Not only that, the hundred increases. That's right, because it's lights. And you got some adrenaline going and now you got Friday night lights.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:56

Not only that, your body's used to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:57

That's right. It's already there.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:58

It's already there.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:59

It's already there, it's already seen it. It's gonna give it without knowing it. Football, sports is repetition.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:05

Sure. Oh man, I forget how many, like I read like when I did I I coach you to think I probably studied more than I should have. But but anyway, like nine year olds best nine-year-olds in the country. Hey. Set the set them early. But I get these. They said it was like I was like, if you're gonna run a play in a in a game, it was like you needed to run it like 200 times in practice before. Holy moly. That's true. I mean, and you like that's talking about I'm talking about like bird dogging it and all that. Right. Yeah, kind of like breaking it down.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:36

Well, you want it, you want it to be muscle memory. Yeah, yeah. You know, you want it to be muscle memory.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:40

You start slow and build up.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:41

Right. And you don't want to create, you know, one of the things that that that you don't want to do is create bad habits. Right. You know, make what you do, you want to do it, but you want to do it right, but you want to make it over and over and over. Yeah. Because then it's just muscle memory. It's just repetition. Your body already knows.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:54

Defense is is we're just reacting, you know what I mean? Like it's a lot of reaction.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:59

Read your keys and react and play fast.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

You're downhill. You're downhill. You're you're not waiting for them to come to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:05

Don't turn sideways.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:06

You're not waiting for them to come to you, you're going to them. You got to go get play side to side. That's it. Yep. Yep. And play smart. If you turn sideways, you're beat. Yep. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:14

So Chris, let's um let's go back to high school for a minute. Oh man, yeah. Back in that back in how long was that? What um what were some of the coaches and teammates back then, back in the day, that had the biggest impact on you?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:27

Oh man. The two big coaches had the biggest impact on me. I'm gonna say is Jerry DeMant and uh Raney Thompson. And Rainey Thompson had a big impact on me. Yeah, and so did Coach DeMint. Coach DeMint had a really big impact. And I think because of both of them, I'm a lot like they were. They were very passionate. Oh yeah. Very, very Thompson was a Yes. He was on you. He's go get her. Yeah. He he he wanted, he would push you. Yeah, you know, and Jerry would too. Yeah. Jerry would would, if you weren't performing like you should, oh by gosh, he's gonna make you. Yeah. You know, I I I'll line up with you if you won't. We'll line up, me and you. And you're like, oh, I'm picking my game up, coach. I got you. I got you. And I'd say probably the the players, yeah, probably Brent and and Bert, probably were the two on the football field. You know, Robin had a big influence too.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:16

Oh, yeah. Robin had a huge influence.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:18

You know, even though Robin was a junior. Yeah. You know, everybody we had on our team was pretty seniors except for him. Yep. And you know, he was he was he was yeah, he was a go-getter. Yes, he was a go-getter, man. They were very big influence influencers.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:31

What's uh what's your what's your favorite memory from from then? Oh shoot. Um, either one?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:40

Man. I don't know. My favorite memory,

High School Coaches Who Shaped Him

SPEAKER_00 1:12:44

speaking of Randy Thompson, I'll tell you this one. I remember clean. Yeah, I know. I remember. Oh I remember uh we were at practice one time. It was me and Brian and Tom, and we were basketball. Yes, and Coach Foster would stay in the locker room, you know, he'd be in the coach's office, and so we'd come out and run our own three-man weave. You know, we'd run layups. Well, Coach Thompson had JV kits on the other end, and so I mean, we was one practice and and Randy's just on him. He's on Carlos Ivy, and he's on Joe, Joe McFeeder's, and he's all over them. He's all over the team. And we're just making layups waiting till Coach Foster to come out. And so we're looking down there and we're kind of just gandering on the other end of the court, and we kind of start laughing a little bit, you know, and Coach Thompson turned on. Look, he said, Lambert, y'all think that's funny? And I was like, I don't know. And he said, How about you five come down and we play a little offense, defense? And I was like, okay. So we get down here. Well, Carlos got the ball. He pan, he bounce passes it. Well, you know, Brian just takes it, just, you know, jumps in front of him, takes up, makes a layup, comes back, and Randy is all over Carlos. I mean, just on him down his throat. And I'm on Joe, you know, I'm sitting with Joe, and so we come back. And so they have Joe takes a ball and he bounce passes over to Carlos. Well, then Tom Jack takes it and goes the other end. And Randy is livid. He is just absolutely livid. And I'm right next to Joe, and we are probably three feet from each other. And Joe's got his head down, and Randy is just chewing him up and down. And I mean, I'm sitting there looking like, oh my gosh. And all of a sudden, it gets quiet. And Randy goes, You think this is funny? And he left, he looks up and goes, and starts laughing. And I was like Joe? Yes. Oh boy. And I was like, Oh my gosh, he is gonna punch him in the face.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:45

I thought, oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:47

And I mean, I just turned my head and he looked at him. That's back when he had old fields. Oh yeah. And he's red and he's like, Joe, get on the track and start running, and you don't stop until I tell you. And about that time, Coach Foster came out, and I looked at Brant Coach Thompson. I said, Hey, we gotta go. We on RE. And I mean, I could hear Joe start jogging.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:10

He said, McFeeders, I didn't say jog. I said run. You keep running.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:14

I mean, all practice, he's running. And I'll never forget that, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:18

I will never forget that. I haven't seen Joe in a while. Maybe next time I see him, I'll bring it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:23

Joe was a clown, man. Joe was a clown. Oh, yeah. He was fun. He was fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:29

Well, we get we got to tell us about the the three-pointer overtime, triple overtime against Malden. Wasn't it like 102.99 or something or crazy? Matt, it's I think we hit a I think we hit a hundred points that night.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:43

Something to that effect. You know, I ain't told many people this story, but you'll love this story.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:47

Oh God.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:48

So you know basketball was not my thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:51

I I could dribble a little bit, pass a little bit, but I could not shoot. You got me on the court with five other guys. It was easy to figure out, leave him open. He can't shoot. Leave him open. We'll double his girl. So, you know, I was number two off the bench. Okay, you had Tom, you had Brian, you had Lee Turner. Oh, yeah. You know, had had these guys out here on the front. I think even Sean Ruffin came up, you know, as a freshman, he was playing. And then Steve Gillen was the first man off the bench. So we're playing Malden. Now, Malden, you gotta understand, Tom and Lee are probably 6'1 at most. These cats had a 6'5 and two 6'4 dudes on the team. They were huge. You know, we ain't nowhere near the height that these cats had. So I'm sitting on the bench watching this game, got the best seat in the house. I mean, I am watching this game. And I'm like, man, this is awesome. You know, this is I mean, and they're working their butts off. Lee and Tom and Brian playing the game, the lights out. They are staying with these cats the whole time. I am sitting there watching this game.

Triple Overtime Buzzer Beater Story

SPEAKER_00 1:16:56

We get to the fourth quarter, about the end of the fourth quarter, and and somebody fouls out. And I'm like, okay, well, whatever. You know, I'm just watching the game. So Steve goes in. And I'm like, cool. All right, we're here. You know, great. Within two minutes, he's got three fouls. And I don't even know it. I'm just watching the game. I've been watching the game for two hours. And I'm like, man, I have got the best seat in the house. This thing is a phenomenal ball game. And then all of a sudden, he gets two more. He gets five fouls. Coach Foster looks down at the end of the bench. He's like, Lambert. I said, what's up? He said, get in the game. And I said, what game? He said, this game. And I went, huh? He said, in this game. And I mean, you talk about Darren headlights. I was like, oh no. I had no idea I was getting in this game. And I was like, it's packed. We're in the fourth quarter. I mean, we're, we're, you know, I'm like, oh no. Talking about coaches. And this is one of the best that ever happened to me. So I get check-in at Bob Dad Probe. I'm like, hey, I'm going into game. He's like, okay. I'm like, and so I think we're shooting free throws. You know, we're in free throw shooting. And I'm the guy back. I'm at mid court going, oh my gosh. Oh, this ain't good. And Randy sees me. Randy Thompson sees me. And Randy looks at me and he's like, Lambert. And I went, Yeah. He said, come here, come here, come here. So I walk over and I bend down. You know, I'm like, what's up, coach? He said, hey man, let me give you some advice. I said, okay. He said, Sun's gonna come up tomorrow, no matter what happens. He said, You played this game your whole life. He said, go out and have some fun and just play like you did in practice. You played with Brian, you played with Tom, you played with Lee. Just go out and have some fun. Right. And I was like, okay. You know, and for some reason that that lifted that pressure off to go, you know, what do I got to lose? You know, just go out and have some fun. Yeah. You know? And so I end up playing the last two overtimes, the best I've ever played in the whole high school I had played. You know, and I was like, you know, but the funny thing about that was it just lifted that that pressure off knowing that it's just a game. Yeah. Just go out and have fun. I can tell you exactly where he hit the shot, too. And you know the funny thing about that, Lee Turner. I'd just take Lee home. And Lee was was had a dry sense of humor. Lee, one time we were going home before, you know, taking him in practice, and he was in the passenger seat and we pulled up to stop flying. I said, Hey Lee, how's it look your way? And he said, like a city? I went, okay, man. I mean, it's a traffic company. He said, No, I mean, no traffic. Go ahead and go. I was like, okay. So we're sitting in the huddle and triple overtime on the huddle. And the idea behind this was I was going to be on the block. We're going to have two people on the block. Lee's got the ball. He's going to drive the lane. When they collapse on it, he's going to throw it out. And then as he continues, I'm going to bounce pass back to him. He's going to lay it up, either make it or get foul. Go to free throw line. And so Coach Foster's drawing this up, and I'm like, okay, yeah, it looks good. Yeah, it's great at plan. And I looked at Lee and I said, uh, hey man. He said, What's up? I said, What happens if I bounce out there and you pass it to me and you ain't open? He said, Then shoot it. And I went, okay, all right. And lo and behold, they just shoot it. I just shot it. But it was one of them that is just in transition. You know, it's one of them that you just felt in transition. You shot it in rhythm. Yes. Exactly. And it just happened to go in. I meant.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:37

It's on the opposite end. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:40

And on the at the bulldog that we had at one time. We had a bulldog in the corners.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:45

Yeah, yeah. But it would have been down by the stage. Yeah. On the stage end. If you're looking down that way on this side, on the lefty the lefty. Yep. Knocked it down. Another funny story about that I wasn't playing. I was in the stands with the bums. Me, Stacy Landers, Buck, Buck Brazi. Somebody else. During that time when it was close, we're like, probably me. I don't remember who said it. He goes, let's go sit behind the backboard. And when they're shooting free throws, you know, we start doing this.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:25

Here we come down. And about the time I hit the floor, Mr. Pride goes, Where are you going? And I go, Stacy and Buck go and they go right back up the stairs. I have to finish the game standing there by Mr. Pride. He knew what we were doing. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:41

Exactly what you were doing. Exactly what you were doing.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:44

I had to sit right there beside him and watch the end of the game. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So I was sitting underneath the goal watching the ball game. Watch him knock it down at the very end. I thought, oh my gosh. Oh yeah. Mr. Pride, he busted me pretty good. He knew exactly what was going on. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So do you so you remember the play? Do you remember how much time was left or anything like that? Was it at the buzzer I think it was at the buzzer? Best I can recall.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:16

I don't really remember it was at the buzzer. I think there was like eight, eight or ten seconds left. Okay. You know, it was enough time for us to throw the ball in and run the play, I think. No, I mean when your shot went in. Yes. I think it was right, it was right at that. I'm not really, you know, reflect exactly when it was. I bet I bet Brian's got sales to some tapes. But you know, the funny thing is I bet he's got a clipping or something of it. You know, and we talked about football and sacrificing for others. The one thing about that, that shot I remember is, you know, what really meant the most to me was not really hitting the shot, but being able to help them guys because they worked their butts off, man. Brian and Tom and Lee, they worked their butts off for you know four quarters and three overtimes. And to be able to help so that they could win. You know, that was that was what meant more to me than hitting the shot.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:11

Was that, man, these guys have really, really worked hard. And it being able to contribute to that. And that's what I want to instill in these kids, man. Work for somebody else. Work for them guys. Work for them to make them succeed. Help them succeed. Work for your guy behind you and guy next to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:29

What do you what do you want your what do you want your players to remember from, remember about you from years from now? What do you want them to what do you want them to say?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:37

Number one is I hope they remember that I love them. Yeah. That's the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:42

That's uh Coach Jamerson there.

unknown 1:23:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:44

I want them to remember that a lot of them.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:45

Do you know Chad? Chad Jamerson, the head coach at Dexter? Yeah. We had him on uh uh back in December. Yeah. That's the that's the big thing. That's literally what he said.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:55

Yeah, it is. I mean, and he's like and he'd be right almost immediately. Oh yeah, he'd be always crying. It is.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:00

I mean and it shows.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:01

Yeah. You really, you really want your you really want your kids to hopefully they they remember that you love them and that they make that phone call to you to say that you are I am getting married. Yeah, you know. I want him to hope to know that I loved them, you know, that I cared for them. You know, not not you know, yeah, it was fun to coach them, but I want them to be able to be very As a person. Yes, yeah. As a person. Yeah. Yeah. I hope they remember me for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:29

What of course we had we had Jim on last summer and we talked a little bit about football. We may need to get him on again, just do another like a preview show, thinking about that. But you know, to him, I say to him, and and as a as a fan, you know, he wanted to win 14 games last year. Right. Of course. Right. And that's what you do. You know, of course.

What Success Looks Like This Season

SPEAKER_04 1:24:54

Sure you do. In your eyes, your first year here, knowing we used to be here and we're here, and you know, our trajectory's going there. We're not there yet, but our trajectory, our momentum is going that way. Sure. What what's a successful year for you look like this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:12

Success for me, you know, I know that Jim wants to win, and I and I want to win games. And Greg does too. Don't get me wrong. I don't I'd love to go 14. I love to have a say tire. I get it. But for success for me is that we are competitive. Okay. We compete. Whatever we do, we compete. We we look back and we we look and see that we gave everything we had in every game.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:40

Every game. That you gave everything. You did not leave nothing out, you did not leave anything on the table. Every coach, I gave you all I had, and that's all I expect from you. That would be success for me. If you've taken off at all, then we we've taken from our success. You've you've taken from my success of what I think we could have been. And I don't want to look down the road and go, you know, we could have been better if you'd have gave me more. You know, and and I think if you give me everything you got, then I I see that as a successful year. Awesome. That's what I'm looking for. You know, the scoreboard will take care of itself to me. Because, you know, as we said earlier, you know, you're gonna get beat by better teams. At least they're gonna be better for you, you know, that night. They may be just better than you. Okay, okay. And that happens. And it happens, it happens, yeah. But if you give me everything you got, when them kids on that other side get on that bus and say, Man, we had to earn that one. Yeah. I've if you if you give me everything you got and you've earned respect from everybody out there, then that's success to me. And we'll get better as we go. Yeah, you know, and that will show in the wins and losses columns.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:48

Right. We we Mike and I have talked about this a lot, you know. We're we didn't Jim, you know, he doesn't have the wins exactly where he wants it yet, but we as fans feel so much better about the product on the field. We're organized, right? The kids, you can see the effort, right? You can see the passion. I'm not I'm not being critical about anybody before this. Right. I'm not what I'm trying to do. And and the thing that I think you can see a change in in the dynamics of things. Is that fair to say, Mike? Is that yes?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:21

And and the thing, man, I think that that you get if you build them relationships with the kids and you get them to buy into the process. That's the that's the thing. There's where you can change everything. That's it. You buy into the process. And a lot of times they have a hard time buying in. I had some kids that lifted weights, and and I had a couple of kids at Kelly. And when you lift weights, you don't see results real fast. Yeah. You don't. Because people, you see yourself every day. You don't see yourself periodically. And I had some freshmen, and I told my freshman, I said, Look, here's what I want you to do. And I don't mean this mean or bad or anything like that, but I want you to go home and want you to take a picture from waist up and leave it on your phone. Don't ever look at it. Don't look at it. Give me a year or two. Keep working out. And then I want you to pull that picture up and compare it to when do you come here?

SPEAKER_04 1:28:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:17

And when I did, these kids were like, Coach, it made the world difference. Believe in the process. Football's no different. Believe in the process and it'll take care of itself. And and if you do that and you give me everything you got, that that cultural change. It's a cultural change. Yeah. And that's what we're shooting for, is that cultural change. And I'll say, man, this coaching staff is great. They are great. They are phenomenal guys. They really are. They're phenomenal guys. You know, and I think that is improving that cultural change. Yeah. That is making that change. And the kids are responding to that. Yeah. Is the big thing. And you're starting to see kids in the weight room that are starting to become leaders. And I told my kids, I've coached for like 14 years, and I told my kids I don't care how old you are, I don't care what grade you're in, I don't care if you're a freshman, I don't care if you're a senior. I need a leader. Yeah. You need to lead on this field. Just because you're another classman does not mean you can't lead. Lead on the field. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:19

Somebody's always following.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:21

That's right. Lead on the field. Lead on the field.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:24

Whether they're either following good or bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:26

That's right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And we talked about that. You know, you gotta have kids that that you know that buy into the process and want to give everything they can give. You know, you got you got to be dedicated to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:40

Well, my favorite, well, Nick Saban. Oh yeah. Yeah. Nick Saban on Game Day a couple years ago had a quote that said, You're either going to go through the pain of discipline or the pain of disappointment, which one you want. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:52

It's one of two. You know, it's like I told I told my kids, you know, when I the one thing with coaching is I've always told them, man, you're gonna face adversity.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:01

In this world, in football, and everything else, you are gonna face adversity each and every day. You're gonna do one of two things. You're either gonna succumb to it or you're gonna rise above it and overcome it. One of the two. It's your choice, but there is no middle ground. You either rise above it or you succumb to it. One of the two. So you might as well put your put your shoes on and say, hey, I'm rising above this and overcome it. Because nobody feels sorry for you. And that's one thing that that I'm big on. I do not feel sorry for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:29

What you're gonna be-I don't. What you're gonna be is disappointed whenever you look back and say, I shoulda, coulda.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:34

That's right. Don't be that shoulda, coulda, woulda guy. Yeah, don't be that guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:38

Yep, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:40

Well, you were sitting there talking, you know, you talked about all ago, Jesus Christ being your, you know, number one. And uh anyway, my favorite scripture in the Bible is James chapter one, verses two and three. It says consider pure joy when you face trials and tribulations because it makes you mature and lacking nothing. Sure. So, like to me, that scripture says trust that something greater, control the things you control, but trust something greater is gonna pull through exactly when you need more.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:07

And the one thing I tell my kids, you know, the one thing that beg on is, you know, a lot of times, you know, when you when you go through that and you go, you know, I'm gonna face adversity and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, what am I gonna do with this? You know, and you talk about winning. And you talk about, well, you know, I I don't wanna I don't wanna you know, winning ain't everything. Yeah, okay. But you know, you talked about Father Jesus Christ. So let me ask you, and I told my kids, I said, let me ask you something. Do you think he came just to play the game? Or did he come to win the game? Because he could have given in to four days and forty nights. He could have gave in to temptation. Did he? No, he didn't. I didn't come to play the game, I come to win the game.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:48

There's nothing wrong with winning. There's nothing wrong with winning. Winning and losing is part of it. And and and the thing about winning, the thing about winning is ultimately he won for all of us.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:58

But he came to win the game. He didn't come just to play the game. Right. He came to win the game.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:03

That's a different mindset.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:04

Yes, it is a different mindset.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:06

I mean, and I don't want to say because I don't want to say that moral victories are great. Yeah. Right. But winning doesn't always look like what winning is. Right. That's true. If you don't you give our hundreds of things, exactly, exactly. Winning is giving you 100%.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:20

That's it. That's it. It's not, it's not on the scoreboard. Because there may be somebody better. And like I said, we talked about success. Success is if you gave me everything, we had a successful year.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:29

We succeeded. Now, we'll get better as we keep going. And we're going to our success in what the world would see is we get more wins. Sure, we're going to get more, because we're going to get better. But if you keep giving me 100%, we're just going to get better at technique. Maybe we've made a wrong tackle, but I gave 110, coach. I will never get on you for giving me 110% effort. You're going to make a mistake. I told my kids one time, I said, let me tell you something. I said, if you're scared to make a mistake, you're scared to fail, you'll never succeed in life. You have to accept failure. Not fail. You've got to accept it. If you accept failure, you'll succeed in life. And you learn from it. You learn from failing and make yourself better. Don't make the same mistake twice. Do the thing, but learn from your failure and get better. But you've got to accept failure. We call it winning or learning. That's right. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:21

I mean, failure is part of winning. Sure it is. Sure it is. I mean, like it it's part of the process. That's that process of like don't look at it as as a as a failure is when you quit.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:34

Right. That's true. That's right. That's exactly right. When I don't give 110%. When I decide that, hey, I'm not going to give all I can give. And then you're failing. You're failing. Don't do that. You know, give me everything you got. And we win. And we, you know, I that's all I I told my kids, I'll never get on you for that. I will never get on you for that. What I get on you for is being lazy. Don't be lazy. Because we're going to make a mistake. It's like I told my kids, I said, sometimes I'm not looking at your first effort, I'm looking at your second. Oh, yeah. What do you do when you screw up? You the guy that dropped his head and feel sorry for me? Or are you the guy that says, I ain't gonna happen to me again, coach? Because if you drop your head and feel sorry for you, I don't. Get off the field. I'll get somebody that that is they're gonna make a mistake, but what do they do next? That's my question. What's your second effort look like? What's your second effort? Second thought. Because if your second effort is automatically, I'm gonna go catch the guy that just beat me and I'll punch the ball out and I'll get the ball back, that's the guy I'm looking for. Right. If it's the guy that says, Oh, well, I got beat, he's gonna just go ahead and score six. I'm taking it off field. I can't have that.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:38

Right. I was gonna say something, but I'm not. All right.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:43

Well, let's let's use that. Let's go to the let's go to a lightning round. Okay, go with it. Yeah, let's go. Some quick hitter questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:49

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:50

Your favorite coach.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:52

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:53

Probably Randy Thompson. Like it. Yeah. Who is the best athlete in our class? Ooh. Ooh. Son.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:02

Athlete.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:03

Athlete, yeah. Athlete-wise, that's a tough one, man. Football, I'd say Bert. If you're talking about athlete all around, Brent? Probably so. Yeah. I would say Brent. He was probably all around baseball athlete. Yes. Brent, probably all around athlete. He was probably all around. Yes. JJ, I thought, was really good. JJ was really good. Really good. JJ was a good athlete. Great athlete.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:26

Great athlete. I agree with you. Yes. I agree with you. Who was the toughest opponent you've ever faced? Paducah Tillman. Wow, that was quick.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:35

Guaranteed. They were so good that yeah. They were good. They were good. They were good.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:39

Did they win the state title that year?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:41

And I think that the the thing that that really upset me the most about that game is that we really could have won. Yeah. We had the opportunity to win. And for years we never did. Didn't we? And we had the opportunity. We fumbled the ball three times.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:54

Oh, I know. Didn't we? Yeah, it was bad. Didn't we lose to like Murray or something that year or two?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:59

Or was that just Paducah? It was just Paducah. Okay. And we lost and we lost in quarterfinals to Melville.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:04

And that was in the rain. And I ain't taking none away from Melville. I ain't taking it. But the environment, the environment

Second Effort Matters More Than Mistakes

SPEAKER_00 1:36:09

was tough on us. And we got a bad call.

Lightning Round And Favorite Memories

SPEAKER_00 1:36:13

99-yard call back from a touchdown. And I get that, but Baduca was probably the toughest team we faced. Okay. I think. That was in my you know, my opinion. What's your favorite road trip memory? Oh gosh. Basketball, football, either one. Yeah. Probably basketball. Uh oh. And the funny thing about basketball is do you remember Joe James? Who? Joe James. He drove the bus. He was a big guy. He drove the bus. Real. And you gotta understand, we were going to Piper Bluff. And and you know, we had a JV game of six, played at seven. That's 45 minutes. Now we drove 55 mile an hour on Tulane. Oh yeah, back then. And Joe drove about 10 miles an hour in town. I mean, he drove very slow.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:57

You left in school.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:58

We left at seven five. We left at about five forty-five. For a seven o'clock game? For a six o'clock JV game and a seven o'clock varsity game. What? Yes. We were late. We left Sykeston? Yes. What happened? Well, Joe didn't get there in time. And so we were waiting on the bus to get there. We finally get there. We're screaming by the time we get to Morehouse. Hey, we got to go, man. You got to pick it up. He's doing like 45. I'm like, come on, man, we got to go. Oh my gosh. He stopped the bus. He said, Y'all don't calm down. I'll take y'all back to schoolhouse. I said, Oh my God. I was like, You're thinking, you know, we're kids, we're thinking we're playing in the N EBA finals, man. We can't go without this. You have a coach with you or anything? Yeah, we have Coach Foster, but he's like, okay. And I'm like, oh my gosh, he's serious. He goes, we're not even gonna make it to the Papa Love game. Oh my gosh. And but we got there, and I mean, JV goes straight out. No warm-ups, no nothing. They're waiting. Tip the ball. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:56

And I was like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:58

That was probably the craziest memory I've got in basketball. Oh, it was great. That would be tough. Oh, it was great. Oh, it was unbelievable. You would think you'd be driving 100 mile an hour to get there. And you're doing like 45. Oh my god. He's like, I ain't in no hurry.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:14

Okay, we are. Who's one teammate that could always make you laugh? Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:22

Probably Lee Turner probably make me laugh the most. Yeah. He had a dry sense of humor, but every time, man, he would come up with some sort of crack joke all the time. And it was just dry.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:33

Yeah. You know, he went holy crack.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:36

Does he really?

SPEAKER_04 1:38:36

I swear I think so.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:37

Does he really? I think so. Boy, he was, and he could he was he was fundamentally sound. Oh yeah. He was fundamentally sound. Yeah, good ball player.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:46

What was your what's your favorite, I guess was or is what's your favorite football drill?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:50

Oh, Oklahoma drill. Love it. Love it. Love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:54

I bet is that yours too, Micah? Pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:57

I opened.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:58

The what?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:59

Like I opened. Just smack it.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:02

Oh yeah. I like Oklahoma drill, man. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:06

What's a favorite engineering project you've ever worked on or you worked on? Oh, man. Probably. By the way, Sykes uh Bulldog Nation, Chris is doing the site work for our new elementary school. Elementary school. Well, the additions, the weakness to Wing and Lee Hunter.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:20

Yeah, and we are looking to do, they're looking to do a arts and crafts building. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:25

Performing arts. Performing arts, yeah. To replace the fan shell at the high school. Yeah. Doing that too? Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Look at that.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:32

I would say the new Magic Port. It's got a lot of variety of things. We built we're building a new harbor, so I've got a lot of differ different designs, not just pavement and water and serve, but we got sheet piling that I typically don't do. We got some sheet piling stuff and we've done some railroad, you know, cool improvements. So designing railroads and stuff is it's kind of a conglomerated of things that that are together. Because typically I use I usually design one thing. Yep. And then I go to something else. It's not usually conglomerated into one project, and that one is, it's got different designs with it. So cool. Real interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:07

One word that describes Sykeston football. Competitive. Look at that. Coming back to it. Yep. Competitive. Last one. I'm going to skip one of them. Yeah. Who from the class of 89 could suit up today and play?

SPEAKER_00 1:40:23

I don't really see many of them. The ones I do see, I would probably venture to tell you JJ probably could. Where I've seen JJ. I've seen JJ at the line. Yeah, I used to see that. And I think he could I think he could suit up right now. I guarantee he could still long snap. I promise you that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:38

When Kevin was on here, Kevin, Kevin or JJ snapped, Stephen held, and Kevin kicked. He said they didn't know. Oh, I know. They did that since probably fifth or sixth grade, he said. All three did that.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:51

I remember one of the football memories I do remember is that we were we were playing, and I don't remember exactly who we were playing, but Coach Vickery had a he he was calling play, and it was right before half. And we were probably on the 40-yard line, I'm gonna say, something like that. And he caught an out, you know, because we were like, I think, yeah, I think Kevin can kick it if we get five or six yards. And I was like, I'll do it. You know, I I dump me the ball, I'll catch it. And I did. I caught one on an out route. I caught one, went out of bounds, and we had like three seconds left on the clock, and it stopped the clock, you and I. And I think Kevin kicked about a 40-yarder, right for half. Oh, yeah. And we got three points on the game, on the board for it. He he could, man, he could kick it.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:34

He got one blocked. What did he? I forgot. Lamont Frazier, I think, got a fingernail on it and was like a 50 yarder or something like that. He could kick it. We talked about that. Yeah, he could kick it. Oh, he could kick a football.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:44

Yeah, he could absolutely kick the football. No doubt. He was excellent. But I think JJ could still, I think he could suit up. I agree with you. I really do.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:51

I agree with you. I still do. I agree. Well, Chris, that's about believe it or not, we're an hour and a half, baby. Hey, how about that? That's not bad for us. That's not bad. That is not bad. Count the other half hour before and probably another half hour afterwards. We'll be running on two and a half.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:07

Yeah, how about that? It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:09

So give us three guests that we should have on here. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:14

I'm gonna tell you Brad Praty. I need to get Brad on here. Hey, Brad, you need to get on there. Peyton Howard. I think Peyton would be good. I think Peyton would be good. And I think Sam Cox would be good for you. But I think Brad would really do a good job.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:33

Yeah, and I've got a we can do a virtual deal with Brad. I know he's in Indiana. Yep. I think Brad would be awesome. It's not that big of a deal. I'm I'm well I'm working on getting one of our icons of our town on here, and I'll we'll talk about when we get done. But I wish I'd have got Mr. Pride on. Yeah. I know Ron. It would have been good. Mr. Bill Pride. Yeah. Oh Bill Pride. No. Yeah. Just to just the memories and the history that he knows about of the town and the school and you know, and being principal, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:04

Right. Yeah. And what he had where he had been before we were there. Exactly. You know? That would have been awesome. Maybe he could have told the story calling Jay out.

unknown 1:43:12

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:13

Whoa, that was that funny. Was that great? Boy, he gave him a bunch of it. That was awesome, dude.

Guest Recommendations And Go Dogs

SPEAKER_00 1:43:20

Don't lie to me, son. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:23

No, I'm serious. Am I lying?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:25

Yeah, you are.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:26

They're lying. Oh my God. But I think Brad would be really good. That'd be awesome. Yeah, I think Brad would be good. Somebody's mentioned Peyton before. Yeah, I think Peyton would be really good. Sam.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:36

And he helped with the junior high baseball this year.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:38

He sure did. Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:40

I seen him at a Buffalo Wild Wings. He's a tough young man. Yes, he is. Really is. Really good kid.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:44

Really good kid.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:45

Parker was the one that recommended, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:47

Parker did. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:48

Parker long, we had him on. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:50

Yeah. We didn't need to get Sam on here. Yeah, I think Sam would be good. You know, he's a dentist in town now. So, you know, he's back in. He's back in town.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:57

He, you know. Levin and I, his dad are good friends, and he's you know, he talked about how you know Sam wanted to come back, and so does Charlie. Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:05

So I'll you know, and that's the thing that I love, and that's what I love about it. You know, I'm a I love being able to coach here now because it really does. You you you're you live in this town, you want to get back to the community, you want the community to grow, and you want these kids to really you know prosper and and be the best they can be.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:21

Absolutely. It was there was a lot provided for us, and so yes, exactly. We have the same responsibility to provide something good as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:29

Good way of putting it. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:33

Well, man, Chris. Well, thanks for having me. I mean, it's it's it's been a blast.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:37

It's been a blast. I appreciate the opportunity. It's been a privilege. It has been a good one.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:40

We appreciate it very much, but I'm Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner, but Chris, we finished all of our all of our podcast with Go Dogs. So betcha. Go Dogs, baby. Goods, baby. That's gonna do it for this episode of the Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Sykston, where small town pride runs deep and Bulldog Grit never quits. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the doghouse, where Sykes' stories always have a home.