THSCA 2nd Session: Chapter 4- Sam Gillispie AD for Tyler ISD,

This episode is packed full of content from Sam Gillispie AD for Tyler ISD, to Josh Finney successful football coach and AD at Winnsborro, and we finish up with Zane Bodie, former coach and jack of all trades who works with Fan Pledge, a leader in school fundraising. 

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SPEAKER_06 0:01

The sun is down, the lights are bright, getting my fix on a Friday.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

All right, y'all. This just keeps getting better and better. We're here at the THSCA coaching convention down here in H Town. I've known Sam since 1991? 92? Yep, 91. I I met him up at the Fourney Field house. He's one of the few people that played for my cousin Mel Maxfield and coached for him. And I know Mel talks about Klay Bson, one of the best players he ever coached. But I'm telling you, there's not any player or coach that played for Mel or worked with Mel that he respected more than you.

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Well, like I said, he he's like a dad to me. That man, he's the reason I'm doing what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

One thing that's in his DNA, he's loyal, he's hardworking. You learned that growing up. Yep. And you were raised the right way. And one of the best things I like about you is your mom can cook some chicken fried steak. Yes, she can. Yes, she can. So we tell random stories. We went up to the AFCA convention in Indianapolis. Yes, sir. And your mom was living up there then.

SPEAKER_05 1:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

And it was cold.

SPEAKER_05 1:24

Really cold.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

But we went over to her house. She was nice enough to cook us a home cooked meal. It was me and you, Mel, Coach Cheryl? Coach Cheryl and Coach Hunt. Coach Hunt. That's a memory I'll never forget. Me too. And Coach Cheryl, I think, ate more chicken fry than I did.

SPEAKER_05 1:42

I I think he did. I think Mel afterwards was sopping the gravy up with whatever bread we had left over.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Mel's one liner was like, I think I could do that again. That's right. That's right. Whether it was at your mom's or poncho's. Or the City Cafe. He would raise that flag at Poncho's at least ten times.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

We'd go to the City Cafe, and I remember after he'd always feed us there after every ball game on Saturday, you know. And he, if we won, he'd Mary used to walk in there and say, Well, what kind of what kind of game was it, Mel? And he'd say, I think it's a three-port shop day.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

No, Sam Gillespie is now the AD. How many years have you been AD?

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Finishing up my first full one. I've been an assistant AD there since 2019, then finishing my first year as an A D.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

And we're still really close friends, even though he left me high and dry at Banks, Texas. I was like, I would have done the exact same thing. He has a great superintendent that he worked for in West when he was the AD there. But he left West, started out moody as head coach, went to West, and then came to Shallow Water mid-strain. The Lord works in mysterious ways because we had a job for both of them that semester. And he came to Shallow Water when we were rolling and made us better. And, you know, our best year, we ended up going to the semifinals. But you were in Shallow Water how many years? Three and a half years. Three and a half. Yep. Then Dr. Crawford's calling, it was a great opportunity. And he could pay you a lot more than I could. So it was a great move. Right. But we were talking about that earlier. Last night at the hotel, matter of fact. Uh-huh. He brought his daughter Annie, who's a coach there. Tell our audience why Annie's coaching over there in Tyler.

SPEAKER_05 3:34

She's at Tyler Legacy High School. She's coaching volleyball and softball and teaching English one. Just finished up her first year.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Good for her. We need, especially female coaches like Annie.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

We do.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

That's got coaching in the blood and knows the right way to do things. Right. So it was great to see her last night.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

I hope she doesn't repeat some of my stories. But we were talking about how we started as assistants, and we never worried about what we made.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

No.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Because we were in the profession to make a difference. Like the paycheck was nice. And I started off the mesquite ISD, which paid teachers really well. But we never questioned what we made. We just did our job. And Mel would always say, It'll work itself out. Right. Because I'd be like, man, I'm going to take a cut. And he's like, don't worry about that. If you feel like it's the right job, it'll work itself out. And time after time after time, his wisdom was so true.

SPEAKER_05 4:32

Oh, he's a he's a he was always right. You know, I I told the story last night. I was at Fourney and about my fourth year. Coach Max came up to me and said, Hey, do you ever check your check? Paycheck. No, sir. I said, uh direct deposit. Direct deposited. My wife handles all the bills. He said, Well, man, Sam, I've given you a raise four years in a row. I said, Well, coach, I appreciate that. But I mean, you know, it's like you said, you just you did your job, you try to do it to the best of your ability, and things work out.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

And you know, our careers do this. Yep. But we're both blessed to be where we're at, still making a difference. I know Tyler it reminds me, and I've never told this to you face to face, but it reminds me when Mark Ball went from Wally to Lubbock ISD.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Because Lubbock ISD was on the verge. They needed a good leader to come in there, improve the facilities, get numbers up, get some good head coaches in there, and that's what you've done at Tyler. I know the demographics are different than Tyler, but Lubbock and Tyler have a lot of similarities because they're away from the Metroplex. Right. And you have your own challenges to deal with in those areas.

SPEAKER_05 5:40

You bet. And you do. The one thing I was, I told everybody I was really blessed to be able to be the assistant AD for a while because, you know, when you're thrown into a role like that, I had never, you know, I'd been in a big school district, but not one that had two high schools and to see how everything works. And I got to learn a lot from Greg Priest, who was AD there before me. And I can't imagine having to go in and just be thrown into that, man, because that was it. I learned a lot in a short period of time. Trial by fire.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Like Mel would say, drink it from a fire hole. That's right. That's right. We're going to have a lot of mentalisms when we talk about it. Yes, we will. And this is just a prelude or a trailer to the real deal, because I'm going to get out to Tyler. We're going to do it upright. Talk some good stories, some good football. You bet. Because uh, well, when Mel was inducted into the Hall of Honor, every time they inducted, which they had last night, and those guys, but they had one outside the family, usually that that spoke on behalf, especially if Mel passed away, and uh Sam did a great job because he played for him and coached for him. And and you described what he was about to attee.

SPEAKER_05 6:55

Yeah. Man, he he just, like I said, man, he's one of those guys that I I know when Jill called me, his wife called me and said, Hey, do you mind speaking when he's being inducted in the Hall of Honor? And man, I told her, I said, Jill, I can't get up in front of a bunch of people talking about Coach Max. I can't speak it through, you know. And they said, Well, luckily you get to video it. And, you know, he was one of those guys. One of the things I always tell people every day when I was a player, and even when I was coaching with him, we'd leave on a Saturday after a game when he'd tell kids and coaches alike, he said, But you got a lot to be thankful for. And if you get a chance, get to church on Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:28

And, you know, he was a man that had that lived his faith. There's a lot of people talk about it. He lived it.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

For sure. And I use that same line with the kids to this day.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

Oh man, the thing I remember more than anything, and I I said it on the video for his Hall of Honor, he said he could take a room full of guys and get you ready to run through a damn wall. I mean, because he would, he'd say one of the quotes he always used was the race doesn't always go to the bigger man or the faster man or the stronger man, but in the end, it goes to the man who thinks he can. And man, he had everybody in a room thinking you could win every ballgame you went into.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

And y'all won a bunch of them. Well, we were fortunate we did.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

We had some had some great coaches, great guys, great players, and man, we we had a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

That's what the two episodes, when we dig in deeper or dive deeper, you got Harv stories, Coach Sean Harvey. Oh. We could talk two days about it.

SPEAKER_05 8:23

Boy, that's two episodes by itself.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

And then playing for Coach Rush and coaching for him. Yep. Yeah. How many assistant coaches would do what Coach Rush asked you to do on the weekends?

SPEAKER_05 8:36

I told somebody, I said, I remember my first, my first full year up there, five years that I spent at Fourny. I don't know if I ever left the field house before midnight on a Sunday night.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

He left no stone unturned. And you'd think you'd have it perfectly drawn up and that's not right. Do it again.

SPEAKER_05 8:54

That's right. Or he'd get you about 11 o'clock at night and say, Can you go print off all those trips formations for me again? I go, damn, coach, I ain't changed two hours ago. And he'd look me in the eye and go, You want to win? Or you just want to compete? What do you want to do?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Yes, sir. Okay, these stories come to my mind when you start talking. You got to talk about, I don't remember what game it was when y'all were eating barbecue at halftime.

SPEAKER_05 9:18

Oh my God. So we had a kicker, Pete Kuva. He kicked for the University of Oklahoma, a man, great kicker, and his dad would could cook barbecue like nobody's business, best ribs you've ever ate. He'd always make them for us and put us in the field house for after the game. And we were playing somebody, I'm not going to mention who we were playing because I don't want to disrespect anybody, but we were getting after them pretty good. You know, we had DeBrian Blanton and some of those guys, and I think it was 42 or 48 to nothing at half. At half. And so we all get in there, and of course, Coach Max is in there talking to all the kids, and Coach Rush said, Man, I'm going to bust open these ribs, go ahead and start eating one. Well, it only took one guy to do that, and the rest of us followed suit. So we were in there eating, and about mid bite, I remember on that rib bone, I look up and Coach Max walks through that door, and he said, Game ain't over yet, boys. Y'all better get your minds right. And he just slammed the door and walked out. Man, I felt bad. And I remember Coach Rush had that rib in his mouth. He goes, he's full of crap. We got this game. I kept eating the rib. Kept eating. Just kept eating the rib. But that's how many, it didn't matter, man. Whether you're down by 10, up by 10, up by 50, down. We played, he made sure you stayed focused the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

The most memorable game I have that you played in, it had to be probably the fourth round. Y'all played at Memorial Stadium there in Mesquite. I was playing at AM and y'all played Gilmer. Yes, sir. Those cats walked out on the field. I was watching them warming up, watching y'all, and I was like, ooh, oof, this did not look good. No. And y'all pulled it out. Oh. In fact, it was such a great game. The linebacker coach at Coach Bid special on special teams at AM, Kurt Dahl, commented on the game the next time he saw me at practice. Really? He's like, tell your cousin Bill, he did a great job.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

34-21. Had no business winning that game. But man, it was, you know, that as a credit man game planning wise with Coach Max and Rush and Hunt. I mean, they just they did an unbelievable job.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah. That's one of the few memories I have of watching high school games back in the 90s, but I remember that one. You remember and it poured down at half. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Come just uh, as Mel would say, a turd floater. We went underneath the stand. Yeah. Yeah. All right, man.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

What else you got planned for today?

SPEAKER_05 11:36

Man, got to go maybe catch maybe a couple more lectures, but that's about it. And then a lot of athletic admin stuff tomorrow, try to catch up on. But other than that, that's about it.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Hey, Hellas is having a big get together.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

Oh, I know that. I'm not as young as I used to be. I don't recover as fast. I told him I might stop by.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna get some food out of them anyway. Yep, you bet. But hey, I appreciate you stopping by. And let me say this, and I we'll talk about it. I know I keep talking about the real deal. Yeah. This is just a glimpse into that. But I really I want to say this on air, but what we went through in Brownwood, a lot of coaches go through. And Sam could have stayed and probably been the DC there without me. But the way they did me, he knew it wasn't right, and you were loyal to that and came with me to Bangs. And I told somebody last night, Sam's best defensive coordinator that I ever had on my staff, and we did tackling drills for an hour a day, it seemed like. In our first game against early, our first game in Bangs, we couldn't tackle, we couldn't we couldn't play tag.

SPEAKER_05 12:48

We couldn't have tackled somebody in a phone booth.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

And we had worked on it, worked on it. So I appreciate your loyalty to go through that because not many people would have done that, but you did it because that's the kind of guy you are.

SPEAKER_05 13:03

Well, Kyle, I can tell you this, and I know I've told you how much I appreciate you and your family, but I've been very fortunate in my career. I've only had two bosses besides myself who have had to work for. And that but they were both Maxfields.

unknown 13:16

I haven't thought about it.

SPEAKER_05 13:17

And man, I'm telling you, I've been fortunate. Well, Mel's up here, and I'm I'm down here, bro. But Kyle, say that, y'all. I'm telling you, man, I've been doing this for going this is starting year 30 for me. And I don't just say this because you're sitting here, you're one of the best offensive play callers I've ever been around in the business. Well, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

You know it was easy in Shallow Water. I was in the zone for about seven years because I had Jared Black. Those are two pretty good guys. But no, man, have a good weekend, and we'll get through the fall, and I'll come up to Tyler. Come on. All right, man. Thank you. You bet. Chapter five. Coach Josh Finney. All right, everybody. Hey, we got a treasure right here. Lucky break. Josh Finney walking down the aisle. Great, first of all, great person. Great football coach. We go way back at least 20-something years. 25 years. And I wish I could say I won as many games as he has. I'm I probably have, but I'm I'm a lot older than you. You're your wins per year. If you do the math on that, you're you're Yeah, I've just had more athletes per year than you.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Not a better coach than Maxfield.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

You're pretty good, man. What makes you so good is you morph into what you need to be where you're at. Don't you think that's a strength?

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yeah, I think you've adapted. I think you got to in today's age, constantly be a chameleon. Constantly just trying to make yourself fit into each season, each group of kids, each group of parents, and just able to be a chameleon.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Well, you're good at it. Let's talk about your career. We both kind of are tied to Lone Oak. Is that where our paths crossed? Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah. And your wife actually from Lone Oak. Yeah, that's where I started my career. And then left and went out and coached and then met her later. And did I did I follow you? I was at I was at Lone Oak in 2001.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yeah, you followed me. I took the head job out in the West Texas at Oldton. Okay. So you came in there. Man, I left some good kids at I don't know. Did you coach Jermaine and those guys? I came the year after. Okay. That was probably a rebuilding year.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yes, sir. You work for Coach Jackson? Coach Carpenter. I did my student teaching for Brad Turner at Sulf Springs. And uh Brad had a junior high job for me, and I didn't think that was where I needed to be. Brad sent me back to Lawn Oak to coach at the high school. He still cared a lot about that place and wanted to leave it in good hands. And he sent me and Coach McDaniel. We were roommates together, and he coached McDaniel at Fourny. So he sent us back over there to go coach there. So that's how that happened. J Mag's up there in Gunnar just racking up rings. Yeah, he's ought to run out of fingers for too long. They can send me one. I don't know if I'm ever gonna get one. You got a lot better chance than me getting one.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

I talked to Bo Robinson the other day. I was so happy for him because he's been there so many times. His family had been there so many times. And for him to finally get it, he said it was really, really great, awesome feeling for two weeks. And then he's like, okay, you find your purpose again. And but I would like to have that feeling for two weeks. Yeah, just yeah, two weeks, two days. You know. Y'all been rolling in Windsboro a while, but what year was it where y'all had the really deep run?

SPEAKER_01 16:49

We've been to the round three and four several times in the last six years, seven years. You know, this will be my eighth year.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Eighth year at Winsboro.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

You're at Mount Vernon before that. Yeah, I was there for five. Was your first head job at Maud? Yes, sir. Explain to our audience where Maud Texas is.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Maud is a campsite beside Lake Wright Patman with a hundred people in it. Uh that don't tell me anything. Up in the Texarcana area. Okay. All the way up. All the way up. All the way up, but you had some wild. Yeah. You won a bunch of games. Yeah, we won a bunch of games there. I went to semifinals and uh. Who'd y'all play in the semifinals? Raymond. Raymond Tigers. They've been good for about 183 years.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Weldon, Robinson.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Both dead. Yeah. Yeah. Back in the day, that's who Sudan won their state championship against in '93. Wow. Raymond. They could win it again this year. Yeah, they're good every year. Great place. So you went from Maud to Went to Maud to Tig.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah. Went down to Tig. Maud was one and nine when I took over in the semifinals a few years. Took over Tig that was one and nine. Win eight ball games right off the bat get in the playoffs. I think I want to go up to the Metroplex and try it out.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

My country bumpkin self made it about six months up there.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

Yes. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

I was at Poteet. My first job was West Besquite. Okay. Wranglers. My son came home at Christmas and said, Hey Dad. I said, Well you on for Christ? I want a skateboard. I was like, it's time to leave, honey. We're going back out to the country. Ain't buying no damn skateboard.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

But you graduated from where you grew up?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Winsboro. And so I'm back in my hometown.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

That's right. You're back in your hometown. Mount Vernon before that.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Which ain't far from Winsboro.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

No, it's I live in the same house.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

So was there a lot of feelings hurt when you made that move? No, I just needed to I had to move back home. Uh, had a death in the family, had to take care of some stuff, needed a job. Gotcha. My hometown didn't have a job for me. I took the job down the road. It ended up turning from an assistant to a coordinator to a head job really fast and won 13, 14 games there a couple years in a row, undefeated, one of the best seasons they've had.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I left. My hometown job came open back at Windsboro. Got to go back home and take over. Then Browles took over at Mount Vernon after I left and rock and rolled with some really good kids over there as well. So then I've been at Windsboro ever since.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I went back because people say, don't ever go back to your home, hometown, and coach. Man, I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah, it's not. I don't mind it. Far enough removed where I didn't have close friends that had kids. Well, I mean, if if they wasn't my friend when I was out coaching all over the state and they didn't talk to me, then when I went back, I'm still not talking to them. Right. I mean, like my friends are still my you know, and so I I think that's the key. Don't let yourself get too too emotionally involved with people that are irrational.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

In the coaching profession, we deal with a lot of irrational people. But we we deal with a lot of great parents too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

I've been blessed. I've had some really great parents and the administration there in my hometown that's allowed us to turn it around and take the step to win those amount of games we've won the last seven years. Going to be really good again this year.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I have a great group of coaches. I have five dudes that are from Windsboro on my staff. Uh we all played together. So we got skin in the game. No, we want it to be successful. We know what it was like for us to play, so like, you know, we're willing to.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Well, I could tell every time I'm around you and your whatever clinic it is, they they respect, you can just tell, without them saying it, they respect you and you're the leader, and you got it going on, man. And I'm gonna say this there's probably, I don't know, three or four guys over my career that I could call up and be like, hey man, what do you do in this situation? Like X's and O's most of the time, but like our track workouts, feed the cat stuff. Yeah. I got it all for Finny. And it's it's changed our culture at Brentwood and the practice organization, you know, not making it a marathon practice and just, you know, having the fast and wide stuff, but also having your own little recipe to it or whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

You know, Kyle, people have helped me along the way. Anytime I've called them and given me help, so I just want to return the favor when somebody needs something, because that I promise I'm not smart enough to invent or make up or create anything I've given you. So I've had to steal it and uh probably not copyrighted it or anything. So passing it off. It's stolen goods, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Hey, that's that's my philosophy. And if it's something good that works, that's why coaches do. They like sharing it. A few coaches out there that they get something and they just hide it from everybody else. That might be a district opponent that don't want you sitting on the front row when they're lecturing things. Didn't my son and his buddy come down there? Yeah, that's a good story. So your son had just graduated as a quarterback. Yep. Blew it up in your system and him a receiver?

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

His receiver from or uh cross town rivals. Yeah. They're like best friends.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

And they both graduated the same year and they came down and clinicked my quarterback that at the time which was a really good player and our receivers basically on the choice route and the timing and going. And that's all we did for a couple hours and no gave him gave him a little something, something and then they were great kids. You did good with that boy. He was raised the right way.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Well I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

I don't know where he got his skills from I know his mom. I know he acts the way he does because of because you're his dad that's some of your homeboys? Yeah that's my partner right there. Partner in crime? Yeah Jermaine Lewis Gladewater Texas Oh Gladewater they got some cats every now and then for about the last about the as long as Bremon's had them they got some D1 cats around there don't they?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah I've been beat by them a few times.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Are they the same classification as y'all?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yes sir.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Round two is that the head coach yeah my boy Sam Gillespie you know Sam right? I think so he's an ADR I got Josh Fity in the house what else go eat some lunch.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Okay. I'm gonna come to Windsbro when I get fully retired and we're gonna do an hour long episode. Come on with it and we can talk about fishing hunting all that good stuff. Alright thank you chapter six Zane Bodie all right everybody we're resuming another episode here at the THSCA 2026 Coaching School Convention. How many is this for you Coach Bodie?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

This is 3 about three or four 33 or four got me beat this 32 for me well I did 28 years this is my fifth season retired 30 it is 32 for me. Yeah yeah 33 33 coming up I would say there's a lot of wisdom sitting here from coach at school but there is a lot of wisdom sitting over there. I'm just some guy walking around he said hey can you come talk to me for a minute? But you have an official T H S C A. What's your official job here this year? I'm here for good looks and comedic entertainment my friend that's all I'm here for. And I I sweep up the trash at the end of the night we help with all the vendors and we help people if you're looking for something we're we're gonna help you find it in here. That's my job. You and your brother right yes sir my brother actually got me the job he's been doing it my brother has been working with the coaches association for I think about 35 years. He's been doing it forever. Wow and uh when I retired I said hey I'd love to keep coming to coaching school uh can you help me out and he put me to work as a lot like me we go way back I think when I was coaching at Rosebud Lot in the early 20 something years ago seems like it's it's that long it's 20 21 years ago 22.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

He beat us like a drum he showed no mercy to us that was one of the few games we won that year but Zane is a lot like me a shorter fatter version but a lot like you I don't mean this in a negative way either because it's me but we we hustlers man like we we hustle we work we always finding something to do and you have done a great job with retirement explain to the audience what you're doing now with your business.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

To explain what I do you need to know where I come from okay my father my father coached for 36 years his brother coached for 33 something like that my brother coached for 32 cousins coaching is a I call it a bad gene in my family but that's all we know how to do yeah I love coaches I want to be involved with coaches I spent my career helping kids now I want to help coaches that's all I want to do help coaches and my wife said I need to get a job when I retired so she wives are good at that yeah go back to work. So what I do now is I go around and I help coaches by raising I work for a fundraising company called Fan Pledge. Fan Pledge number one that's number one business out there for that I'm pretty biased I could have gone to work for pretty much any I mean used them all after 30 years but this is I think it's the best thing going for coaches and it lets me help them. So we go do it and we have fun we have fun with our kids we have fun with our coaches and I think it helps coaches.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Well being a head coach for 25 plus years fundraising can get to be a pain in the rear end and when y'all came along it was a breath of fresh air because number one y'all do all the work behind the scenes we present it to the kids and then you come in and do your thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

I tell coaches believe it or not you're gonna have fun with a fundraiser and I know it sounds stupid when I say it he's just trying to sell but we do we have a good time we have fun the kids have fun and and I I I make it a little bit of competition amongst the coaches so the coaches are invested and they have fun. So it's a pretty good deal. I love it. I really do I enjoy it a lot you're really good at it let's talk more about your coaching stops. I know you've been all over Texas just like me. Started out in 1995 with Coach Joe Allen at North Garland High School. That's some hardcore wing feet that is the best place I could have ever gone to learn how to be a coach. Yeah I mean we did everything from hauling dirt and water pipe and laundry and all of it. And you learn how to do everything that needed to be done great man and how to deal with kids. I call Coach Allen once a year and apologize for what a poor job I did but I learned so much. I loved it. Stayed there and then I actually went home to Denton where I'm from went to work at Ryan for two years and then my dad retired from my alma mater Denton High. So I went to work at Denton High were y'all rolling people up at Ryan when you were there we were really not good. At Ryan that's hard to believe as soon as I left they started winning state championships. I don't know if there's a correlation there. No correlation at all we were there uh in year three and four they had just opened okay and I got to go home to Denton High where I played and worked with some of my high school coaches it was it was awesome. Stayed there in 2001 we moved to Central Texas where my wife is from and went to Belton stayed there for five years made another great decision guy named Alan Hare said hey I got this job defensive coordinator it's a really great setup so I went to Lago Vista they'd never won the Vikings they'd never won a district ball game never had a winning record. I think this is where I need to go and what a blessing it was Alan is one of my dearest friends don't tell him he'd get the big head but who's the head coach in Gerald now head coach at Gerald. Yep but we stayed there for 10 years and it was incredible.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

So can I say something to the audience y'all transformed that place. Alan I don't know if you talked him into it or if it was just him went to the slot T and it changed it really did it Lago Vista forever.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

I was a defensive coordinator that's where that was where I cut my teeth as a DC he let me be it and the best thing he ever did was switch to the slot T because we couldn't stop anybody you you can imagine. Ball control. Yes and that's how we played our kids bought into it and and we just I love it. And I I was very fortunate 10 years with him eight in slot T. I became a head coach for a little while slot T. Yeah and I retired in Marble Falls running the slot T with Brian Herman and I I would run it to this day. I I know people are going to argue but I think it's the greatest offense ever. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

As a DC I hated putting on the film and seeing somebody running the slot there's nothing worse than getting hit in the mouth for four quarters. There's nothing worse.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

You have to have disciplined defense and you better have a plan for them sprinting to the line of scrimmage I hated that we played Liberty Hill there's a there's a every once in a while there's something that pops up on Facebook and it's talking about the slot T and it's when we were at Marble Falls and it's them running eight hole reverse and I see it for a touchdown 60 yards and I'm like we know how to stop the slot T and we can't stop the slot T. And so now we're famous forever watching it I see it about once a month on Facebook. Great great just great we need to tell everybody about your clinic you've been running in the Hill Country I've been very blessed uh told you Alan Hare my brother Clay and Lance Moffat AD down in Hayes. Yeah Lance great dude about 12 years ago now we decided we need to have a clinic in Fredericksburg. They want to have a thing down there. It was genius because who likes to go to Fredericksburg and we do it on Valentine's weekend coaches. Genius so what started out as a coaching clinic we encourage you to bring your wife and let them shop is now a wives clinic and the coaches get to hang out but stay out of the way and talk a little football. But we do it every year Valentine's weekend as close as we can get our wives have put together a great itinerary for your coach's wife and one of the really neat things we do on Friday night at our social, the wives win all the prizes. We uh it gets crazy in there when we start giving things away we have a devotional Saturday morning with Coach's Outreach where we bring a a husband and wife in to lead our devotional and our Who was it this past year? Brian Mel Brian and Brandy Wood. I bet it was great the year before we had Chris and Judy Melson. Next year we're gonna have Coach Ledecki down at Vanderbilt Industrial and his wife and then our last lecture of the day we invite the wives back in and we have a a coaching legend and his wife kind of tell their story about how their how their journey developed so it's really I'm pretty biased but it's a good clinic.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

What's great about it is y'all got y'all's little niche and it's so unique. And a lot of my friends I've been probably two or three times I wish I'd have been more but now that I'm older it it makes me want to go do that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

I coach for 28 years and I was able to and I was a head coach for four years dumbest decision I ever made but I was a head coach for four years. But in 28 years of coaching I was only able to take my wife to one clinic other than ours and I think it's special when your wife gets to go not only see other coaches but she gets to visit with other wives about hey maybe I'm not quite as crazy as she thinks I am because there's other guys that do it this way and they get to talk to other wives and they can vent to them and they all probably have the same stories. They have the same stories the exact same stories. Yep it is but it's it's been a blessing God has blessed me way more than I deserve and I'm with you on that and every day it gets better and better.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

So Zane has been good to me. He always especially when I was retiring from public school getting into private I look up to you as uh a godly man that y'all's clinic is based on Christian fan pledge is based on Christian it really is. So it fit us at Brentwood Christian perfect. So we're looking on building what we did this past spring. We're hoping that we get better every year it seems like most of mine get better and better. Thank you for your commitment to helping kids and helping coaches now and just thank you for your Christian example that you've always had out there at the forefront of your your coaching career.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Well I tell people I'm probably the biggest heathen you know and if if God has grace for me there's hope for you and that's that's it is God has blessed me and my wife has had a lot of grace with me too putting up with me uh but God has blessed me more than I deserve and I don't take it for granted now and I try to share it with the kids. I'm gonna share with them hey I'm not your typical preacher but God helps me he'll help you.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Right. So and manzane when I was pulling up about to unload what what would we do without this profession?

SPEAKER_00 35:25

I would be so lost my wife and I talk about it we're both retired now and you've been there what what would we do? What what would I have done? And I just I actually started out this is more than you want to know but I intended to be a cowboy I was going to take over my grandparents' cattle operation went to school got an ag degree I'm not sure what that was good for but it I I went into coaching and I'm like what would I have done and I can't think of I can't even a better thing. It it's just been an unbelievable it's a it's a great brotherhood it's a great family and that's why I'm here at coaching school five years after I retired and that's why I do the fundraising so I can go around and just be around coaches and athletes some more I just don't want to I just don't want to spend 80 hours a week coaching anymore.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Oh no I'm with you on that I'm getting better at hiring assistants that are qualified to do that.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Yeah shoot they got a great leader in you brother I appreciate it many great leader hey have a good weekend thanks for stopping by you come see us in Fredericksburg Fredericksburg and if you need some help with your fundraiser give coach a call and he's got my number love to help you he travels all over the state all over the country now I'm going to Denver next week to do one in Denver so we're excited about it.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Let's go. Thanks Coach Bowie thank you the sun is down the lights are bright getting my fixed on the