Double R Flo-Town

Double R Flo-Town: With Drew Marlowe

• Robert Thomas & Reeves Cannon • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Join the huddle as Robert and Reeves talk coaching, football, and life with South Florence head football coach, Drew Marlowe. 

#florencesc #SouthFlorence #Coaching #DoubleRflotown #podcast #DoubleR #GoBruins

SPEAKER_01:

Double Arc Flowtown, episode number seven. We are stepping the game up today, Reeves.

SPEAKER_03:

This is big time.

SPEAKER_01:

So we got to get to eight, but I think number seven is going to put us just, it's going to make this thing. They

SPEAKER_03:

call it going viral, right? Is that what we're getting ready to do? That's what we're about to do. We are sitting in the Drew Marlowe. Renowned South Florence football coach, two-time state champion. We're sitting in his office.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel the mojo. I feel it. I feel it in here. Mr. Marlow, thank you so much. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. I've been excited about this one. We've been talking about meeting with you since the start. And Reeves made it happen. So we really appreciate you spending a few minutes.

SPEAKER_03:

Coach made it happen. And Drew, we were talking before we started. You've been in Florence six years. Yep. And two state championships. Phenomenal. phenomenal program. But what attracted you to this, to South Florence, to Florence when you were thinking about coming here six, seven years ago with your family?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Six years ago, I had three children under the age of two. My wife and I, we were very happy in Sumter. We're both from Sumter. Through the years that we played, when I was coaching at Sumter and we played against South Florence, I really just felt like there was a lot of talent here. I felt like that South Florence was a place you could come and win and win at a really high level consistently. I wanted to be a head coach, but I knew that I wanted to go to a place where I felt like I had a chance to win the big games. And, you know, the job came open and interviewed for it. And, you know, I think that it was one of the easier decisions my wife and I have ever made. I think the Lord just really aligned both of our hearts. And we felt like this was going to be, you know, the place that the Lord would have us go. And he certainly blessed us here during our time. Man, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

You've been incredibly successful. I mean, success that South Florence hasn't experienced in its past. And I think one of the things that was interesting in our conversation before we started filming here is you talked about, you feel like there's always been the level of athletes that this program that you guys, you and your staff have produced. And so, You know, you saw that even prior to coming to Florence.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Never saw the North Settlers before I got here, but certainly, you know, the North was a really, really important piece to our success. When you come in and you're trying to completely and totally overhaul a program and then change the culture of a program, you need to win, you know, because when you start doing things that are hard on a consistent basis and nothing is comfortable and nothing is the same as it has been, And you continue to lose, it's hard to create buy-in. So we'll always be thankful for Lenoris and all the things that he did for South Lawrence. And I think that since he's gone, his legacy is living on every single year. Us winning big with him first has really, I think, allowed everyone after to continue the belief that we belong and that we should be able to win at a high level. And belief is an important and powerful thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. I think he's the kind of guy that's going to stay put. plugged into the program for the rest of his life, which is huge. Yep,

SPEAKER_00:

yep. He was raised, his daddy did a phenomenal job raising him. And he stayed in touch. He still texts me every now and then and asks me what the world's going on. We're getting blown out by Somerville. You know, wanting to know the game plan for the state championships and all that kind of stuff. So it has, it's been special for me to continue to have a relationship with him. And that's been really good.

SPEAKER_01:

Honestly, for me, pulling in the parking lot feels different here. I mean, when you pull in the parking lot, when you come in the building, when you come in this office, it feels different than it ever did before. You guys are creating something really special that's awesome for this whole town.

SPEAKER_03:

I think the whole administration, FSD1, principal, obviously athletic program, starting with the football program, all that's being transformed. I remember we go to the same church and we were helping feed the team. prior to the start of Lenore's senior year, and we were standing after a practice one day, we were having a conversation, one of the only times we've had a conversation, and I looked at you and I said, is Lenore's really that good? And you looked at me with eyes that only a coach has. Like, boy, I'm going to cut you. And you said, he is the best player I will ever coach. And I looked at you and said, really? Like, come on now. And you said, really? And Dad Gummett, if it hadn't, I don't know if he'll be the best you've ever coached, but he's got to be one of the top three.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

If he's, I mean,

SPEAKER_00:

phenomenal. If there's somebody better, I can't wait to coach him. You know, I hope he's not the best ever coached. But no, I mean, you know, I probably said that not just, all right, for his athletic ability, yes. Just unbelievable. Probably won't ever coach another one like that. But it wasn't just that. I mean, he was a 5.0 GPA guy. Wow. He did everything right. He was the hardest worker in our program. Yeah. He was raised in a way that he prioritized and he was disciplined and he did the things that he knew he needed to do outside of football. And again, when I talk about Lenore's value to South Florence, to be able to take a guy with his unbelievable talent and prop him up and say, this is it. This is what I want everybody else in the program to be like. Not just talking about his athletic ability, talking about the way he approaches school. He approaches the weight room. He approaches meetings. His body language after a good play and after a bad play. You know what I mean? He was somebody that everyone could look to to emulate. And as a coach, man, you can't ask for more than that.

SPEAKER_03:

That's

SPEAKER_00:

cool. Especially early on.

SPEAKER_03:

So you've been here six years. And also during that time, there seems to have been a huge step up in coaching. uh, facilities that, and commitment that I think FSD one over all has made. How do you feel like that has helped or not the program here at South Florence?

SPEAKER_00:

No, it takes money to win. It takes money to win at a high level. And anybody who says it doesn't probably hasn't done it. Um, you know, having your own field is important. My first year here, we still played out by the airport, uh, just a terrible environment to play in, hard to be excited to play, hard to think that you're representing your school when you're playing on just a blank grass field in a cinder block stadium with no branding or logos of your own. It felt like every game was an away game. And so the pride that comes from every day, being able to practice in your own stadium and then go and play on Friday nights in your own stadium, I think is something that's really, really important. And then the most important investment that Florence School District has made in our program and I think probably in all the athletic programs has been the weight room. Honestly, the weight room was almost enough for me to turn the job down, but the superintendent said, no, look, we're going to build a new one. And we have, and that has been really the most important piece to our success on the field has been our ability to train our athletes at a higher level and give them what they need to compete at the highest level on Friday nights. So without a doubt, the commitment to excellence and the investment in our athletic facility have led to more success.

SPEAKER_03:

I think one of the coolest things about that, I was leaving my house this morning and my wife looked at me and she said, make sure you sign up for the West Florence Booster Club. Our kids go to West Florence. In Greystone, we... or booster members of both South Florence and West Florence. But the reason she said that, she said, South Florence is playing at West this year and they say the game's gonna sell out. So we need to make sure we're booster club members so we guarantee tickets. She told me that this morning, that would have never happened six years ago. And so just what it's done for the overall city

SPEAKER_01:

is really cool. So now everybody knows why you're doing the booster club. So I can get tickets. Get tickets to South Florence football.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. I'm going to try to get you some shirts before you leave. Well,

SPEAKER_03:

okay. What about your coaching philosophy? How has that evolved and changed your commitment to the kids? Talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Gracious. We could do hours on this one. But it has changed a lot. When you go from being an assistant coach making suggestions about different matters and go to being the guy who has to make decisions about matters, there's a big difference in those two things. And I think that the weight of making decisions impacts a lot of times the decisions you make, it's easy to just throw out suggestions. Uh, and so, uh, I tell people all the time, I was a lot smarter before I was a head coach making decisions. I was a lot smarter when all I had to do was make a suggestion on one out of 10 decisions that had to be made. Yeah. Uh, but no, you know, when I first got here, I'll tell you, um, when I first got here, the very first thing I did was right in the top left-hand corner of that whiteboard, uh, goal when the 2020 state championship and, um, I woke up every single day serving that master, doing everything I could, working as hard as I could to win a state championship. That was truly, if I'm being honest, that was the only thing that really mattered in my life. Everything else took a backseat to that. So every decision I made had to do with, is this going to put me in a position to win a state championship? If not, let's get it out of here and let's just focus on that. After my second year, so the spring going into my third year, we had a player who was shot and killed in Myrtle Beach over spring break. It was the first time that I had dealt with the death of a player in terms of being the head coach, and what do you do? The parents asked me to speak at the funeral, and I remember we had the funeral here at the school, and I was sitting in my office staring at a blank computer screen an hour before I was supposed to go out there and speak, and I have no idea what I'm going to say, and a lot of me felt... I felt a lot of guilt. I know the things I was supposed to go out there and say. I know what you're supposed to say when you have a player killed, but honestly, I was... full of regret about the time that I didn't spend with him, the time that I didn't spend investing in him as a person. I spent plenty of time driving him and pushing him to be the best football player he could be so that we could be in his position to win a state championship. But I was sitting on my chair and I spun around and I just saw on my whiteboard written goal at that time, win the 2022 state championship. and uh that was really a turning point for me the the lord really pierced my heart there and convicted me very deeply and and i felt as as close to audibly as i could you know drew i did not bring you here to win a state championship i brought you here uh to make a life-changing impact on these kids and to be a light for me in front of them that's why you're here and um you know uh I wrote some stuff down. I went and spoke at the funeral. And as soon as the funeral was over, I came right back at my office. I erased goal, won state championship. I went through all of my document and just got rid of everything and said, we are going to do this differently. And our mission now is to make a life-changing impact on our players. That's awesome. That is our mission. And so every day we wake up as coaches saying, every decision we make is based around that, you know, making a life changing impact on them. And then, you know, the way that we believe in doing that is by investing in them. And so, um, you know, I think that we've done a lot of that on the last couple of years, um, thanks to people like you guys who sponsor us. It takes a lot of money nowadays to make impacts on them, but the things that we've been able to do, things as simple as have players over to my house and have a Bible study, have churches come in and invest in our program to bring food. And we feed our football players supper every night after practice. We feed them six nights a week now. And just being able to show them the love of God and the love of Jesus and We're in the South, and so you build relationships over meals. That's right. Doing that, going out to eat, going on summer trips. We spent four nights away this year. We went on a trip up to Tennessee, spent the night in Knoxville, and played in the 707 tournament. But the night before, we went to a big mall and let the kids walk around. Then we went and ate at Cheesecake Factory. One of the things that I've learned is over 50% of our kids have never eaten at a what I would consider to be a middle-class restaurant. Outback, you know, somewhere like that. Over 50% have never done that. Wow. So that's something that we love doing now and investing just that time into them. And people might say, well, you know, how does that make them? You know, I think it does. I think it matters when you give them experiences and opportunities that they can look back on later. And hopefully... hopefully then they'll have the heart to do that for someone else. And, and so that, that's, you know, just a small part of, of, I don't know if I really answered your question very well. That was amazing. That was amazing. Yeah. And I

SPEAKER_03:

think that's probably why Lenore is calling you now saying, coach, tell me about the game plan. Tell me because he, you instilled a level of care in all of your players and they in turn care, not just about, playing for you and your coaches on the field, but what's going on with the program and giving back? Is there able to give back in the future? Yeah, and

SPEAKER_00:

the Norse has given back. He donated$16,000, and that money paid for our trip to North Carolina and Tennessee. That's awesome. And so it's truly hopefully just becoming a cycle, and it is neat to see when they leave us, them go out on their own and provide experiences and opportunities for other people.

SPEAKER_01:

I think your new philosophy is when you do your new philosophy, then everything else falls into place naturally. Yeah, that's right. So that is, wow, that's powerful, honestly.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we're very blessed to have you in Florence. Yeah. You've won two state championships, the first in 2022. You've had other job opportunities. Why have you stayed here?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I think that the Lord has just kept us here, truthfully. There have been some opportunities that, I'm going to be honest with you, I was pretty interested in, and my wife said, no, I don't think it's right. There's been one other, at least other opportunity that my wife was very interested in, an area of the state that she thought would be. I said, I don't think that's right. I think the best piece of advice, coaching advice I got was while I was still an assistant. I'd been offered a job, and I wanted to be a head coach so bad. Frankly, it was a job at a place where there weren't very good athletes. And I really wanted to go just because I wanted to be a head coach. And my wife said, you know, I don't think that'd be a good place. And so I was talking to another coaching friend from the upstate and he said, you know, wherever the Lord would have you go, he will lead your wife there also. So if your wife does not feel led to go there, then that might be a guardrail that the Lord has set in place for you. And so, you know, I told you that coming to South Florence is one of the easiest decisions. I mean, like... The job came open. I told her I was going to interview. She said, okay. They offered me the job. I asked her, what do you think? She said, I want to go. And so, you know, it was just that easy. And we just hadn't had that since then. And I just, I really lean on that advice. I think that he's absolutely right. I think that wherever, you know, when you get married and you become one flesh, the Lord won't lead one somewhere and not the other. And so we've used that. When opportunities come, we talk about it. And, you know, if, We'd like to thank her. We'd like to thank her for keeping

SPEAKER_01:

you here.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I just, why have I stayed? I believe the Lord has more work for us to do here now. And, you know, maybe it's where we'll be forever. Maybe we'll die here. Well,

SPEAKER_01:

growing up in Sumter, I mean, this kind of feels like home still. You're so close to family. I mean, you know, that means a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

It does, you know, and having both sets of parents there.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh,

SPEAKER_00:

yeah. It makes living apart, at least when you go back, For Christmas, they're both there. You don't have to go to Sumter and then go to Conway or something. So that is good. But yeah, that's the largest part of why we're

SPEAKER_01:

here. One more plug for your wife that I think is amazing is she handles all of the social media. All of it, yep. And it is top notch.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, she's really good. She has a degree in marketing and management from the University of South Carolina. Yeah. And she uses it every single day.

SPEAKER_01:

It's an important piece of the puzzle.

SPEAKER_00:

It is, it is. Just both of us getting them out there. But I'm going to tell you, my wife is as important as anybody to our football program. She comes to practice every day. And my three children, all three of them. Yeah. We do this together. We really do. And she does it. she'll tell you, she doesn't do it for me. She does it for our kids. It helps promote our kids. It helps draw attention to our program, which is good for our kids, which helps with recruiting, which helps with raising money, which helps with all of those things. Um, she does do it to help me, but, but she does it more than anything else. I mean, last night I was ready to go to bed and you know, she's just typing away her phone. I'm like, what are you doing on your phone? And she puts it at me. She's, she's making a video. She's going to post it on social media for one of our sponsors. And that's, that's truly, um, She wants to serve our players also, and that's how she does it. And we do this together. I mean, we really, really do.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's all showing up and coming together. Great.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, Robert and I were talking on the way over here. We have four years of eligibility left. All right. So I think we need to go to the field and do a little tryout for

SPEAKER_01:

the coach. Yeah, let's see. What I'm thinking is let me throw Reeves a pass and you say– Rob, you might would make JV. I don't know. Probably not. Let's just see. He might

SPEAKER_03:

look at us and say, okay, Lenore is the second best player. He might.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll see. We'll see. Oh, the one other thing I can't let Reeves get out too easily with this. Uh-oh. All right. The deal is Reeves does not cut his hair. until y'all lose a football game. Okay. So we need, and he says it afros out pretty good. It's

SPEAKER_03:

afroing out right now

SPEAKER_01:

for me. He thinks it's long. So if we can go the whole season, I'm really interested to see how that looks up there.

SPEAKER_03:

We're going to have the donut of shame going on. I'll be proud to not cut it for you, coach. That'd

SPEAKER_01:

be awesome. Let's go do it. You could do it. You could do it. All right. Thank you. Yep. Thank y'all.

SPEAKER_03:

We got the football. And one of us is gonna be Jake. And one of us is gonna be Lenore.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh! Boom!