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(PSR) Prep Sports Report 8.17.2024 w/guests (Yellowjackets) David Faulkner, (FCA's) Dennis Hayford and (Theodore Bobcasts) Steve Mask

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Duration:
1h 23m
Broadcast on:
17 Aug 2024
Audio Format:
mp3
Coming to you live from the Eastern Shore, Toyota and Hyundai Studios. The Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Here's your host, Randy Bergen with Coach Rick Cleveland and Coach Mark Leseter. And away we go, good Saturday morning to you and welcome to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report as we're coming to you live. From the Eastern Shore, Toyota and Hyundai Studios located right here in South Alabama. I'm so glad to have you on board with us this morning. I am Randy Bergen along with Coach Rick Cleveland and the one, the only coach I got to say is the best looking guy in the room, Coach Mark Leseter. The only problem is he dances his way in here at Saturday morning. That's the only problem. And it's like he's got a partner he's with. I mean, he's dancing. I don't know. Good day to be alive, bro. There is no question about that. It is good to see you boys again. Missed you all last week. Missed you too, buddy. I did. I know coming. I mean, I always miss him when he's not here. I have to try to have to take him away. I can't do that stuff. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's a tough job over here. There's no doubt that we've got a great show lined up for you today coming up at the bottom of the hour. We'll be talking with coach David Faulkner, presented by will to talk some McGill tool in yellow jackets, coach. Yeah, David Faulkner's what's starting his second third year third year there at McGill and, you know, I always am interested to see what St. Michael's what, what, how is that going to affect McGill? We talked about that before. And I really don't like to ask David that question, but that's something that it has to have had a great deal of effect, particularly on their athletic teams. I don't know, you know, they'll think about it. And I don't, of course, it could take teams out of Spanish. Some kids out of Spanish Ford would go, they're used to go to McGill, may go to St. Michael's now. It's a little bit closer, you know, but I don't really know how much effect overall it's had. So you think it's more of an effect going south, down toward Foley and the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, yeah, that's interesting. And I know this, they built a multi-million dollar stadium right down the campus of St. Michael's and you were there last night when they put foot to ball or whatever, however that would be total leather. Okay, that's a PA guy, there's a play-by-play guy down there. You know, that's the thing, these play-by-play guys, they have this, they have their own insular, well, they're all, be careful now because Tracy's monitoring my, my verbiage. And because she says, you just speak in somebody else's language, well, let me tell you, play-by-play guys like that little guy sitting over there. They got their own vernacular, as you call it, and when you're trying to assist them by trying to analyze a play, what are we talking about? So, we don't know what we're talking about, we're just talking about that, you know, it's an amazing, it's like, I tell Randy, I'm working with the guy, I've never seen the guy. I heard an interview with him, he interviewed Ronnie Jackson and Frank Warren from Parker and Ramsey respectively, got a great voice and he comes across great. I don't, if I walk in a press box with Randy, boy, I'm as comfortable as I can be, but when you go in with a stranger, oh, man. Well, he should set you up, so the color should be, I mean, remember, the play-by-play is just drawing it out for you and you're, you're filling in the, the color side of it, so. Yeah, but I've worked with some guys on the road, you walk in that press box and they got 17 pages of notes and they got four sheets of line-up cards. Okay, guys, I'm here, what do you want me to do? Hand you a piece of paper? Oh my goodness. You got to ground the play and say, this is what they did? Here you go, Peter. There you go, there you go. Well, it'll be fun talking with Coach Faulkner coming up at the bottom of the hour. Of course, at eight forty-five, you'll have our leadership segment and then at the top of our second hour, we'll be talking with one of our good friends. So then, out about my FCA multi-area director, the one that only Dennis Hayford. Yeah, Randy, I'm sure he'll show up since you're here today. That's my boy right there. I know he is. You got some great golf gigs out of that FCA tournament that they have and they don't go to Silicon anymore. What happened with that? Yeah, the national side of the FCA kind of got away from that being a qualifier. If you qualified, you won here locally, wherever you might be in the state or in the nation. You did a local qualifier, then you went and did a state qualifier, that was at foreign links. And then if you won there, then you went and played sawgrass, they got away from that. The COVID kind of killed that. Well, that's a great golf course. That's a fun, fun golf course. And I assume, does that tournament steal? Do you have a qualifying tournament for that? No, it's not a qualifier anymore. It's just the FCA tournament. Yeah, just a fun erasure. Yeah. So, it'll be fun calling him at the top of the hour. Steve Mask, the head football coach for the Bobcats of Theodore will be on at 9.15. Boy, what a guy he is, huh? Yeah, I'm telling you, it's always, you're always going to have a comedic part during the middle of that somewhere. A beginning or end could be, but it's always fun to hear Steve talking about his football team and just to catch up with our old friend. And I just hope he's doing good. You know, he had some health issues there back, not too far back. But I think he's done a lot better and feeling a lot better. And I know he's excited about rolling into this, this fall season. He's loaded, loaded to the brilliant. Was already going to be really good. And then Michael Dubos comes over from the best offensive lineman. Probably that we've had in the state in a couple of years commitment to the University of Alabama. But boy, I'm going to tell you. Now Steve told me yesterday, he said, "You know who's running the offense?" He said, "No." He said, "Me." Now Steve's always been a defensive guy. So I would imagine there'll be a whole lot of three yards in the cloud of dust, but there'll probably be a little bit more throwing the ball than it has normally been at Theodore. So when Eric was there, when Eric Kai was there, they literally were the old Alabama, three yards in the cloud of dust and were pretty darn successful. Yeah, there were. So it's going to be interesting to see how that pans out. And then you'll wrap it up, the show at 945 with our camp grace segment. A little grace segment coming in there and looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to for this couple of hours talking about all this really exciting time right now. You know, with everything getting started, I know I was looking at some stuff the other night. You got this week, you've got volleyball, it really kicks off, cross country that kicks off, football kicks off, all the fall sports, except for swim. They started a little bit later, but all the other fall sports crank up this week. We got middle school games Thursday night. This coming Thursday night. We've got varsity Friday night. We've got cross country Thursday night. Our volleyball team takes off and I think they're going to Birmingham this weekend or the next. I'm not sure when that is, but I know they're at Ann's already got her group ready. So it's, you know, it's here school season as school started and kids are back at it. Coaches are back at it. It's a lot of fun. You know, Ann jumps into 7A this year, the competitive balance and all the things that private schools have to deal with to jump into that competitive balance moving up, moving up. I don't think Ann in her career will ever be able to compete on the level that Bayside really and truly is. Because it'll take, I think it'll take literally between 10 and 15 years for them to drop down even maybe the 5A. And that would mean that they would have to absolutely lose and not do any, if you score one point in competitive balance, you stay where you are. And all she has to do is I think is make, get it, get out of regionals and make it sub regionals. Once she does that, that's a point and keeps her in 7A. I mean, you say what you want to, but the powers of B got what they wanted when that deal and they moved everybody up. Sooner or later, it's going to become a log jam up top. Yeah. When folks just keep coming up there, it's going to be a log jam up there. Then what do you do? Then what do you do? Well, that's a really amaze because when we get so many teams in 7A, then we're going to have a decrease in the lower classifications. And it's going to be a problem. It's going to be a problem. Swimming has now gone, they're not having sectional swim meets anymore because it just didn't work out because of that. And so now, we're going to have just a state meet in swimming. This is the way I understand that those people that qualify with their times during regular season events, you go to the state meet. Alright, let's take our first time out when we come back. Let's kind of go around the state. A lot of things going on. And we'll get you caught up on all that right here. As the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report continues on a beautiful, beautiful Saturday morning. Welcome back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Brought to you by Alpha Insurance. This segment, presented by Green and Phillips Attorneys in Law. Now, back to the show. [MUSIC] This is your big day. Mark, it's your big day. It's your big day. It's your birthday. [LAUGHTER] We certainly want to welcome you back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Randy Burgen, Coach Richard, Cleveland, Coach Martin Laster. Hey, Coach, you got something that is going to be cranking up starting this Tuesday for two hours, beginning at 6 p.m. from 6 to 8, and that'll be every Tuesday. You can go to high school sports today on Facebook, and you're going to be doing a lot of stuff. Yeah, you know, Reena, I've got to find something I've got to find my time. So that'll take a lot of work, as far as trying to produce that show and get it done. And get it to where it needs to be. It's going to be high school sports. Everything going on in high school sports. We'll interview coaches. We'll interview a bunch of play-by-play guys, because those are the guys that know the most about the teams outside of them. You know, the coaches. And so, I want to do it at six o'clock at night, because we'll have access to coaches statewide. It's just something that all of us really love high school sports, and that's kind of where my life is kind of evolved around. I kind of want to give back. I mean, I think it's great to be able to keep people statewide, posted on things that are going on all over the state. You know, if you live in Huntsville, you don't know what's going on in Mobileville. You don't know what's going on in Birmingham or Huntsville. So, you know, that way we'll just be kind of a, I guess, a vehicle to travel the road of high school sports across the state. And it'll actually be more in depth than what we are on Saturday morning. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it will be, because we'll, you know, when you're doing a podcast, you don't really have commercials. You don't have stuff like that. You just go through and you're talking about sports, and we're going to have a, we'll have a text line where people can text questions in, and we'll talk about things like that. I'm not real good with phone lines on a podcast. I don't think that's, you know, better than I do, but that seems like a text line is the best way to go. Yeah, yeah, that way they can just, they can just text in your questions or comments or whatever they want, and you'll be able to read them right there. And we'll go with that. Yeah, we'll go with that. Well, I'm excited about it. Tuesday nights are great nights do it. It gives coaches, you know, generally on Monday night, we're playing B Team games or some other night freshman games. So Tuesday night, Tuesday's usually the workday for most of us coaches, and so it gives them a chance to come in and kind of chat about what's going on there. You know, one of the things that I'm really interested in, and we'll ask both these coaches today, is how has what happened at Hoover recently affecting coaches across the state of Alabama? Because you got to know that everything that we as coaches do, especially you guys that are doing it now, everything, if you're putting it out there on huddle, everybody in the world's watching it, but, you know, we said this last week more. That wasn't football. That wasn't football. That video we saw on Hoover. And I don't know if it was taken the same day or if they spliced it in and it happened on different days, but it doesn't matter. That's not football. What we saw the Hoover coaches doing is an assault. And there's no place for that in high school coaching. And this program's friends with the head coach at Hoover, the former head coach at Hoover, and think the world of him. He made a bad mistake. A bad, bad mistake. But no, I don't want anybody out there to say, well, back in the day, that was nothing. That's not true. We played back in the day. That didn't happen. But we might get our face mask grabbed and shaking us a little bit. But we didn't have a coach come flying up to us and knocking us down and knocking the helmet and throwing the helmet at us. That didn't happen. And that incident, the assistant coach did on down there. That's, to me, if I'd have been there and an assistant, I'd have had to go up to my coach and I'd have to say, you've got to stop this, right? You know, at some point in time, accountability and credibility, you've got to be accountable for that as other coaches watching that kind of crap. It's just, it's ridiculous. And I'm, you know, I hated it happening. I'm proud of the Hoover superintendent and that school system for doing what they did. And I wish nothing but the best for those coaches. But they made a mistake that was fireable. And I'm not happy that anybody gets fired. But when that happens, you've got to take action. Well, you're responsible for your action. Absolutely. At the end of the day, we all are. I mean, for every action, there is a reaction. Yep. And when you do that kind of thing and if you make a mistake and you do it and you get reprimanded for it or you get fired for it, that's your fault. It's nobody's fault, but your own. And I used to, you know, I can remember sitting in meetings and I would hear this, you know, I know, you know, a child had been disciplined or something had happened. And you get, well, I know my son or my daughter did this, but not want to hear the butt. I don't want to hear the butt. Yeah. I don't want to hear that. But now, when this coach acts this way, there's no butt to it on that one. There's like, dude, you messed up and, you know, no matter how good a guy it might be, when you do that kind of thing, you're going to get fired because of you don't touch children in that manner and throw them around and do things to them that are just. No matter what your position is. No matter what your position is. No matter what your position is. No matter what your position is. Where you are. And you know that every head coach or every athletic director in the state had a meeting with their coaches and said, guys, we're watching you. We're watching practice. We're watching everything. We're not going to have that in our school. What happened at Hoover High School? And this is what you got to remember is you have phones that have cameras. You're being filmed all the time. Okay. Yeah. So you need to watch. Watch what you do. Watch what you say. That's a great point, Randy. Yeah. That's a great point because everybody at practice, and now we're going to begin to see. Watch what I tell you. We're going to begin to see coaches close in practice. I already had one coach in Mobile. Tell me coach. Nobody can tell you one certain player one at practice because nobody's allowed to come to our practice. So are we going to start closing practices now? Hey, look, we got a few minutes left here in this segment. Let's go ahead and get it kicked off because you got the kickoff classic that happens Thursday night at cramped up old real town who had a 13-in-one season last year. We'll take on the Tigers of T.R. Miller, eight and four last year. That'll happen on Thursday night. And then, boy, I'll tell you, you get into the schedule. How about Spanish, Ford, and Fair Hope kicking it off on Thursday night? That's some good ball games coming up. I'd really like to watch that T.R. Miller real town game. That'd be a lot of fun watching that. That'll be a good game. And of course, Spanish, Ford, and Fair Hope every year is a good ball game. Those two going to get after each other. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch them. Look, whenever you look at that record last year, three and seven, Prabble had a three and seven. That's where I could last year also, which is just completely off the norm. Yeah, and you think about Prabble? Well, they've redone Stanley Jensen Stadium. I haven't been there. Man, they flipped it. They went back to the original side over there. Now, that's the home side. Okay. So, it's on. Of course, they've got turf there. The second game of the kickoff classic, which is going to be on Friday nights. Right. Yeah, Bobby Carr now, who's won what? He's won everything you can win in the A.I.S.A. and he's taking over Carver now. Now, Carver is not just Carver, it's Carver and Sidney Lanier. And they're going to play Robert Evans in Vestavia Hills and those guys. And let me tell you, that'll be a slobber knocker. I hear Vestavia is going to be pretty tough to beat this year. I've heard that night. I don't know a whole lot about them, but I've heard that they've got a really good little football team. Well, if they are identified with the personality of their head coach, who was one of the best high school football players I've ever seen. I mean, he was a great football player. He was the great football players drafted in the pro baseball draft. But his pedigree is, is that he was a head coach at Silicon Bruce, but is a long-time assistant to Buddy Anderson at Vestavia and one of the finest Christ-centered men you'll ever meet. And of course, he played for Auburn. He's a great defensive back at Auburn. But their staff at Vestavia was unbelievable while Robert was there. Robert goes after he gets out of school. He's become the defensive coordinator at Mountain Brook for Chris. And now the story is, he's doing a fabulous job at Vestavia. That's a good point. Alright, we'll take a time out. When we come back, we'll talk some McGill tooling yellow jackets. We do it with a head football coach, David Faulner. He's presented by Will Tu, and that happens right after this. Welcome back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. The Pops Market communication lines are open at 251-3430-106. Here's your host, Randy Bergen, with coach Rick Cleveland and coach Mark Leseter. And we welcome you back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Randy Bergen, coach Rick Cleveland, coach Mark Leseter. To go to our Pops Market communication line and welcome in the head football coach for the yellow jackets of McGill tooling. Coach David Faulner presented by Will Tu and Mark a guy that you know very, very well. Yeah, dude, good morning, David. How are you, buddy? Good morning, Mark. Doing well. Hope you all are good. I was--last night, I went over to St. Michael's and watched the St. Michael's was having a little scrimmage with Alma Bryant, and I brought back some memories. I was sitting there watching him play, and watching the game going. I was watching those hurricanes running around. That was a lot of fun. But David and I coached together at Alma Bryant for a couple of years and had a lot of fun back then, didn't we, bud? We did. It seems like a lifetime ago, but yeah, those were good times and definitely have fun in the memories of that. Buddy, we got football season rolling around at McGill tooling, and you've got a big ball game coming up next week. House fall camp going, how are you guys doing, how is everything with your football program? You know, I think we've had a productive fall camp. I think the guys have come in each and every day. I think they understand that if you're going to be successful, that's maintained in hand with your preparation. So I think they're doing everything they can to get themselves prepared and ready to go next Friday. You know, our kids, probably like everybody, have put in a lot of times since January, and I think they're just excited about the start of the season, and we're looking forward to the opener next week. Tell us a little bit about your offense this year and some of the guys you got going that you're going to be kind of leaning on as y'all start into the first ball game. Yeah, I think you have to start with with Andrew Murchson at quarterback. Andrew is a, he looks the part. He has played really well through the last half of last season into spring and he's just been really off the charts here in fall camp. So I think he's poised to have a big year. You know, a lot of that's going to depend on how the people around him play and if we can protect him up front in the old line and that's probably where we have the most question marks because we've got four new ones up front. We only return Roman Tran as a starter and Roman's a heck of a football player as well, but we're going to have some new faces up there and we're probably going to play multiple guys trying to figure out what that best five looks like as we go for the first few weeks. And, you know, when we return, Lederian Miller at running back, Lederian will only be a sophomore, but I think he has an opportunity for his careers over to be one of the best football players in the state of Alabama. He's hit a big growth spurt and it really filled out and really looks, looks the part and he's extremely talented kid. So if we can keep him healthy and keep him going, I think he's got a chance to do some big things and then out on the perimeter with Blaine Ball Ray, James King and Jack Lenahan and Reed Watkins and Dorian Coker. We've got some guys out there that can be productive. So, you know, I tell people all the time, we're going to have to out team people because I don't think we have just the elite, you know, four or five star guy right now. I think we've got a couple kids that's got a chance to grow into that, but I really like our football team. I like our makeup and I like the way our kids come in and go about their business every day. David, you talk about Andrew Marchus and of course, he is the Green in Phillips AHSAA Player of the Week going into football season because he's made so much progress. But I think the thing that I recognize about Andrew is that he is a multiple sport player and I'm talking about he is an outstanding basketball player and he seems to be a pretty doggone good football player. And so David talked just a little bit about these multi sport athletes because in our world today, we see so many young players that just want to play that one sport and play it the year around. Andrew chooses to play that probably may even do another sport, but I know he's a multiple sport player playing both football and basketball. Yeah, I agree with you know, Andrew's a great example of that. You know, and I think, you know, I think it's hard to tell kids to specialize at this age because number one, when you take the high school experience away from them, you know, and then the high schools. I know at McGill Tulin, we need every kid that we have that's capable of playing a sport, playing that sport and ripping McGill Tulin high school. And I think it's good for the kids as well. It helps develop them from a competitive standpoint. And it kind of gives them a chance to go out and develop some different skills that you have to have to play these different sports. And we've got a number of multi sport athletes at McGill, we've even got some of them that pull off three. And we encourage them to do that. We need them to do that at McGill for all of our teams to be as competitive as possible. And we do a really great job at McGill with our coaches working with those kids and understanding the demands that are on them. You know, I think at the end of the day, it's really if a kid can compete at that level at a sport, he probably needs to do that because when high schools over the, being able to play multiple sports or play sports at all is going to come to an end. And I just encourage kids to play as much as they can. We're talking to David Faulkner, the head football coach at McGill Tulin, who is brought to us by Will to. David, we were talking about in the studio here this morning earlier. Everybody's aware of the situation that happened at Hoover. And we made the comment that I can guarantee you that every coaching staff in the state brought this up during a coaches meeting and talked about the consequences to our actions as coaches. Talk to me a little bit about how you approach that with your coaches. And is it a topic of conversation as far as preventive action or whatever you want to call it? But it has to be something that was recognized with huddle out there, with everybody watching practice, got a phone and watching. It's got to be something that coaches have to be very, very aware of consequences to their actions. Yeah, I agree and it was a topic of discussion in our staff meeting and just, you know, just a reminder to our staff and to myself that, you know, we're all competitive. We all have this competitive spirit. We all want to win games. But at the end of the day, it's really, and especially at the high school level, I think we've just, you know, we've done a poor job at Rick and that high school athletics is not college athletics and college or pro athletics. You know, those are businesses and those are driven by the bottom line. And then I can say that because I was in division one football for a while. So most of your decisions coming down from there or based on what the bottom line is, you know, they, they, they find football coaches for wins and losses a lot at that level. But it really ain't so much about the wins or losses. It's when people quit buying tickets and t-shirts and, and, and mugs and it starts affecting the bottom line and they feel like, oh, well, we got to do something to sport, you know, the fan base. And, but, you know, I think we lose sight that this is high school football. And what our job is, is to go out and develop young men so that when they leave your program, you've given them some type of tool or something for life that they can be successful moving forward. And then when you're into, and we coach them hard at McGill, too. And so don't, you know, and we probably, and we, and we talk to them harshly sometimes, but when you're into humiliating kids and doing those types of things, I just don't see where there's anybody into good. And I think you got to keep your competitive spirit and check and, and I don't even know if that was that, that just, you know, and I don't want to speak to that particular case too much because I wasn't there and I don't know everything about it. But I know it looked really bad on film and we, we all just got to remember that our job is to help these young men move forward and be successful. Oh, visit with coach David Faulkner, the head football coach for McGill, too, and brought to you by Will to coach. We've got about a minute left here. You open up Friday night at Daphne. If I've done my research right, it's been a little while since McGill, too, and then Daphne have faced each other. How excited is the team, how excited are the coaches that we take on the Daphne Trojans? Oh, you know, we're all excited. I'm sure Daphne's fired up, too. Everybody will be ready for the start of the season. You know, first ball games are extremely important because obviously you want to win, but even if you don't, it's going to be your really first chance to really get an evaluation of where you are as a football team. And so it'll be important in that piece of it, but I, you know, our kids and coaches have put in a tremendous amount of time. They're excited about playing, and I just hope the weather stays good. You know how first weeks are. But it's time to play football, and I think every high school football player in the state of Alabama is excited and ready to go, and it'll be a big night for both programs. I know they're kind of getting some new facility deals. They're going to show off there, and we're excited about going over there and competing with them. Coach, thank you for joining us, buddy. We appreciate it. We wish you the best of luck this week. And, and throughout the season, we look forward to talking to you again real soon. All right, thank you. Thanks for having me on. Thanks, David. Good luck, Coach. God bless, pal. I'll tell you what, look, he's got he's got Daphne, as we mentioned, then he goes in that four-week stretch of region play, Murphy, Theodore, Gulf Shore, Sarah Land. That's a, that's a handful right there. 'Cause I am at 6A, that 6A area right here in Mobile, and I'm on Jason. It is, it's like the SEC West every week. I'm telling you, it is something else. You know, I'm really looking forward to seeing how Gulf Shores does in this league. I really am. That's going to be, that's going to be interesting because say what you want to, they were dominant in Vave. They were absolutely dominant in Vave, and winning a state championship, propels them, of course it's going to be something different. It is. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. I'm excited. Thursday night, we kick off a little high school football. That means college football is right around the corner as well. All right, we take a quick time out. When we come back, Coach Cleveland, he's got the leadership segment right after this. Welcome back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. PSR is live every Saturday from 8 until 10 a.m. Now back to the show. We say it every Saturday, there is no show complete without a little boss gags and stealing day. So it's not. Welcome back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report time for our leadership segment, and Coach Cleveland has got that for you right now. You know guys, we so much appreciate 68 ventures in Warrior 360, and particularly one of the subsidiary is there of 68 ventures. Go Pass to presents our leadership segment. Nathan Cox and Brad Israel, of course, Nathan of 68 ventures and Brad Israel of Warrior 360. They inundate us with some great stuff, and Mark, I'm going to have to. Do you get what we are? Do I need to start sending that to you? I used to get it on my email. Well, that's because my email changed. So I'll make sure that we get that done because I think that's important to all of us. Brad has shared with us something about thinkers and doers. And as offensive line guys, we've run the gamut of thinkers and doers. And thinkers and doers really are similar to introverts, extroverts or relationship based preferences. They all play an important role on team identity and how to fix the culture. You know, on every team there are thinkers and there are doers. And thinkers like to contemplate problems and issues and devise strategies to address them. And that's what most head coaches do. And head coaches are those guys that we try to sit around and try to find a way to have a strategy to address every problem that we see out there on our athletic team. Now thinkers are not without initiative or action. They prefer through partners over accountability buddies. They take steps cautiously and deliberately. Doers on the other hand, they like to get things done. They don't bypass strategy, but they prefer action over contemplation. Now, I don't know who you would break this down into. I was going to ask you at the end of this, who are the thinkers and who are the doers on a football staff. And that's something you can be thinking about. Doers move quickly to execute an action plan and to measure themselves by what they achieve in short term. Now, this is a contrived dichotomy, no doubt. The idea that team members differ in their action or thinking biases is well established. You see, most team members exhibit more of one bias than the other. Leaders who use this dichotomy to their advantage will likely find less disappointment and frustration with others. Both thinkers and doers are highly valuable. And most teams don't run well without a good mix of both of those orientations. With experience, good leaders can learn exactly which quality each team member exhibits and can make assignments based largely on the experience and then the assessment of that experience. So, that's exactly what we do every day. We sit down with our position players and we do everything we can to assess where we are on a daily basis. For instance, expecting a thinker to change or to change directly toward a problem with a swift and determined action is likely to lead to disappointment. And expecting a doer to slow down and to think carefully through the risk and consequences of his approach is likely to produce kind of a half-baked strategy. Playing toward team members and strengths makes a lot more sense than expecting a team member with a different bias to change their stripes. Who are the doers and thinkers on your team? Do you sometimes make assignments that best fit their strengths? That old saying round pegs do not prefer square holes. Good leaders appreciate the difference in the cognitive shape of team members. You know, thinking about that more, I read this, I think on Wednesday and I immediately got a notebook pad out and started thinking about thinkers and doers on different staffs that I've been on. I classified Steve Saverice as both, a thinker and a doer. Is that possible? Is it possible to be successful in being the thinker and the doer on the staff? Or is it better to have the thinker and then the doers who carry out those thoughts that the head coach puts on their mind? I think most head coaches and CEOs of companies are a combination of both. I think they've already been the doer. They got there and now once they're on top, they're thinking about, okay, these things have got to be done. Everything hears all the things and then the deal about thinking about things is not just about what activity needs to be done, but whatever you're doing is the long reaching effects of what you're trying to accomplish, what does it do? Are there repercussions that are going to come back? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages? All these things that you implement into your program, whatever that program may be, starts with that thinker. But most of those guys, in my opinion, are the guys who have already done it. Well, and that brings us to this. And Steve was never an assistant coach, so we kind of have to kind of throw him out of this wash. But all of us who were assistant coaches, before we became head coaches, always had in our mind and probably if you're like I was, you wrote stuff down, ways that you would want to do things that other coaches had done. We all copy each other. That's all we do. And we try to derive a different way of doing it, maybe, but all coaches are breaking down film and seeing something they like, and we're saying, I want to do that. I want to put that in. So while we're an assistant coach, what we're learning is we're learning, and you and I are both very lucky that we work for great coaches. I mean, I can go down a litany of the head coaches I work for, and every one of them has been successful in life and in their vocation. So, as a young guy, and you've got a son who's an assistant coach, as a young guy, they see the things that work and things that don't work. And they want to transfer those to their program when they become the leader of that program. First hour has come and gone. Coming up, when we get back, Dennis Hapert with the FCA, he's up right here on the Prep Sports Report. Coming to you live, the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Presented by Alpha, here's your host, Randy Bergen with Coach Rick Cleveland and Coach Mark Leseter. And welcome in to the second hour of the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Randy Bergen, along with Coach Rick Cleveland, Coach Mark Lester. Wonderful, wonderful day here along the Gulf Coast. It's a beautiful day. Certainly we've got beauty in the house. Absolutely not talking about you. Absolutely. Coach, we have got some great sponsors of the show, and I know you've got to tell us about one. Can I mention real quick? Please do, because it's huge. Yeah, it is. We are very excited to announce that Boomstike Kitchen is now no longer at the fort. She will be opening on Monday at a scheduled open Monday at Piglet Wiggly, and Fair Hope could not be more excited. But she has left the fort. I can't tell you how happy we are about that. And we hope that you'll go to, if you're down in the Fair Hope area, you'll drop in the pig and see her. She would love to see you for sure, but she's going to take good care of you. Hot bar for lunch, for dinner to go, you grab and go stuff. All kind of goodies are going to be happening, so thank you for letting me. We're excited about that, Tony. And Mark's familiar with the pig, very familiar with it. I worked in that daily for a little bit. It's the best chicken fryer I have. And I can tell you, I'm fry-ups and chicken. You may just tell you how different ways you can cook a chicken. No. I, you look like a chicken. Clay can tell you that. You need to get clay to tell you that story about chickens and minor league baseball and those players from Venezuela and Dominican Republic and about how they utilize chickens and how they fed themselves. They'd get six or seven of them, but that's all they did, all week. They didn't make any money, so they had to put their money and have chickens. So, pretty cool. Premier Collision, you know, we went by to see Chris and Kim and Tyler in there the other day. And, well, I'm telling you, they're booming with business. And two locations now, one at 101, North Schillinger, and of course the ones that we're for me with at 1177, Sledge Drive. They're closed on the weekends. They open Monday morning right at eight o'clock. You want to get your vehicle in there. If you've had any kind of collision, any kind of problems with your vehicle, please give Chris Garrison those guys a call at 251-478-4500. And if you tell them you've heard about them on press support, there's no telling what kind of deal you might get with them. That's right. So, they might charge you double. Absolutely. They might charge you double. Hey, look, we're excited to have this guy on with us. He is the Southern Alabama FCA multi-area director. He is one of the biggest motivators that I know are good friend Dennis Hayford is on our Pops Midtown communication line. Dennis, how are you doing? My man. Good morning, Randy. Good morning, Rick. You guys doing all right today? We're doing great, Dennis, and I'm really excited about September the 9th at the Daphne Civic Center starting at 630. We got a big thing going on at FCA Champions Banquet. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah, thank you, Rick. And thank you for not just being excited about it and getting me on the radio, but also buying a table. You guys, Randy and Rick, you guys have always been verbal supporters of ours, but you go a step further and become financial supporters. And, you know, man, I just appreciate that so much. The Champions Banquet is going to be amazing. You know, a lot of times we do this every fall and we'll bring in a polished speaker and those guys are amazing, but this guy Joe Kennedy is one of us. He is just a regular dude who he's the guy. Your listeners will remember seven years ago was fired from his coaching position for kneeling and praying at the 50 yard line. Seven years later, the Supreme Court has upheld his right to expression of personal faith, and it's an amazing story. So he's going to be with us September 9th at the banquet and it's going to be a great interview. You know, I think about that. How many coaches that we know, Mark, that we pray openly with our players? And Joe Kennedy's story, Dennis, is, I mean, I don't understand how somebody can single him out for doing that, and I'm sure his story, I can't wait to hear his story, because, you know, when we're sharing the love of Jesus and the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, and we're helping our student athletes grow as Joe has done and hopefully he's continuing to do it. And then there's action brought against him. This country was founded on that. Those principles that Joe was speaking about, Dennis, and... There's a lot of folks that are forgetting that too. That's true, absolutely. So Dennis, thank you for bringing Joe in, and boy, we're super excited about not only being a part of it, but hearing what he has to say. Yeah, well, you know, guys like Rick, like you and Mark, have been doing it for years and doing it the right way. A coach using his influence to offer those who want it, not everybody wants it, but those who want it, a spiritual avenue to see a coach and how he lives out his faith. And that is, to me, the coach's platform with his players is one of the highest platforms in our world today. And so this guy, you know, he's just a lightning rod, you know, and those good neighbors in the state of Washington state fired him. But I'm super proud that our Supreme Court has upheld him, and it's going to be a great story. So we're selling tables. This event has sold out the last four years, so I expect that to happen again, so don't take a nap on buying tickets. Well, let's talk about that. If someone wants to buy either a ticket, a table, contribute in any way possible, how do they do that, Dennis? Yeah, thanks, Randy. F.C. South Alabama FCA.org. You'll see the event there. You can buy an individual ticket. You can buy a table for eight, or you can be a silver gold and platinum sponsor, and there's lots of cool goodies that go along with that. And we're going to celebrate, not just Joe, but also local students. I'm excited too about interviewing them and hearing about some of the amazing things God is doing through our students in our schools. I mean, it's just, it really is amazing. God is alive and at work in our community, man. And we certainly need it right now. There's no question about that. We're visiting with Dennis Hayford, the Southern Alabama FCA multi-area director. Dennis, we only got about 60 seconds left here. You've put together a fantastic team here with the FCA. Can you go through some of your team members real quick and let us know who they are? You mean our sponsors? No, you're like Maddie and Justin, the whole group that you have there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. We really, yeah, Randy, you remember when it was just me and you. I was a staff member and Randy was a board member. We had, and it was just us. Well, now God has really blessed and we've got six staff members. Nick Williams is up in Thomasville. Chris Giles is in Leroy. Maddie Bergeron is in Mobile, Justin Patterson directs Mobile. Sydney Willison is in Central Ballant County and then Karen Staton is, she's really the smart one. She's the administrative assistant. No doubt. Makes sure we cross our T's and dot our I's. So a great team for sure. I tell you, Dennis, you do have a great team. There's no doubt that Karen Staton makes you shine. Now you're awesome, but she throws on a little extra sugar on you, brother. I can tell you, man, she does make sure. Dennis, you are absolutely the best. We are excited about this on September the 9th. If you want more information, you can go to southalabamafca.org. You can donate. You can buy a ticket. You can buy a table. You need to do it quick. You want to be a part of this on September the 9th at the Daphne Convention Center. Excited to have Mr. Kennedy there. This will be a lot of fun. And Dennis, as always, we thank you for taking time to be with us. We look forward to having you back on again real soon, man. Look forward to seeing you in September as well. Yeah, for sure. Thank you guys. Love you guys. Have a good day. Take care, pal. One of the best right there, one of the best. I'm going to tell you right now that this guy is phenomenal. We've been around FCA all of our coaches for a year. And nobody outworks this guy. They don't. And nobody has that sweet. I mean, they've all got great spirits. But this guy's got a sweet spirit. And it reminds you of what you read when you talk about Paul and the Bible. That's right. That's right. No doubt. All right, we'll take a time out. When we come back, let's get back into some high school football. We'll do that with a Theodore Bobcats head football coach Steve Mass. He's up next right here on the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Welcome back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Call or text the Prep Sports Report at 251-343-0106 on the Pumps Market Communication Lines. Now back to the show. And we certainly welcome you back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report as we're coming to you live from the Eastern Shore Toyota and Hyundai Studios right here in South Alabama. I'm Randy Bergen joined by coach Rick Cleveland, coach Warren Laster. And guys, it's time to go to our Pops Midtown Communication Line and welcome in the hit football coach for the Bobcats of Theodore. Our good friend, Coach Steve Mass is on the line with us. Coach, how are you doing, my man? Maybe we don't have him on yet. Well, we probably need to speak up. He probably can't hear. I mean, he's old, guys. Well, maybe we'll get him up here in just a few moments in, all right? And Steve, let us know whenever you get him on the line. But look, you said I think they're loaded this year, Coach. I do too. I think it's going to be one of the best football. I told Steve that yesterday it's going to be one of the best football teams. He's ever had the privilege of coaching, and I thought Tim Hardegree, who we're off of me with, he spent some time with us at Daphne, just did a great job in selecting Steve Mass as a head football coach. But we will have to speak up louder, y'all, because he's, you know, he's getting a little age on me. Is he hard of hearing? He's getting that way, yeah. Coach, are you with us? I'm with you. I don't have to take that. I can always just hang up this phone. That's what I'm talking about. No, I made a special point to get up early. I was about to put at least one here that is. I can hear y'all. [laughter] Oh, my goodness. Oh, boy. Good morning, partner. How you doing, Steve-o? I'm doing great. If people would spend more time on the job, they're playing golf five days a week. [laughter] You wouldn't have to jump and be connected on Saturday morning, but you know what their partners are. I won't keep doing it, buddy. Take right now. Oh, my goodness. After 46 years, I'm going to keep doing it. I can tell you. And I'm going to call you every chance I get. Well, you better hurt. [laughter] What's up, man? How are y'all? You're great, brother. It's good to hear you, boy, Steve. Yeah, too, monkey. Y'all too. Talk about preseason. It's about over. Pre-season's about over. And it's time to kind of rally the bulls and put them in the ring and turn them loose, right? It isn't a day we've practiced last night. First time we've been late, you know, we'd get them seven period, athletic period, get them at two o'clock. We'd be going out about three every day. It's been brutal, but, you know, that's what we have to do. It's a situation with some transportation. You have to do what you have to do. But, you know, Rick, Mark, it's tough. It's tough. You're real me, but these kids are great. You're right about that, man. You know, the older I get, it seems like the heat is hotter than it's ever been. And it just kind of, but those kids just keep on getting through with it. And, you know, we've had a lot of talk about that this summer about the heat and about, you know, things that happen and can occur. What are some things y'all do, Steve, to take care of your kids during practice to make sure they don't -- they got plenty of water and they don't overheat? Well, Mark, in addition to that, you know, we've got turf on the study of now. And so we do that for, but it's about another 10 to 15 degrees on that. But, you know, we don't monitor -- we don't go very well. We may go a hundred minutes about the attack, but all they can take. [ Inaudible ] You don't have to apologize to that. We've all been there and understand that, Steve. You -- you know, I think one of the things that you've always hung your hat on -- it's not a thing. We know this, Mark. I mean, this guy's a tremendous defensive football coach. And you've kind of turned the page, hadn't you? You don't kind of be running the offense this season. And, you know, I told you the story about what Terry told me years ago. And you just -- you're jumping on that side of -- have you ever done that before? Or is this a new thing for you? Well, I did that. When I was at Bradshaw and Florence, I ran the offense. And then when I went to Robert County, I actually did both sides for a couple years. I back killed me. And I was just Georgia. I did it for two years. So I've done it before. And it felt like it's been a time. It's what I needed to be. And I've really enjoyed it. It's been a good change of pace. And it got a great thing. But the coordinator led you hard. And then I had to worry about that side of the ball. And I've really enjoyed it. I've been trying to track the end of it going to me. And I sure have enjoyed it. But, yeah, I've done it before. And I think that they could be coordinator. But it would be better to understand and get to what's going on a lot. That's a lot of the side of the ball. So it's really, I bet that comes into the transition to be honest with you. You know, it's just a different way to look at the thing. We're talking with Steve Mask, head football coach at Theodore High School. Steve, tell us a little bit about coming first football game you got. Are y'all playing Thursday or Friday night? And it said, you know, or we got Baker, you know, with a new staff. And, you know, have a little bit of an idea what they're going to do. But, you know, the thing that worked a little bit is that coach Johnson is going to be, you know, a truffle that I've been known to, you know, set the ball as fast as I possibly can. I think that's what he's doing at Baker. You know, at first game, you know, you got jitters and emotions and teeth, everything else. And quite honestly, the more I come in, we're about to get this and that. Because every time you play that first game, you have cramps and that's all they're not in shape. They're not in shape. Well, they're in shape. But when you put the anxiety in there, it's all the nerves with it. And you burn a lot of energy to hurry. So I'm concerned about that. But, you know, we're looking forward to this kind of play. I think we're all dead legs a little bit. I may have put them a bit too odd on Thursday. I saw that last night. So it was time to put that thing and overdrive and just sort of cruise on to the first game now. You know, Steve, we're talking to Steve Mass, head football coach at Theodore. Steve, I love to saw what happened at Hoover. Talk to me, and I made you comment earlier this morning that I told Mark, I said, and Randy, I said, I would imagine that every head football coach and or athletic director met with their football staff and went over that scenario and talked about that with their coaches. How has that affected not only your staff, but how do you think it's affected coaches around the state? Well, we may vary a proactive a whole lot longer than what we saw last weekend. And I tell everybody that come to our staff and, you know, y'all know my head to our work, but I tell them, I will let you go if you missed three day kids. We make a promise, those parents, we make a promise for those kids. And those parents, we're going to take two of your kids, we're going to live on our own. So there's just no place for it. Now, I didn't say you can't get out a little bit because we had to do that. But you better keep the hands off of them with your other event. You better pat them on the butt. And you better love them like love. You love them and they can trust you. There's just absolutely no place. And while I was there, it makes me stick up my stomach. And it makes us all look bad because everybody's tuned for what everybody's doing there. No, we're not. No, we're not. 98% of it aren't doing that. And the other people say it should be a shame that they're doing it. You know, Steve, I said, there are some people that said, "Well, back in the day, that would have never been missing." Bullcrap. Back in the day, that wasn't part of football. No, it was not part of football. That's a great point. That's a great point. And, you know, I played four guys who I played one of the best in this place, Don Cruz. And Don Cruz didn't see us as anybody. That he'd never put his hands on. Never. Now, he might play with him a little bit. Sort of, you know, playfully. I've said towards playfully. Sort of, you know, kick to the butt a little bit. But never like that. Never, never. No. Steve, buddy, I just want you to know how much we appreciate you joining us this Saturday morning. And I know you've been getting after it pretty hard. Your voice is a little tired. So, rest it up and get ready. You've got a big week coming up, buddy. Well, when I get bored doing it, I pretty much spoke to you all. I pretty much spoke to friends and I read, "I hope it gets a shake." Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Take care, bro. We love you, Coach. I hope it gets a two. I hope it gets a two because you're taking a lot of my money. That's awesome. [laughter] Oh, my goodness. Steve Manz, kid of all coach for the Bobcats of Theodore. He is a funny one. There's no doubt. Good luck to him. Good luck to that team this year. All right. Let's take a time out. When we come back, we're going to jump right back into some prep sports. ♪ That shape is my shape ♪ ♪ Then where I used to stand ♪ Welcome back to the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. Brought to you by Alpha Insurance. Now back to your host, Randy Bergen. ♪ Rick, let's let that roll just a second. Man, I'm all good to that. ♪ We are glad that you are here with us right here on the Thompson Tractor Prep Sports Report. We are flying through today's show. I've got to tell you, that Steve mask is what to talk to. Steve, I couldn't agree with you more. I need Rick to get the shanks because he has taken all of my money. Yeah, the shanks. That's awful. That's awful. What was that commercial? That little kid? The shank-a-pot on a shank-a-pot. [laughter] Oh, my goodness. Hey, Coach. We're going to get into some games that will be happening on Thursday and Friday night. We'll start getting that lineup for you. But before we do, just want to remind everybody that Boomstick Kitchen no longer at the Fort in Spanish Fort. No longer there, she has moved and we are scheduled to open on Monday down at the pigly-wiggly in Fairhold part of that food court. Could not be happier for her. It will be fantastic. You got to go buy and see her. Let me tell you, they got some good food in there. That little food court, you got lartiques in there. You got virtual juice in there. You got the goat, the Mediterranean goat. And Rick, I know it's a place you've been before, for sure. I know. I'm trying to tell everybody. Boomstick Kitchen will be at pigly-wiggly in Fairhold again scheduled to open on Monday. We'll have grand opening coming up in about a week. And it's going to be some really, really neat stuff. But she is no longer at the Fort. No need to go there. She's not there. So thank you for letting me do that. All right. But Coach, we got some -- we kick off high school football on Thursday night. Of course, we mentioned the kick-off classic that will happen to cramped a bowl. It will be real town and tea or a miller. And then, hey, we got some other games going on. Yeah, we do. And some big games. Muscle Shoals goes to Gadsden to play Gadsden. CDS Scott Baysden and Scott -- great high school football coach. That would be a big match-up up that way. We talked a little bit about Prattville earlier. Pike Road will travel to Stanley Jensen Stadium to play Prattville. And, of course, here in Mobile in the Mobile and Mowing County area, the really big game on Thursday night is Spanish Fort. As Chase Smith goes over to Fair Hope to play Tim Carter's Fair Hope team. And let me tell you, Fair Hope had a three and seven season last year. And nobody's got a bitter taste in their mouth like Tim Carter does in those Fair Hope Pirates. Yeah, you're right. And, you know, what's really kind of funny about coaching. I mean, Tim Carter is a successful, very successful head football coach. And just a wonderful, wonderful human being. And when, you know, you go around Fair Hope and you don't hear much, but somebody makes some comment. What in the world is going on at Fair Hope? You know, why can't they win? Well, every now and then, you're going to have a bad season. I don't care how you slice it. Tim Carter and his staff didn't just get stupid overnight. You know? I mean, that just cracks me up how people, how that goes. The guy is still doing the same thing he's done. He's doing it better. He's got some new guys in. He's got some young guys on his staff and they're doing, and they're working their kids. And they're going to, sometimes things just don't work out. Don't matter how you slice it. An injury or two here or something there. But Tim and his team are going to be fine. They're going to keep plugging. When lose or draw this year, Tim Carter is one of the best football coaches in the state. He's doing a good job. And he's proven that. Yes, he has. And I got two of them there. I walked into Quail Creek. There were some old guys in there that I'm familiar with when I was coaching at Fair Hope. When I'm hollered over there, he said, "Coach, you must still be coaching at Fair Hope." Yes. Wow. I said, "Bill, what are you talking about?" He said, "Well, I saw they went three and seven last year. I just figured you were stealing it." Hey, let me just tell you, you'd be ready. Fair Hope's going to turn it on. I'm excited about what Tim got going on over there. No, I'm not coaching. Which is going to be, that's always fun to watch. Fair Hope in Spanish, Fort Chase Smith now. I guess he's in his third year. There's the Toro's coaching. They had a nine and three season last year. This is going to be, this will be fun to watch. If you're looking for a football game on Thursday night, this will be one you want to see. These guys will go head to head and it will be a fun field action packed football game. I don't think there'll be any question about it. If you're in the Birmingham area and you're listening to us, and I know we've got a bunch of listeners that listen to us up that way, I'm going to be coming and joining you guys at Legion Field on Thursday night as Ramsey plays Parker. Those games, teams won 12 football games last year. Ramsey played in the state championship for the second year in a row. Ronnie Jackson's got a heck of a football team there at Ramsey. And then you go over at Parker now, Frank Warren, a young Frank Warren. Not the Frank Warren that we're for me with. It played football at Auburn. That's not the Frank. This is a young wide receiver, slot receiver that played in the Sunbelt Conference. But he's done a tremendous job there. It's going to be a heck of a game. You get to go back to that historic old stadium. All you can see is Coach Bryant standing by the goalpost with a hands-tooth hat on. And those two teams will kick it off, and that's going to be a lot of fun. That's the premier game in 5A in Alabama next week. It's Ramsey at Parker. You look on down. Thor's being Isabelle. A lot of people don't understand this, but Thor's being Isabelle is a big rivalry. And those two guys will get after it. And they both had 9-3 seasons. Yeah, they sure did. They had two really good seasons. Then Friday night, you know, that Vestavia Carver game is, I think, that's going to be an exciting game at Cranpton Bowl and the kickoff classic. And we got all kind of games. We got eight-man football, AISA going, and six-man football. I didn't even know we were playing six-man football. I don't know how we're going to have enough officials, guys, to cover all of these long-term games that we got. I just hope that, and it's like you said, Mark, we do have better numbers in the association. They had a big, big clinic last weekend at Orange Beach. Our buddies at Green and Phillips were part of the sponsors. The United States Sports Academy was a huge sponsor for those guys down there. Certainly had a great weekend down at Orange Beach with all the officials. In 7A next week, Austin is at Hartsell. That's two good football teams. Laker is at Theodore Enterprise at Andalusia. That's some good football games. Foley and Baldwin County. Randy says, "Toe Meats or Toe Meats Leather." Is that right? That's another big game down here. Mary Montgomery, 12-in-1 last year, had a great season. They'll go to Pace, Florida to play Opelike and Benjamin Russell. Now, you know a lot about that series because that was a tremendously competitive series when you guys were at Benjamin Russell. Yeah, when we first got there, it was rough on the Wildcats. We were having a hard time beating Joe Wilson and his football team. But we finally completed a pass one night. Steve made it up on the side. Right now everybody calls it Four Verts. We were in two of them. We called it Divide Row. Never forget it. We threw it and hit Bernard Kelly for a touchdown and the lights came on for the kids from Alex City. And all of a sudden, we scored 20-something. We had hardly scored on them in four years. And we scored a bunch of points that night. Still got beat that night the next year. I think we won the next two or three years in a row. And finally got to where we were competing with a tremendous program at Opelike High School. They got a great program there. Yeah, but yeah, it's a big rivalry. We had a name now that is a blast from the past. Now that kid could fly. Bernard Kelly could absolutely fly. He's one of the kids that I remember. Even when we played him at Prattville, there was a Kelly on there. I don't know if it was him or not. But absolutely. And when you run the Divide Row, did you run a backout? It converts. You didn't run. You didn't run. You didn't run. We didn't run him out the back. All right. So you didn't run a backout? It was. How did we call it? It was twins right. We didn't. I don't know. Spread right. One back. Yeah. That's how Coach called it back then. Yeah. And this was in like '87 or '88. Something like that. And anyway, so Bernard moved out of the backfield from his tailback position. Went into the slot. We ran two slots down the hashes. And read to free safety. And our quarterback hit Bernard for a touchdown. And Bernard's nickname was green jeans, by the way. Really? Green jeans. Nice. There's money in the pockets. That was T.O. on that team? T.O. He was a freshman on that team. He was a year or two later. But that rivalry was something else. And then Spence and Phil, when they played one another at Opal Icon, Alex City, Phil Lazenby, and Spence McCracken, the rivalry just continued. It was tremendous. What a great Opal Icon has got a great setting for football there. And then Alex City in the sportplex there with a savory, smart and field is quite a beautiful setting to play ball in. So it's a lot of those are two great teams playing. That'll be a lot of fun to watch that game. Another matchup in Birmingham, Sparkman travels to Spain part. Spain part's got one of the premier high school quarterbacks in the state of Alabama. That's going to be interesting to watch him. In 6A, Decatur's got a new football coach over three and seven last year. That didn't happen when Jerry Adkop was there. No. And so they got a new coach there. And they're going to tee it up. Rick, how about that? How about that one in 6A, Huey Town and Clay Chogwell? Yeah, that'll be a slobber knocker in itself because Huey Town is a team that is, I think they were eight and four last year. But Clay Chogwell, 14 and 0. And of course Clay Chogwell's got a new football coach. The guy that was the offensive coordinator now has taken over as the head coach there. Drew Gilmer, of course, took the Hoover job. And so, yeah. Let me tell you, Clay Chogwell's good. They're really good. They got loads of talent there. McGill Tulin goes to Daphne. We've already talked to David about that. That mountain brook at Demopolis. Murphy is at Davidson. Nope. See anybody else that we've got in 5A? BC Rain is at Hillcrest Evergreen. Carol of Ozark with a new coach, Matt. Don't go on it. Anyway, he was offensive coordinator now. Delusion, Matt. Delusion his name. Now, let me tell you, another one's going to be good in 5A? Yep. UMS Rain at St. Paul's. Oh, that's a huge one. Big. UMS Rain was 7-5. I think St. Paul's 7-4. We're going to talk a lot about that Tuesday night on high school sports tonight. There you go. All right. We take our final time out when we come back. Coach Mark Laster's got the Camp Grace segment right here on the tops and tractor. Prep Sports Report. Bye. This segment of the Tumps and Tractor Prep Sports Report brought to you by Camp Grace. Now, back to coach Rick Cleveland. Camp Grace is located in West Mobile is the summer home of Camp Rappahope, Camp Mash, Camp Smile, and Camp Sugar Falls. As well as the home of Outback Mobile and is shared by many other community organizations throughout the mobile area. Camp Grace is a place where God's love is bestowed freely upon others. The true definition of God's grace. You know, as we start, as school gets started and athletic teams take the fit. All the extracurricular activities get going. One of the things I was thinking about as I got started with this school year. I had a couple of new things added to my plate this year. Which are not new, but I just hadn't done them in a while. And the thing about it is that how I handle things that are going on with kids and with my colleagues. The most important thing to keep coming back in my head was positive thinking. Positive thoughts. So this morning what I did was I found this thing I was reading the other day. I like to try to keep positive thoughts in my head. And so I thought, you know, it would be a pretty cool thing today is just to read some things that I've got that I have read that are positive ideas. That might help you in your day. It's going to help me because if I read them again, it's going to help me. And I'm just going to read some things for you. And guys, just chime in right whenever you get ready for it. Okay. All right, here's one. I'm just going to start reading them. Friends are the family that we choose. Never really thought about that. You know, friends of the family we choose. Be it good, or bad. Hopefully you choose the right one. My purpose is to lift your spirit and motivate you. Here's the best one I've read of all of them for me is one I really like. Kindness is one thing you can't give away. It always comes back. And I really like that. Great things happen to those who don't stop believing, trying, learning, and being grateful. Great things happen to those who don't stop believing, trying, learning, and being grateful. The first thing that hits me on that is the song. Don't stop believing. That's a powerful song if you listen to the words. Yeah, that's pretty good. Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place. You really thought about that? I hope that was true. I'm telling you. I know for me it's true. There's been some times in my life when mine was usually about a job. Yeah, I got applied for a job that I really thought I wanted and I didn't get it. And thankful you didn't get it. And thankful that I didn't get it because things turned out just the way they were supposed to be. Those are called unentered prayers. Unentered prayers. That's right. Fight for the things that you care about but doing in a way that will lead others to join you. You know, Martha, that's something that really hits home with me because sometimes we take too much of a stand. We major in the minors is winning the fight worth the cost of the fight. Good point. Happiness is not by chance but by choice. Amen. By choice. Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look. That reminds me of golf. Yes, looking for the golf ball in the center bottom of the hole. That's never happened to me. Well, what's good for it? I lose my golf ball. I find somebody else's. Yeah. It's always the last place to look at. Just a couple more. Kobe Bryant made the statement. The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do. Isn't that what we're supposed to do with young people? That's exactly right. We interviewed Ronnie Jackson, the head football coach at Jackson. I mean at Ramsey this week. Ronnie Jackson made a huge point. James, the guy that I worked with, asked him. He said, "Coach, are your players major focus and are your coaches major focus on going back to that state championship game?" And Ronnie answered real quick. He said, "No, sir. That's not our focus as coaches. Our focus as coaches is to make our young men or help our young men become better fathers and better husbands when they leave this place and go out into the world and make a living for themselves." That's really what all of our goal is. We don't say it because people want to hear us talk about championships, but more and more of our coaches want to be champions of men and women than they do of blue mams. And that's a great thing. Well, that's what our show is about. No doubt about that. That's been that way, Rick. You started this years ago. It's been about that. And it's been about this segment is for that very thing. Right. Trying to help young people. Trying to help. And you know, and we say, you know, and we say when we talk about these things about how we want to help people, I hope y'all understand when we talk about these, we help ourselves. Amen. I hear Rick talk, Randy talk. I hear myself say things and I go, "You know what? I got to do better at that." My attitude has not been very good at that. Maybe my positive thoughts have not been as good as they need to be. And because of that, other people are aware of it. I got to do better. It's just, you know, life's a journey. You know, it's just a journey. We're all on it together. There's not an end to it until we meet our Lord and Savior in the afterlife. That's the only, that's when it, that's the end of it. But the life journey that we're on is one that we're going to learn from every single day if we allow ourselves to learn. And it's a hard thing sometimes. But be it, these things about, you know, I was sitting there talking to my seventh graders the other day. I had a little seventh grade class and sitting there and they're all, I'm looking in their eyes and I see a lot of them's parents. I know who they are and I'm looking, I'm going, yeah, I see their parents in their face. I can see them, you know, the resemblance there. And they all have this look like, teach me something today. Whether they want you to think that or not, it's there. Whatever it is. And the thing about what, you know, what we're trying to do is, my job reality is to teach kids how to be better people. Right. You know, that's what my job is. And I can't do that if I'm not living it. You can't fool a child. Yes, sir. You just cannot fool a child. And those are the people that we as teachers and coaches want to make the biggest impression of. That's right. It's not our fellow teachers. It's not our administrators. It's those students. That's right. And that's the ones that we want to make a difference. Randy, thank you. Thank you for everything you do. Stay tuned for the next hour. It's as good an hour in sports talk as you'll ever hear.