David Thrower Mt Zion Carrollton

No way! Youngins are really starting to get on my damn nerves! Prepare your eyes, lads! Yes, sir! This is the High School Punching John Infanter. Please take your time and watch this. Jesus Christ! He's no body's owner! Chris! BAM! Yeah. Alright, this is Episode 4. Coach David Throer just retired this year after being carried out on the field and high in high school. One of my best friends, he's like a big brother to me.

He started out his career as a recreation, Parks and Recreation Director in Baxley, Georgia, and Claxton, Georgia, and actually started his coaching and teaching career in Temple High School in Carroll County. He spent some time in the middle of his career in Carroll County and then finished up again at Mount Zion Carrollton in Carroll County. So today, tonight, this week, we've got Coach David Throer. If you don't know him, you need to get to know him. Coach Throer, it's great to have you.

Hey, Chris, I appreciate you letting me come over to your show. Man, this is quite a honor, especially considering this is State Championship Week and you have a lot of coaches, a lot better resumes than your phone, that I think a lot better resumes than I do that are on you. You got numbers and access to you, so, but now it's a pleasure to be here. I've enjoyed listening to the last couple of podcasts, so it's all been a lot of fun.

Well, Coach, I laughed and told my wife that we were talking about getting you on here and she said, well, crap, y'all have been doing this for the past 15 years. About once a week, you're just recording at this time. So it's actually kind of fun to say. I just want to make sure the scores that time move on. Well, everybody's fired, everybody's in trouble. That's more PG than right at all. You don't make a difference. Oh, yeah, I got you.

We've got some feelings that go on both sides, but not on the cross. That's fantastic. You're a lot on it, but I think you're a cute, fairly clean. So when you started at Temple back in, what would that have been? Ninety-four was my first year there. And Coach Oglesby, was he your head coach? John Oglesby, that was my first major coach. We were the same age. John was from Manchester originally.

A lot of people know his brother, Greg, was the head coach of Manchester in the 90s, when they helped Great Run and the fielded Manchester actually named after Greg. John was a fantastic guy. He and I were great friends, and still are. And he went straight into coaching out of college, and I went into the rec business for about five and a half years, and I worked two great channels down south towards, and worked for two great record records. I was kind of an athletic director, type guy.

That was kind of the second I am, but I was kind of overall the youth programs, that kind of thing, which was a great, really great opportunity to kind of get myself aligned and start coaching, because I never felt like I was really a rookie coach, because I did so much for the great department days, and as far as toward athletics and supervising, and coaching kids, and making a home, and organizing and scheduling, and purchasing some equipment, and uniforms, that kind of stuff.

So I had a pretty good background going into it. Had an older brother that was a high school coach. He was a basketball coach for 24 years, but he was 18 years older than me, so he was like the second I had. So I kind of grew up watching him coach, and I was always running a lot of football coaches, and just kind of grew from there. I mean, John O was my first boss, and he gave me my first job, and gave me a great opportunity to coach.

Spent two years in the temple, and that was two of the best years I could read. The temple was a school. I think we had 20 players, maybe my first year, maybe 20, six, or seven, second year. There were about 200 kids in high school. Maybe, I don't know, there were like maybe eight or ten schools in the state, playing football, that had less enrollment than we did. So, you know, the program was only about five or six years old at that time.

So we started from scratch, didn't have a lot of facilities, didn't have a lot of money. But our kids played hard, they worked hard, and it was a lot of fun. It was a great experience. I got a fave of left, and just coaching on class A level, and really having an opportunity to, John O gave me a lot of responsibility. You know, I had a small staff, I had about five coaches, so I ran the weight room, you know, I ran the special teams.

For a second year, I called the offense, and we were able to do what I was ready to do. But it was a great opportunity to coach, and kind of learn, and I didn't go from there. So it was a, yeah, that was a totally great experience. I lived in a temple those two years. So where did you leave, I mean, where'd you go after that? Well, I had to temple up in that tree, which is where I grew up. And I was down there, and spent seven years down there.

I had some work from three different heads, those were down there. My writings were from a teacher, and a work from Tommy Walden. And it was kind of unique, and I think that's true, that kind of, because that was the first time the Calaway High School was built, it was that 96th school year. So they had re-drawn all the kind of songs down there. So basically, Calaway opened up with about 600 students.

And they closed out Hoganville, High School, and Hoganville, and they started all those kids in Calaway. So when they built Calaway, they built the town north in the town there. And those hosel kids went to Calaway and the crew. And LaGraines, both of them, kids in Calaway with the re-zone, and then LaGraines spot kids.

I think the Department of Justice came in there and wanted to make sure that all the schools were kind of lined up around 60-40, or racially, because that's kind of what the community represented. So LaGraines, where their school was a majority, and then the troop had gotten where it was heavily Caucasian, and it was almost like a different deal. Like, almost like a segregated deal there for a while.

So when they came in there, they re-drawn those hens zones, so they could make sure that, you know, all the schools basically the same, this way it was a racially made school. It's really a long way back there. Right. But at the same time, it's built down there those first few years, because a lot of those kids were very resistant about coming out of the troop, because, you know, obviously their dads and their uncles and their brothers and their cousins, and everybody they knew were great.

And it was tough those first few years to kind of get those kids kind of playing together. The kids played hard down there, but they were just a situation where those kids kind of grew up not liking each other. And for those first three or four years, it was tough. They all, I mean, the whole school was tough. We probably had, we had fights after fights. You had jumps, you had jumps to go back and forth every day. And it's probably a good thing.

I told the staff was all the way to the 30s, because my line is, I mean, they were going to scrap down there, because those kids just didn't like each other. So getting them to play football together was even a bigger challenge. But like I said, by four years after that, it's kind of started getting better each year. And I think it's obviously, you know, that's kind of time it took here, land. But it was a real challenge down there, and it was true, I get to see that.

Now, which staff were you on where y'all had the guy that y'all had to have him on? What was that? Who was that story you're telling me about? Oh, well, hey, well, this was actually not true. I don't know what it was, but you know what I think, although he can't do it. Yes. Yeah, well, I don't want to go into that one without a thought. And I really want true. I don't think we're going to get it by trouble. But yeah, we have to get it out of trouble.

We're alone over the summer, and it wasn't anything major. It was just kind of those days where he was wrong place, wrong time, and we're on a trial. Well, the judge down there, since in 30 days, the jail had to pay us fine. And we're fixed off the top right, just like we did at a hawks. And you know, we're like, well, don't they, you know, we got to have these kids get fired, and you know, we don't see the jail going on. So we ended up, the money paid fine, but he still out 30 days.

So the judge got our football fan. And we got him to consent to what he did. He was to come over to our band, and the kids could go to jail on the weekends. But if he, you know, they don't do nothing Friday, he could play on Friday night, but then he had no jail Friday night to get him to midnight. So we have to get him back from the bottle game on midnight. And if we play that on the aisle, you know, we got to spread out some bags of some regions.

Oh, we're going to just have to get him back here. So thank you. Yeah, thank you. They were there to go home the Sunday evening, you know, so he could, so he could come to the school on Sunday, but yeah, and then the big deal was, you know, if you ever have Saturday games, you know, you never have to work through a year. And you had to get that joke, you had to have special places to get him out on Saturday.

I was about to go, you know, to go play, so it was, so it was a guy that was, but it actually worked out pretty good. I think the kid ended up, got straight enough to LaVenny and didn't bring my up and sale. But that actually wanted to prove, that was another school that I would have had. It's the only school that I've talked about. I don't want to run by the game. Well, I know it was true where you had, you played a lot of Saturday games. We did. We did play a lot of Saturday games.

It was pretty fun. And this happened after I left Brooklyn. Coach Walburn had a kid that, I think he played night great when I was down there. So all the games, you know, he was basically playing through Thursday night, and we didn't dress in the best way right now. But a couple of years later, I got left. The kid of Cal worked his way to the start lineup, and they had some Saturday games in the lineup on the schedule, because, you know, we're in a region with those home schools.

They had like seven or eight school weekend schools in the region. They shared two days of the incident, the truth, we were sharing the grains, Cal away. So there's always like 20 Thursday games back then of most of Friday Saturday. And the Sunday, he was seven-day in Venice. That was his religion. So, I mean, his family was thrilled about, you know, that was their religion. They were serious about it. But they couldn't play all Saturday either. So it had to be, it was a big ordeal.

I remember Tommy Dellman, this was Coach Walburn's head coach, that he had to, I mean, he had a right of letter. He hadn't gone meet with the parents. He hadn't gone meet with the local chapter of the seven-day advantage. He hadn't gone meet with the head guy somewhere else. He hadn't got the president of the seven-day advantage. Or whatever it's called, the man who was on there. I don't know what he's saying. He's going to go, this was a challenge, just hit the board.

Opportunity to play, because you didn't want to start seven games where you're on Friday, and then find a back up three different times. You know, so, but they didn't have to play on Saturday. You know, so it was always something, you know what I mean? So, yeah, Tommy Dellman pulled off, but it was a, I thought it was always something that he could get you in the master, but Coach, he could go in there and talk to him. Talk to everybody, got to get what he needed.

But, yeah, he had to go through a big, big chaboo, had to write a letter, had to meet with, I don't know how many times he had to meet with somebody, but it was like, it's, you know, seven-day advantage. They don't do anything on Saturday, that's their religion. Saturday was the Sabbath, you know, for them. So, it was just a done deal that he couldn't play on Saturday. He couldn't come to school on Saturday. But, yeah, that's how it would take care of things. So, it was always a challenge.

I'm sure. Well, were you on Coach Wahlberg's staff? Were you on his staff that time? Y'all came out at halftime and couldn't find him? Oh, that was the year, I was actually, the year after I left. I left after the 2001 season, and he, this was in 02, they played at the playoffs, and played Thompson. And I had been Thompson a year, so I can't remember that your big race of a locker race, but I think they were underneath the home side, but they were on the safe side of the locker.

So, they went at a halftime, but this was your top in the warm-up state. I mean, that was loaded. And, the group was playing up pretty tough. You know, we had a lot of people that had to do things like seven and a half down, just filled a ball game, you know. They just big crowd there, you know, Thompson's like, you know, they're right line of warm-up state. But, the group's in there and they're playing up, you know, they're ball game.

They go into the locker room half time, and they go through the normal halftime deal. And, they got rid of it, they got a second half. They told me, he said, hey, here we go, get in his restroom. So, Tommy goes into his restroom, he's in there for a few minutes, and he comes to come out, and he's locked in. So, he's locked inside. So, I don't know if it was a stadium, security guy, somebody locked him in the locker room. Well, that joker couldn't get out.

And, he was trying to kind of get up, but the guy was shaking, figure out where he was at. He was trying to go from this place to that place. And, you know, they found him out on the top, and he was sitting on the cracker, when they finally caught him. But, this game had already been started. And, they go out for the third quarter, and they kick off, and he got to ball. But, truth starts marching up the field, and this is their best drive of the night. They get to report down the road.

So, they got to ball about the field, and Tommy, wherever he was at, I need the home side. The home side fans, they could see him under the fence. And, I recognize him as being the head coach, but they just started talking, talking, and they're going to be back to him. And, the game's already four, five minutes into the third quarter, and the ball makes him look back.

You know, and the group got to ball, and everybody was talking about this problem, and the defensive guy, he was trying to board on the back side of the ball, so he wasn't unusual. He might have got there. You know, he wasn't his ball, but he honestly, it's so he got down to 4,000, three, about four to four in midfield. So, they looked for Tommy, to figure out if they want to go or not, go far. Tommy ain't there. I was walking the locker room, but no one could realize it.

So, it was funny, because the man's brother, you know, they just made a call to Tommy. They called. They called. They called. Y'all got the ball, just four to five. Just four to five. And Tommy's like, you can hide it. And, Tommy, he was there. Tommy was there. And, Tommy was there, and he called. And, he was there. He was there. Hey, don't y'all going far? He was there going far. And, I think Carolina, I think Kyle's at his far back, and says, don't you share a line?

And, he wanted to just drill the truth, put him back in the line, and he's like, hey, Kyle, y'all did it. Hey, Kyle. They finally got by the locker room. He got Tommy out of the circle. He was 59, but unfortunately, I missed that one. That was the year after I left, but Tommy was always just fun. He was probably the guy that I would have the most stories about. The fit just got a thing, because he was just a. He was a funny guy himself. Anybody out there that goes, there's the rest of the world.

And, no, it's him. And, it was the way on. And, he's always been a rising party. And, that's the way, he's the sport that we need to get him on this show. But, he was, he was, he died when they talked about it. He's like, they're like jazz, still about there, 20 years. They're still playing them, you know. They're like, there's a group that's like, he's retired like that, since then, since then, but, that was when my coach, city-wide, he was like, you know, that's somebody's gonna make sport up.

That's gonna make it. Yeah, he's a good dude. He's always, he always, he always laughs about his stuff. He laughs at himself too. So, he didn't think that he said, now, I was playing, you're ripping him up solid, hey, Coach. He's all in. Hey, Coach. Yeah. I can see. Well, where were you when you left? Truth, where did you, is that when you went with a draw? I was like, I'm playing a little like they said, he got the other player.

And, you know, I never get toward Atlanta or Douglas County, where like, I know much about it. So, but I never got a whole seat. And Tommy, you know, we had a great office for that, for Stacey Carter's there. He, you know, just, I work out where I'm from, for Stacey. So, I wasn't really gonna move up the group, you know, anytime the near future. And I had interviewed for a little head coach at God, and I don't see, you know, I've been coaching for nine years.

You know, I had a win in the weight room, and I did the special team guide, and they kind of stood the truth. And I'll actually have this, this head coach title. So, you know, I want to be a head coach to that point in my career, but I've never really been overseas. And that's kind of rare. I've never been there before, that least I know. And so, I guess, I was at a job, and I was outside the win. And I didn't know much about Atlanta.

I know we had scrimmaged on a couple of times while I was in the crew. Like in 96, maybe 98, that's a good football player. That's good things there. What a generalized couple of years who have been built just down the road from them around that 98, 99 period, and it took a bunch of other players away. And we got Alexandria, man, it was a challenge. We just didn't have any kids. I knew Alexandria was a bad football situation at that time. I think it's kind of credit.

I think the school systems coming there, they built facilities, and they try to hook the coaches' pay. So, it's a lot better job now than it was in Amber. They actually went 15 years in a row while I went to the city. I like it, like from 98 to 2013. That was a good end job. I mean, there was really good jokes that you could go through there. Tim Baird, water safety, he was gonna hurt people there. He couldn't win there. His family followed up, Rich was gonna have a big seat.

Rich just went to the state to do the foul. He couldn't win there. We couldn't win there. I mean, the guy that came behind us, you know, the guy that came behind Rich, and his mama did the break down. He couldn't win there. He couldn't win there. So, you know, he was just a total tough, big place. But when we got out of Amber, the first spring practice, we were all driving up different places. You know, I was holding his back.

It was Baird, he was taking one of the guys there, in the Hurd County city. And, you know, it was the spring practice, he ended. Okay? We took all the stuff we had for the spring. Like, you know, I think it's like us who have a big family, and have a bunch of tires that you use to use. So, for a lineup. So, he put tires down. Like, they were working, you know, flanks and that kind of stuff. He put those tires down to fill it up.

And that was how the lineup, he would have a tire where it would paint up a one, a two, or a three, whether it was like head up, but, you know, inside the shoulder to go over, head up, go over, outside the shoulder. Well, Rich packed the tires up over outside the Bayrun. He got my six of them. And then I had a bunch of hoses that I used and off I went to the line. I had them rolled up real nice and deep. I'll put them over there outside the Bayrun.

So, when spring practice ended, we got through the spring like March, I mean like May the 19th or something. And then, we had like one more week of school, and we were gonna start to wait, wait, like two and a second or something like that. We'll come back two and a second, and all of our stuff's gone. And I'm like, what's going on? And what's all our stuff at? You know, we couldn't figure out what's going on.

And they said, we kind of investigated, found out, oh yeah, County Inspector came by, and he said, your tires and your hose, he said it was a haven from black, put us on spiders. So we're like, are you kidding me? I mean, this was what their mentality was. Like somebody came by there and didn't even realize we were actually using this. This was not trash, this was something that we used every day in Bryan. So, it was a challenge. I was in the end of the play.

I think we won five ball games in two years. I was probably five ball to have. I don't think we had enough players to beat anybody, but we had a good staff though. We had to really get coaches on that staff. Stephen Holmes, who was a Manchester, was the first year coach on that staff. Justin Brown, who went on to be a head coach at TRION, was a great runner at TRION. He was on that staff.

We had a really good group of coaches, Mike White and who played out towards the Southern, was Willis and great guys. Everybody got along good, but it was just a real non-competitive situation. It was like flip-off to them. And I liked those principles down there. We had good guys, but, and they were all former coaches. Which drove me crazy. They come in there on the third to what we were practicing. And, and, well, they, that kind of did it in chess, you know.

They come in there to drop a play and leave it on the board in the coach's office like it's something we'll see us run. And A.D. was the one that was doing it. Now this guy, he's just retired as a superintendent. I don't say what I'll say his name, but he didn't know our football. He's a good guy, but he drove his plays when we run. So I sit in our league head and I called him up the next day.

I said, hey Rob, I'll tell you what, but I said, next time you drop something when we run, just make sure we have 11 on the field, seven on the left screens. Cause I took 12 guys on the 40 group on offense. I think he had five on the left screen. So it was a challenge to play. But that was Andrew. It was a good experience. Cause I guess we were coordinator for the first time. So we, they weren't very good. We got there and it was just like a few years. We were an analog ball game.

Well, you left there and went, y'all went to VR after that. And they were Rick of seven years. And it worked with the white law too. And they robbed that kid. He comes to the job. Bill and Rick have, they had a lot of facilities there. They had a lot of money there, but they did care about football there. And our kids played hard and they worked hard and they ran. We had to put up things correctly. Which didn't really go to the home.

I mean, it was one of those days where we went six or eight games a year, eight games a year. They went, we never got past the first round. We got to be here there. We just, we were tough, we were always. Bill and Rick people were, they were supportive, good fans, but then, you know, there was this kind of fractured community. I think some of them like this coach better. Some of them like that coach better.

So one of those places that had some good athletes that had some good players, you know, they come through there and have some good teams that come through there. And I actually want to say championship in the 80s, but at that time it was in Blacksley, I was four, like 2011, I was there. It was just one of those days where we were competitive every year, we played hard, kids were, you know, well coached, we felt like, and did our will.

But we weren't going to overtake the top teams in triple A or four A at that time. We were just good enough to put the team on the field. But you have your staff there, and we had some great coaches, some of those coaches, some of those guys that I've been to, coaches. And, you know, I can start, I can name some guys, eight guys or another, that have been head coached and all done well as head coaches that came through there, you know, during that time period.

So, but you all was a fun experience, but it was a tough school day. That place was unique. Now it was, it was a situation where they would put 200 kids in that gym, and it'd be three teachers in there, and they'd give you a roster. You'd have 40 kids in team sports, and you may have 28 in personal fitness, and they were on your roster. The next teacher over here, he had two officers full of kids. We'd have two or three hundred kids in our gym. We call the gym the Thunder Don't.

Scott Peed, he came up with that name for it. He was our staff. You know, it was like, we just tried to hold them together and keep anything from happening, because it was like, you know, my rules in team sports, by then I come up with this thing, and my rules were no fussing, no cussing, no fighting, no stealing, no disrespect, keep your clothes on. That was the number one rule.

If you never know, you look on these bleachers, and they'd be somebody crawling up underneath there, and they're doing something they're supposed to. It's gonna get everybody in a world of trouble, so you had to be on guard at all times there. I can remember like, college coaches coming in recruiters, and Joe Phillips, some of them, he comes in at one time, and he looked around, and he says, I ain't used the word he used, but I'm just like, holy cow, how do you do this?

You know, and I said, I leave them, I said, okay, there's a method to the madness, but there's a madness to the method.

But Mike Nelson, the reconditioned guy, who worked with Rod Allen Shutt through all these years, he used to love to come by and see us, because it was like, it was like Little Oz Vegas in there, man, you'd be having a gambling, you'd be having a card game going over here, and there's kids over there, and there's $40 on the table, and they're over there, and the bleachers are just playing cards, or we had a kid one time coming through the gym, and I noticed he had the suitcase every day,

and I'm like, you know, he's got a kind of suitcase, he walks around with it, and it was one of those suitcases, you know, he had the handle you could pull out, and I looked up, and then in the final week or two later, you know, he's got the suitcase open, so I walked down there, and I heard him, he's making change, and this kid is selling that gum snacks and drinks out of his dad's gum suitcase, and he had this little compartment, like a little cooler, and this kid's like, I said,

we got him double cheese, I said, double cheese, I said, what are you doing?

He looked at me, he said, come to your place, he goes, dad is out of work just months, he goes, we just need a little help at the house, and I said, oh, cheese, have at it, but he was going to do it for me, I don't know what you gotta do, but he was selling drinks and snacks to kids, I guess he was going to the dollar general, and he turned out to sell it for a dollar at school, or two dollars or whatever, you know, just crazy stuff like agency, but we had a good place,

I mean, it was a good school, but it was a challenge, that was a tough work, like truth and glory, both those places were challenged, they were the worst. And you left from there and went to Perry? Went to Perry, and stayed down there two years at Stacey Harden, had two good years down there, end up leaving Perry to go to Trann, with Justin Brown, Justin, where it was that Bill Rick and Stacey had worked with the truth.

So I spent two at Perry, two at Trann, went back to Perry for two years, went with Carl Dixon, which I love Carl, he was been an assistant coach for like 38 years, and he ended up getting a head coach job, you know, kind of late in his career, but good guy, good football coach, and then go down there the first year and to be Carl gets cancer right there during that first season, and we were in a tough, tough region, I think we played four region champions,

the games two through five, everybody played one region, so our non-regions get brutal, and actually beat Makin' County, which we probably had no business beating them, but went two and eight that year, and then come back the next year, when I think forward six, and Carl got let go, which, you know, Kevin Smith came in behind us, and Kevin did a great job, and I had a chance to stay with Kevin, he asked me to stay, and they counted us up, but at that time I wanted to get a little bit closer

back to my home, where I was from, so, but Perry was a great school, great school system, had a lot of resources down there, good place, and the first time I was in Perry, we were good, we had some good, good teams, made playoffs, and always in a tough league, we had some players down there, and just the second time we come back, it had changed a little bit, we didn't quite have the same guys, and the schedule had gotten even more rugged, and it was a battle those two years,

but it was a good experience, so Perry, a lot of his new friends down there, I've talked with some guys from Perry in the last, that's day or two, you know, since they played in State Championship yesterday, and a couple of old fans that kind of hung around, and kind of been around that program forever, they keep in touch with me, and it was a principle I worked for, he called me last week, and Perry was a really, really good place,

I wish I probably would have spent a little more time down there, but it just didn't work out that way. How awesome was that for them to finally win one?

I mean, that was- Oh man, for the Perry people, yeah, I said for years, I said, Perry, I said, you know, the thing about Perry was this, the Perry kids didn't have a lot of confidence in themselves, and I really feel like at that time when I was there, they were almost beat down, because everybody around us was good, Warner Robbins was a traditional power, George Sey was a power, Peach County was their big rival, was a power, and then even outside of our area,

you know, like, Macon County had one State Championship, Hawkinsville had one State Championship, Dooley had played for the Championship a couple times, so it was almost like, every way you turned, everybody was good, and we were just kind of like, we were just fighting, and the Perry kids, we had some good athletes, but they just, I said, and I told somebody one time, I said, I think the average guy in Perry, I said, there were like three places that people worked at down there,

they worked at the Air Force Base, they worked at the Frito-Lay plant down in Kathleen, or they worked at Bluebird and Fort Valley, and I said, I think the average 35, 40 year old guy, Perry, he goes to work every Monday, he wants to brag about his school and his team, but he really has a hard time doing it, because this guy's more side, this guy's worse alongside him, he went to, you know, he went to Warner Robbins, this guy's Peach, and you know, even when I was down there the second time,

I was a Hokie, I was a Hokie, I was having their best teams in years, so everybody was good, and we were just kind of battling for what was left, but yeah, for Perry and Kevin, to do what they've done down there, I couldn't be more proud, I texted him today, I said, I think they did wonderful down there, and there's still a couple guys on that staff left that I know is pretty much turned over, but a lot of good people down there, a lot of good supporters,

and a good community, good place to live, you know, like I said, I could spend more time down there, but you know, I didn't get fired, didn't get cut loose, they just, I just told the coach, and I was one thing I did, is you know, I worked for 10 different head coaches, and I never stayed anywhere when we had a coach staff that turned over, because unless somebody on staff got the job, because to me, that new head coach, he needs an opportunity to bring in his guy, and even though I was never,

everybody I worked for, when they got let go, or when they took another job, when they went into administration, or when they retired, whatever reason, I never was asked to leave, but I always felt like, you know what, this guy may have somebody else he'd really have, and I had enough connections with coach, you know, I had enough friends and ties, I knew I could find another job, and so I always could land on my feet somewhere, but man, I was proud for a period, I really was,

that was a fun ride to see them, and watching them to the tune of it. Well, didn't you take a head coaching job for a day one time in South Georgia?

I did, and I was at Philadelphia, I went to Pelham and interviewed, this was in 2008, I believe it was, and I had been on some interviews, and I'd actually been offered a few other jobs before, but I liked them, by the idea of Pelham, you know, making some city school, and that was another, you know, area, well, there was good players down that area, I miss them at Pelham at that time, they were in that area, so I go down there and I interview, and I went down on Friday,

and I asked the guy that was interviewing me, I said, look, I said, they had a home basketball game at nine, I said, you mind if I stay, and watch the basketball game night, cause I spent the night in a little hotel anyhow, and he said, yeah, that's great, you know, and I said, okay, and I said, look, can I see the weight ring?

And they were in an old school that was like downtown, they wanted to go, they were building a new school, but they weren't gonna be ready for another year, so I knew where we were gonna be at that year, was gonna be right there where I was, you know, interviewed at, he said, wow, I don't have a key for it, he goes, our head coach, his coach's wrestling, and he's almost got a key for it, and they just let you go to the tournament, I'm like, ooh, this is kind of a red flag there,

so I wanted to at least see what it looked like, you know, and, but anyhow, I went out and interviewed on Friday, well, they told me, look, we're gonna make a decision, and let them by know something by next week, and I said, that's okay, that's fine, so I wasn't sure if I had a chance or not, but the guy called me back, like on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, he goes, Luke, the job's yours, he said, you interested, and I turned it down, I said, look, I appreciate it, but I really don't,

I said, you know, I'm sure y'all gonna find a good guy to set me up, and we kinda let it go with that, but he calls back on Friday, and he goes, hey man, he goes, look, I've been trying, but his sister principal's working all this out, I think the principal's about retired, so sister principal, I guess he was gonna be the next principal, he was trying to work already, he's playing going, and I appreciate it, that was, but he called me back on Friday, and he goes, hey man,

he goes, look, I got more money for you, and he said, I got my spot for the sister coach, and blah, blah, blah, he goes, this is gonna be, you know, this is gonna be a pretty old situation when we want you to come down here, and I said, Luke, I said, I said, and I was kind of torn, because I really wanted an opportunity, but I wasn't sure if this is the right one, or if there's, you know, they were like, oh, and 23, they lost like 23 in a row, so I knew it was gonna be a big time deal,

you know, it was gonna take at least two, three years, at least get it competitive, and go down, so he said, look, he goes, can you let me know something?

And he let me know something to date, I said, look, I said, let me kind of process this, so I hung up the phone, I said, I'll call you back to that name, so I hung up the phone, and we were leaving, go to Nike clinic, and I took the job, and I called him out back, about two hours later, I actually got my truck, and it rode around the way, and I thought, I just want to thank you, myself, you know, I kind of want to get away from the class, and the gym, and the white raven, and all,

so I didn't want to be around anybody, because I just kind of want to thank you, you know, for what I want to do here, this is kind of a big deal, and I think you know, talk about relocating, and that kind of stuff, and he goes, so I called him back, and I said, look, I'm gonna take the job, I said, I want it, he said, that's great, he goes, I'll tell you what, because I gotta go to a conference next week, on Monday and Tuesday, he said, I'll be back in town Wednesday,

he said, I'll call me back on Wednesday, he said, we'll get together, he said, I want you to come down here next week, and meet the superintendent, and I said, oh, that's fine, so by the time I got to the Nike clinic, word had already kind of leaked out, I'd taken the job, so I mean, I had like 10 people with Nike Clinic, congratulations on your job, done a lot of that, and I'd already talked to a couple coaches down there, they knew, and they had to send me some film,

that's before I turned it down the first time, and so the film was already in the mail, I got back on Sunday from the clinic, and I knew I didn't want that job at that point, but I had to get to it in there too, to figure it out, and I couldn't sleep, I was like, I don't know, I don't really want to do that, that's just not where I want to go, they got to, and they don't, they deserve to have a coach that wants to be there, so I ended up calling the guy back on Wednesday,

and turned it back down again, cause he got hot bad on that one, and I don't blame him, but bottom line is, they did better by getting somebody else, because I didn't really want that job, but it was an opportunity to be in coach, and I think the next year was like 2008, so the economy kind of busted, they ended up losing a bunch of those things, they promised me anyhow, sports financially and that kind of stuff, so it worked out better, yeah.

I told everybody, I said, I was the head coach, four days, and Pelham, I said, I'm the only coach that's undefeated in school history, never gave up the point, so, Pelham has done well down there, I think they've got a good program in there now, but I just, I didn't feel like I was gonna be right fit down there, so, that's not what happened.

Well, I only asked that question to set up the Price Jones story, because I know Price Jones had success in Pelham, that's right, he did, he's the last guy before that end of the world, and you must tell everyone, the Price Jones story. I got a friend of mine, Tony Graziano, if I know he's been rocked, he lives down in Columbus, down in Chattano, and rockin' Price was buddies, this boy I knew either one of them, but rockin' was coaching at Madison, not like, what's the, Morgan County.

Morgan County, Madison, Georgia, he was coaching at Morgan, I think Price had been at it with him, but anyhow, they were buddies, and they worked together, and that kind of stuff, so, rock's telling me this story later on, and I think Price might have been up in Athens, or something, I'm not sure where he was at, but they talked to each other on the phone, they said, hey, I'm gonna be up in Athens Saturday, and Rock was like, hey, yeah, I'm going up there, Christmas shopping,

or this, that, and the other, so, he ended up, he goes, well, we're gonna go to eat together, and he says, ah, let me get that, so let's do that Saturday, let's kind of plan on, so, when they got ready to go eat, they said, hey, let's go meet by that, you know, Price told Rock, he goes, let's meet by that Mexican restaurant, over there by the Tessara store, and Rock's like, the what?

And he goes, the Tessara store, you know, where I'm talking about Atlanta, Ohio, well, there, there by such, such, such, such, and Rock didn't have a clue what Price stopped by, he says, Tessara, he goes, what,

what are you talking about? He goes, he goes, yeah, the Tessara store, and Rock said, well, spell it for me, and he goes, and he spelled out Toys R Us, that was the name of the store, and he goes, I want to go use the names, because I didn't really know Price that well, I didn't know he was getting to him later, great guy, great coach, but he wasn't much of a shopper, I don't know what to say, but the Tessara store is on the, children's, children's toys, because they kept calling it Tessara,

Tessara, Tessara, that's the Toys R Us price, we talked about it, so, I don't know if they ever got together or not, but anyhow, yeah, the Tessara store, that was the funny one, so, yeah, that was the, that was the, you were trying to tell me the other day, that's the story about, and I'd never heard it, you never told me about it, the two kids on the ambulance.

Oh yeah, that happened, that happened in truth, that was actually right before he got down there, they played like Riverdale in a home game, and I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you another story too, after that, it's pretty good by that, they played Riverdale, and it was the quarterback for truth, they put him in the game on defense, right at the end of the half, I guess they were like pre-vamp or something, so, Riverdale gets the kid, he gets hurt on that play, last play of the half,

I think it was, I'll say, well, the ambulance comes out and checks on the kid, well, the true quarterback was on the field, still on the field, so the team goes in the locker room, they had time, and when the guys are out there, they're tending to the kid from Riverdale, the true quarterback walked over there too, and goes, hey, dog, he goes, I got hurt with shoulder that last play, and when I got tacked, and he goes, well, you look at it, and the doctor looked at him,

and they're putting the kid from Riverdale on the ambulance, to take him to the hospital, and the doctor looks at him, and goes, hey, you just go on getting the ambulance, we'll take the hospital, so this was the starting quarterback, and the coaches are going to the locker room, perhaps I went on the players, and they started the quarterback, they just dinged his shoulder, gets in the ambulance with the kid from Riverdale, who's got apparently a pretty significant injury,

so they hauled off to the hospital in LaGrange, and the truth goes in the locker room, in the old Calaway Stadium locker room down there, it was small, so you can only put just so many kids in there, so I think they brought the defense in there first, and the defensive coaches were going over there, you know, they're second half of justice, so then by halfway through the halftime, they come out, and the offensive coaches go in, but the offensive coach, the coordinator, he jumps up on the board,

he immediately starts drawing something, and he starts talking to Tony, he goes, Tony, make sure that we're in this for a while, he said, none of the, he goes, now they got too high, we're gonna do this, got one high, and he's mentioned, he said, Tony, now where you at?

And the kids looked at the rest, Coach Tony got in the ambulance without walking Riverdale, so the coaches are in sitting there, it's about six or seven minutes before the end of the halftime, they gotta go off in the third quarter, and the starting quarterbacks rode into the ambulance with the kid from Riverdale, the guy heard, so it was like the end of the third quarter, the fourth quarter, when they finally got the kid back to the stadium, the two of them got there to play,

so I mean, kids would do stuff like that, but the doctor just looked at him, they said, just let me say, yeah, two on the ambulance, we'll catch you when you get the hospital. He said, I did. And I just like, what the kid did, so he didn't want to talk to me, so it didn't really fault him, but yeah, I think the truth, truth coach, they were going nuts on the Allen, so, and I tell you, I know when they told me down there, when I got down there, it was pretty good.

They had a Saturday game of a Terris Stadium, I think it was actually Riverdale again, what I'm saying, this is another year, and they played up a Terris Stadium, and it was a Saturday game, well, the truth, the biggest deal in truth was getting all the kids there, because we had like 75% of your team that lived eight to 12 miles away from the school, they were scattered all over the South of that county, so they used to run these buses down to West Point, and they had these pickup points,

they'd go to the church, they'd go to the rec park, and they'd go out there in front of the house authority place, they'd pick up all these kids, and they would get them on a bus, and they'd bring them back to school, they did that year round, 12 months a year, they did that for every sport, I mean, that was part of the agreement when they shared our West Point school, and the merged truth was they'd run these activity buses, well, they had a new bus driver that day,

the guy was subbing for the main driver, and the guy was supposed to pick up like at 2.30, well, he shows up at 2, not 2.30, well, they only like two or three kids were even there, and there's like 30 kids supposed to ride this bus, and this was like nine of the defense's starters, and about five of the office's starters supposed to be on this bus, well, the guy that drives the bus, he gets there at 2, well, he picks up three or four kids, he thinks that's his load,

so he just takes them back to the school, well, when he gets back to the school, all the coaches, you know how it is, you got a Saturday game too, you know, they're fixing to go to a pre-game meal, and they're kind of getting around, and they're getting all the things together, you know, this kind of stuff, because they're going on the roads, they gotta get all the bags packed and everything, they're leaving like at 4.30 or 4.00 to go to Terrestate, and maybe 7.00, and they look up, they said,

where's everybody at? They said, and the guy goes, this was all that was on the bus, he goes, what do you mean, that's all that was on the bus, and the guy, and they looked at the watch, and they realized the guy went down there early, and the other kids were there, so all the kids showed up after the bus had left, and then they hung around, and she got frustrated, and they all just left, so now the kids have all gone back home, and walked back home, and rode the bike back home,

they all left, and then we got a Saturday night game, we're leaving in less than an hour, and we don't have any players, all the kids are having golf scattered, so the coaches, you know, they're in panic mode now, it's a sense of urgency, so they all jump in their vehicles, and they just go run down to West Point, which is like 12 miles away, you know, in the interstate, probably breaking every, you know, while they can to get down there, you know, speed limit-wise,

and they get down there, and, you know, they find this kid, find that kid, they can't find this kid, so they're scattered all over the place, well, down there in a little project area over there, that's where a lot of those kids live, so the one coach kind of knew that area real good, he just parked his vehicle and started walking, because he knew, we all knew when I coached that, well, you know, which little apartment they all lived in, you know, we'd been taking those kids home so many times,

well, he goes down in this little back alley corner where people used to kind of congregate sometimes, and there's about six guys over there in this corner, over there in this little alley, and he recognizes his linebacker's over there, this kid's like 230 linebacker, he's a stud, and he walks over and when he, and the kid's name was Babboose, he came to, you know, he's a dog, and this guy was the house for the defense, and Babboose's got two dice in his hand, and about $200 in his hand,

one hand he got two of them, about 200 bucks in the other hand, and he's gambling, he's on the road, and the coach goes, Babboose, we gotta go, since this is Riverdale, we gotta go on the road, he goes, coach, you go have to wait for a little bit, because I'm on the road right now, so he's throwing dice and winning money, he's like, Babboose, we gotta go, he's trying to tell the kid how to go, and you know what I mean?

We gotta go, so this is one of those days where, I don't know, and they actually, when I ate two of that, that was one of the guys, they lost, I think they probably should have won that one, but they couldn't find half the damn go team when the bus driver messed up.

This is the kind of stuff that the normal person that sits in the stands on Friday night, pays eight dollars for a ticket, they have no clue you're going through all this during the week, you know, try to just round up kids and get them there.

Well, some of my favorite times after I left Carroll County, because I remember you used to bring in, you still took the LaGrange Daily Times, the actual paper, and you used to read the police blotter to me, and we would just get tickled with the level of writing, and the way the guy said whatever, you know, two women got into a fight out in the Dollar General parking lot, and she was beat about the face and neck, or whatever.

They would beat repeatedly about the face and head, that was their favorite line. One thing about the Grays, George, now people don't have a fight down there. I mean, like, they were not afraid to throw hands down there. Probably why they're so good at football. Well, that's probably true. That was what they bought, you know, by kids down there, they knew how to fight. We never had to worry about kids being physical. They could all run, and they didn't mind striking it.

That sometimes getting them to play together was a challenge, but that other part, you don't have to worry about you. You know, we had a corn one year that was a really good player on our dunk team, and he got into some trouble, some kind of domestic deal, and that whole season, we played us in 2001. That whole year, we had to go offense first on Monday's and Wednesday's, because he had 10-angle management classes.

So, I mean, that was one corner, another corner led to recent interceptions, and that joke we made like 420 on the SAT. Great little player, and took the SAT and made 420. They gave you 400 points for signing up, but the thing about it was the kid was actually an intelligent kid.

I just don't think he knew how to task him, and anyhow, he ended up getting in college, played four years, played two years, I think, at a Jukko, then two more years, and decided we were going to end up playing at a Canadian League for about three years, but we had one corner that was anger management, the other corner was a 420, and then the free safety, who ended up playing major cost football, we had a kid, I mean, the first day of practice, he didn't show up,

and this kid ain't missed a workout or a practice in three years, and he's not there. He's the only kid we had to play both ways that year. He was our faculty tell about in our start of the free safety, and he's stuck now. This was his junior year. He ain't missed a day in the first two years he was there. He's not there. And it's like August 1st, the first day, you know how everybody's geeked up the first day, but he's not there. So, second day didn't show up.

So, we're calling him, we can't find him, talk to mama. Mama's like, Coach, how are we? He's there, this is Joker, he's sorry. I tell you what he's doing, I don't know what he's doing, but anyhow, we go down there and find out. He's been shocked up with some 28-year-old woman, about a mile from where he lived, and she doesn't, you know, got hold of him, and he's like, this is the whole lot that's going on here, this is the second-court guy, and he's a lot better than football right now.

So, you know, and we've had no other instances of that. I know when I coached wrestling, it's true. This is a good one, I don't know if I've touched that, but I was an assistant wrestling coach, and our wrestling program was like nine times state champions. The coach was a character now. I mean, he never met anybody like him. He was a lot of type A personality, would bend and break and circle in every role. He didn't mind doing it. But we had wrestling over Christmas holidays.

We were probably having a tournament, and we go to this big two-day tournament, they got it, McIntosh, December 22nd, 23rd. So it was right before the holiday, and we took the team up there, we competed, we came back, dropped everybody off, you know, we'll see, I think we're gonna meet back on the 26th. So he won't give them the next two days off. Well, we had two kids that showed up, and I didn't know beans about wrestling.

I mean, he had a legitimate assistant coach at the wrestling farm, and coached him for a while. So he had, he didn't need me, only he needed me for was to make sure the football players were there. And that was my job, make sure the football guys were there. And I could kind of coach the heavyweights a little bit because they were all in alignment. And that guy, two kids that showed. So he's perturbed, though, because that's kind of my job to make sure they were there.

So I try to call them, they can't get hold of them, get anybody to answer the phone. So the next day, they don't show back in again. So he's like, go down there and find him. Well, I said, I'm gonna call him around one more time. So I called, I called the Lewitti grandmother. So I called grandma and I said, I said, ma'am, I said, this is Coach Thoreau at the high school. I said, I hadn't seen, and I'm gonna use her name, I'm gonna use her name, but I said, I hadn't seen dogs.

These two kids, the last couple of days of practice, and we just tried to check on them, make sure they okay. And she goes, oh, coach, don't worry about it. The boys are doing good. And it was that, in principle, I was like in the 90s, we had like a record coach, they got over like 30 degrees the whole week. I mean, it was like the low would be 14 every day, and I'd be like 28, it was brutal. And I said, ma'am, I said, I said, where are they at? She goes, oh, they up there at a hotel in Atlanta.

The rest of the team went to the tournament and they got the bus locked up, as we just said, the bus locked up and they couldn't get back, but the schools got them at a hotel and they feed them and the boys are fine, they're gonna be home in a few days. And I'm like, wait a minute, I was on that same bus and we got back fine. And I know they got off the bus, it's all in the left. Well, same thing.

Go investigate down there, them jokers done found them a couple 30 year old gals down there and they were just enjoying life. You know what I mean? It was always, so, you know, we had the same thing with Billarick at one time. Kid goes missing for about three days and not grateful about playing. They had a bunch of foreclosed houses over there around the old school.

Now they're pulling those houses down now, but I think he got off the bus one day and instead of taking a right, going toward the school building, he took a left and went toward those foreclosed houses. We missed him for about a week. He was some gal down there that I didn't call home. So you got about a lot of, there's a lot of things you got to balance some of these places.

That was, those were interesting, interesting conversations, but Grandma didn't have a clue, that's for hard, but the boys had done, they didn't convince her that they're fine, they're getting fed and the schools got them to take care of and they'll be home soon as the weather breaks. I think get them a new bus. There you go. I mean, fair enough. Yeah, so, and I never talked about it to Grandma as more like, I just told her, she's gotta get some practice, let's go. We got that.

You know what I mean? You can't really get totally mad at the kid. You can't act like you're mad at him, but really true, like, you know, I get what you're telling him from, you know what I mean? So it was always funny.

That old wrestling coach we had, he was a recruiter too now, and always, and when they hosted the Olympics in Atlanta in 96, the South African Olympic team, used to come out of practice at the Olympic, or the practice facility, true, for wrestling, and they were housed in the middle of the Grange College, so they were practicing there for like four, five months. Well, he got to know all those international coaches for the South African team.

Well, then a little behold, about three, four years later, we got to see foreign exchange students from South Africa, and apparently they were like, you know, younger kids then, I don't know how they connected with these coaches, but they had rolled in our scope. And like, these guys aren't ranked number one in the state of Georgia. These guys aren't ranked number one in the world.

I mean, they're like 100, and it was like 170 pounds, that was like 152 or something, but I mean, they're just drilling people. Nobody can even come close to those guys. So their junior year, they both go undefeated, team wins the state, the whole nine yards.

And then the next year, of course, foreign exchange students, I don't know what the rule is now, but the rule is you're going to ask you, is you got one year and you're eligible, and then you can't go beyond one year with us, but with the foreign exchange. So they show up to school in August the next year. And I asked the coaches, I said, I thought they couldn't wrestle this year. I said, I don't worry about it. I'm gonna get to take care of them, get a fish, so.

I said, what are you talking about? I said, I went to high school. I said, everybody knows that rule, Darrell said, how are you gonna do this? You know, I don't worry about it. I'm like, I'll take care of it. That joker, he either knew somebody that had a rental property or he had some rental property, but he knew somebody was a traitor. He got those jokers lined up, and they were like two girls.

They were like in their 20s, and these little, just 20 young women, and they agreed to marry these kids. They were gonna marry these two high school seniors, South African kids, so that they could become American citizens. And then under the white book, towards the high school, they would have to recognize them as, you know, they were not gonna fall under the foreign exchange deal. Now they were gonna be US citizens. He's gonna marry these girls, line up to get married.

They're like, what do you mean you gonna do that? And he goes, how do I worry about it? He goes, we'll get them an old and March after season. He goes, so, I mean, he would do it. I don't, that kind of blew up in his face. I don't think that ever worked out, but he actually had two of these girls that he probably taught at school that were just got a, you know, young women. They were just looking to have some fun. They're gonna marry them, because they were both actually kids.

They were both old and poor. And one of them probably like a male model, you know, he's like one of those guys, like Tom Brady, you know. And so they didn't have on shorts of girls that were clamored after them guys, anyhow, can win. So he had two grown women that were gonna marry them, they were gonna move in Australia. And they were all gonna live together and have a big time. They were gonna get them through the wrestling season. I was like, no man, I don't think that's gonna work.

No. But he wouldn't do anything, he couldn't win a match. That's for sure. There was no rule. He wouldn't buy and break it. I promise you, he couldn't win. But yeah, true, definitely used an interesting place. So after your second standing parry, you went back to Mount Zion, Carrollton, and to finish off your career. Yeah, I had moved, you know, like four times seven years that point. I said, I'm not going in, this is it for me. Because you know, gotta remember, I got late starting coaching.

So I mean, I was already in my, it's like 53 then. It's like seven years ago. So I wanted to finish up in one place and Brad Gordon just got hit coaching at Mount Zion. He had been to DC. And if somebody would have told me in 2011 that when I left the league, I was gonna come back and finish at Mount Zion. I said, they ain't no way. Cause Mount Zion was a football, you know, it was a football, you know, it was a door map. It was a pretty bad program.

It just never had really been very consistent, but it just was a tough, tough place. But they had come in there building these schools and they had got a coach of staff coming in and really worked at it hard. I think the prior coaches worked hard too. They did a good job, they just didn't have much to work with. They came in and kind of got that room resurrected and had some good years. So Brad was the DC then. And then he got the head coach job to that 17. And I've been here ever since.

So you saw us play down at a Clans one night. I think you were in early then, y'all drove on and watched us play in semi finals that year. So that was an interesting team. We had that year too. We had some characters on that team, but we had some good football players. That was the kid, that was the team I told you about. We had the kid that was the center for me. And real tenacious, little gritty little kid, but his mom was the principal and the kid was brilliant.

He was smart, valedictorian, but he was autistic. And coaching him was different. And a great kid and also, I mean, just wonderful family, great people, but coaching him was a challenge. And he was full blown autistic. So when he would have a moment, he'd have a moment now. And we were practicing one day and his granddaddy, we used to go out and watch practice all the time. And his stadium's named after him. He was a former coach there in the 70s. He was a schoolboy, man for like 20 years.

And we're in the middle of practice one day. And he was argumentative. Cause you know, that's part of his autism was, you know, he was, he would ask a lot of questions. I would say he's argumentative, but he always wanted to ask a lot of questions. And you know, in a group period, coach office line, you got 15 minutes, maybe 20 if you're lucky, fundamentals and all. And you're trying to get all this stuff in and he wanna stop and ask you questions.

And, you know, we'd already been on this a thousand times. So we brawn it, we walked it, we talked it, you know, put it on the board, everything, you know, handouts every week, you know, so the rules like change, you know what I mean? But, you know, him being in his state of mind, it was just, you know, it was just different. And we're out discriminating one day or actually doing team offense. And the D scout team lined up wrong or something.

And whatever we were told to play before, I had to go tell them, I said, go block back side, you know, and it would blow his mind. Because anytime he had to have to make a change like that, he won the line. And right in the middle of the play, like the play kind of broke off, it was a big run. And right as the back broke through the line, he turned around to me and he had just, he wanted to, he wanted to go out, he wanted to fight. And he goes, Coach, that makes no sense at all.

And I just went off on the thing, you know, I didn't, I didn't really curse you, but I said, damn it, Cade, I said, I was coaching under George Dome when you were shitting yellow in your diaper. So I said, don't you ever question me. I said, get your fuck back, you're all a huddle. And he looked at me and said, all right, Coach, you know, he was gonna do, he was gonna do, he was gonna ask me to do, he wanted to know why he had to do it.

And that was just him, you know, a great, great kid, he was a pretty little kid, but, and he'd never really played before. He'd been in a program, but he'd never really played, but he was a child to get him going. Sometimes we would have an eight hour coach to meet on Sunday and four hours over to meet him, to make sure that he was getting out. Because like I said, he was a struggle for him.

Football wise, he's already got a cost three, he's gonna do well alive, but football ain't gonna be anything. You've seen that before, you got kids that are, you know, they can be a valet tour and the football wise sometimes they struggle. And then you got kids that they can pick up football, easy, but then they get to classroom and, you know, they struggle. So that just wasn't his element, but he ended up doing a good job for us.

We had a great year that year, you know, but that was the fun, the funny kid on that team. He was always, we got a lineman camp the next year after he graduated and our kids, for whatever reason, they got kind of credit up with Grayson. And Grayson, you know, Honey Cubs coached there Christian and they were power, you know, still all right. He had all these, you know, power five guys or his office life. And all I had was a bunch of dirt dollars from my life.

We had some pretty little kids, they loved our kids, Grayson kids, one of those kids of my life. And they were like two different cultures. We like, my design kids were mostly rural, poor, kind of, you know, you know, I mean, just, you know, kids that were just, you know, you know, it was a challenge for them. And the Grayson kids, you know, you kind of got depressed and they were probably pretty well to do. They lived in good home.

We had a two or three, you know, cars and rods, mom and dad were both educated and they had education. They had degrees. And this one kid, he's playing for Michigan now. He started right after the Big Ten Championship game. He comes over to me, he goes, hey coach, he goes, where's your center at? And I said, I said, his name was Trent Jones. I said, Trent, I said, where's your center at? And he said, I thought he was coming back. He goes, man, we were talking about him on the way down here.

So he was a great kid. I mean, he had a personality everybody kind of liked. But he was so smart. It was hard to really coach him, you know what I mean? Cause he was so smart. I mean, just way smarter than I am. I promise you that. Well, I'm glad you said that about, about those kids at Lyman camp. Cause I know you were a staple at Hodges's. Coach Hodges is Lyman camp. And just the way things have changed since you got in it, in the coaching profession.

And, you know, I know coach Rhett Parsons and a couple of other guys tried, they're trying to start a Lyman camp to get, get something going again, like what coach Hodges had. But I know you were a regular at coach Hodges's camp. I was. And I was at the, I was at the game, got one down at Georgia Southern, I was at Ferrell last summer. I didn't know about that one until after I've already kind of committed to go who wanted to check on, and Lance Held and Rhett put that one on.

But, you know, what coach Hodges did was special, man. It was unbelievable. And you know, he ran a quarterback receiver camp a week before that. And they would have 275 throughout the kids and quarterback receiver camp. With the Lyman camp, that was kind of coach Hodges favorite. Now I think he had 400 plus kids, I don't know how many years in a row, probably 20 years running. And they started that camp when he was coaching the Southern in the early nineties.

And it ran all the way to COVID year. And then since COVID, you know, it's kind of shut down. And I think he was getting close to the end anyhow. I was hoping that I could get through my career with him still doing it, but you know, just missed going to that. But no, I took seven different schools to coach Hodges camp and enjoyed it every time. I mean, the great coaches down there, kids got a ton of work. You couldn't ask for more. And it was four nights.

I mean, they really got a chance to bond together. It was a group with the coaching and the reps they got, the tempo and the pace. And you know, you couldn't beat it. He asked me a couple of times early in my career, if I wanted to work camp. And you know, I'd already just worked into three camps in the summer. And I said, coach, I said, I'll be honest with you. I said, I like to man watch this camp. I said, because there's so much you all teach. You're like 21 stations to rotate out.

They go seven stations per practice. And they had like 12, 15 minute period each one. So they hit on everything. No matter why I've been here, you can benefit from not going to his camp. It was so fundamental base and pass game, run game, the whole nine yards. So I mean, you think about it, every offense has a double team. Every offense is going to have a scoop blog. And every offense is going to have to buy a linebacker. Every offense has got to reach what now block.

So all that stuff that he was teaching, it helped me as a coach. I know those first five or six years I went in there, heck, I took a note that we sort of like stuff down. Coaches would say stuff and I said, they'd be teaching the same way I was teaching. But maybe that coach is the one I thought resonated with that kid a little better. So I would try to just learn everything I could when I went down there. And it was just, that was great experience.

I think I went, coach, I used to always kind of teach because I'd been down there. I think he asked me before they to tell him, I think I spent 22 summers down there with him. Oh, if I'm not mistaken, I think the first couple of years were towards Southern and after that moved to Middle Georgia. It was in Cochrane. I think I told everybody, I used to tell them about vacation, you know, Spive was a Cochrane Georgia. I don't go to Florida, I don't go to Hawaii, I go to Cochrane.

And they stayed in the Royal Inn Hotel. At the Royal Inn. Well, the Royal Inn and then we graduated to the Cochrane Inn, I think it was. Yeah, the Royal Inn hosted us for a long time. And that's one thing that I think young coaches, these youngings need to understand is, you know, they say old dog can't learn new tricks.

But I know for a fact that you spent 22 years at that and you still up until, I don't imagine you'll go this year, but you've been going to Coach Roger Holmes' Wing T clinic every year. I've been to Coach Holmes' clinic probably. I think he started that around 0708. So he's probably 15 years running. I think I missed a year or two when I was still coaching track. He was doing it in mid-April when he started it and they kind of moved into March a few years ago.

Well, after about three or four years, they moved into March, which made it a lot easier for me. So I've been to Coach Holmes' clinic probably 12, 13 times out of 15 years probably. Because he put on a great clinic and I was always kind of involved with Wing T, most schools I've been at. So what he did was, he did a great job with that too. That's one of those things. And, you know, I always liked the clinic. I used to go to Nike and Glacier every year.

And you just make a lot of contacts there too. I think young coaches, you're right. I think they missed out on some of that. I think some of them missed out on, they started just to put them all for us to come where I'd report. And it kind of all goes together, the fellowship of it and that kind of stuff. And you just make a lot of contacts too. I can't tell you how many places I've been offered jobs and throughout the years.

I mean, I sit there one day and I can remember this family watching Griffin play Carrollton at the George Donnellford State Championship. I sit there about the third quarter and it was a great game back forward. And I just realized one thing. I said, I was offered coordinator to all both these schools and the guy sitting next to me, like Andy Scott sitting next to me says, you're a real dumbass. You're a real dumbass. Andy doesn't touch. You're a dumbass. You know, he can hurt you.

Yeah, Andy does it, cuss and you don't drink. Yeah, he goes, I hear you're a dumbass. Yeah, how do I hang around? How do y'all let me hang around with y'all? You don't drink, you don't cuss, and I do both. I think I counted one time and I hate to say this, but probably embarrassed to say this, but yeah, I counted a lot of schools. I was actually offered an opportunity to go work, but you know, I don't loyalty to somebody or I just like being in those rebuild places.

That's kind of where I spent most of my career in a builder or rebuild, but yeah, I can't lie. I'd like to go, I'd like to go be playing right now, like I built the walls right right here on my TV, but it was a great ride. I had 30 years, I made a ton of friends and coached a lot of good kids, great relationships.

I was getting texts the other night when Manchester was playing violin because both of those coaches I worked with and Stephen Holmes played for me and I'm getting texts from our old Villarico players like coach, you watch the game, coach Holmes is on TV. You know, like that stuff, you know what I mean? That's priceless, that kind of stuff.

I got phone calls, kids were true, but you know, I had kids trying to keep up with me and after all these years, you know, Perry, there's a couple kids in Perry that reach out to me and you know, I got even Temple, you know, like I said, that's where I took Tom's head. There's some guys here locally that played for me at Temple. I bump into him at a restaurant or something and it's all worth it. I mean, I think I did, I realized about year 10 what this job really entailed.

And I thought my first 10 years of coaching, it was all about winning the state championship and trying to come head coach. I thought that was the only goal. And when I went to Alexandria, you know, I told you those two years were pretty rough. And we had established a good program through those last three or four years. So, and I feel like we kind of laid the foundation for what they've done now, right now, because they've remained pretty good through the last 25 years.

But, you know, when I went out of Zander, that's my first OC job, I feel like I flopped, you know, I mean, I feel like, hey, I've kind of played a little of this one, well, it was really not the coaches as much as we just didn't have the players. But I go down and watch Trudy play a playoff game a couple years after that. I went out in Zander and it was my last year on Zander and they lost believe it here.

And I go down and watch the play, there's a kid, the plate for me, he said the game and he's in his army fatigue, he graduated like three or four years before like in 2001, this was like 2003 game. And I hadn't seen him in a couple of years. We hugged, we talked a little bit, and we just kind of carried on, just talking to him. We hadn't seen somebody in two or three years. And we're sitting there watching the game about third quarter, he was coaching. He'd already done a tour in Afghanistan.

And he told me he was on call to go back. He said, I'm gonna go again, it's just a matter of win. And by the fact, he left that night before the game was over because he got a call to report back to Ben. That's where he was stationed there. Somebody gave him permission to go to the game. And he told me, he goes, he goes, coach, he goes, I want you to know something. And I said, what's that, I said, what's that big man? He goes up, he goes, you know, I got a desert out there.

He said, I put it lonely, he said, I think it's lonely out there, so I took him to the match. I can't even imagine. He goes, I carry three pictures with me. And I said, really? I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, I got a picture, the name's little girlfriend, high school, and the chest goes her name. And he said, I got a picture of Joe. That was his best friend that played left guard. He played center, no kid by left guard. They were best friends. He said, I got you a picture.

And this guy is carrying a picture in Afghanistan. And he's fighting for your country, and he's got your picture in the pocket. So at that moment in time, Donnie Branch, he was the biggest four-head of the Grangs, was standing next to me. And he overheard that conversation. Donnie looked at him, made one of the kid left, he goes, dang DT's, that's good stuff right there. So you just don't know as a coach what kind of impact you're gonna have on kid.

Cause I didn't really do anything differently for that kid. I've been close to kids like coach. But whatever the message was, he got it. You know what I mean? And he was pretty sure of it still. I can't remember him coming to watch me play at Little Rooka. When I was coaching at Little Rooka, six, seven years after he graduated, he couldn't watch his play. So, you know, you don't know as a coach what kind of real impact you have on a kid whether it's good or bad. And that would hit me.

But that changed that conversation with that kid. Cause I basically, I was feeling sorry for myself. I was really kind of like being a loser cause I just felt sorry for myself. Hey, I should have left. Here they are playing back in the quarterfinals. And I hope they're coaching them two and 18. I could stay right here and we'd still be winning. And when he told me that, I'm like, okay, this, I'm gonna be okay. This business is way more than two than I thought.

And I knew that, but I kind of got mad. So when I had that conversation with him, I'm like, hey, this is, I'm gonna be okay. Next job, I'll be fine. You know, but I realized then, the Penn State champion was great. Being a head coach was great. But it wasn't the end, I'll be all. You can still be successful and I'll be those things. So, yeah, I ended up settling into some major rebuild programs for most of my career. I told somebody, I said, I'm just adjourning when I was in line coach.

I said, I probably had more six of four teams than anybody in the history of the state of Georgia. You know, first round playoff losses and anybody in the state of Georgia, you know what I mean? We were always decent, always competitive. Most places I've been, it's never great. But yeah, I had a chance to get us really good places. I just kind of, for whatever reason, time and loyalty or didn't want to relocate or whatever. I just didn't always jump on it. But it was a great ride.

I mean, this is 30 years I've had. It's been, I couldn't imagine doing anything else the last 30 years. It has been a lesson. We are gonna miss you. The children are gonna miss you. I mean, you ain't going nowhere because we're gonna keep doing this. And we always joke. Most people don't know this, but we talk about once a week.

And you know, we've always joked and said when I finally retire, because I got to catch up, that me and you were gonna go do radio shows and call obscure high school games like Sturkey Equipment versus Central Talboton. Let's go find a game nobody else is gonna wanna go to. Yeah, that nobody's gonna go to, that the kids don't ever get recognized, that nobody, they don't have their own radio crew. We'll get rocked to be one sideline reporter and coach Walburn to be the other sideline reporter.

And we'll have a large time. Hang on now. Hang on for a minute. I can remember going out watching Albany High School. This was the last year I was a team down there. Last year I was a school scout. Then one night I played Daughter in. And Albany had like 26 players. And Daughter might have had 35. They didn't have many either. And it was a great game, there were both teams on the fight and the battle.

But I was sitting there thinking, you know, these kids are, they're laying it on the line out here. And they're not getting, nobody's, you know, they want to be a handful of people in stands. I'm like, really, these kids serve better than what they're getting. Cause they're putting it out right now. And you're in a place to challenge, challenge the school, you know, with that kind of stuff. But it was just a, I just remember thinking about, you know, those kids, they deserve credit.

It was like these kids from Walden Milton's, well, Walden Milton's playing right now. Somebody's got to coach them guys, you know what I mean? And if you look over there, once again, it's got four coaches and 28 kids. They're playing trip like Wally football, you know, you know, it's tough. So, but I mean, I hadn't been in a place like that. I've been in places where we were decent, you know, we were always competitive, but I hadn't been in those places where we reeled off.

I told somebody, I said, you know, Tommy Walburn was the truth for five years of head coach. I think he won 45 games. And I said, nobody remembers that. I said, cause that was the same five years. LaGrange was 66-30. So it's kind of like Tommy told me one day, he said, DT, the thing about you is you always coached at the other school. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, you were treating those LaGrange.

He goes, when you were at Lillarick, they was caroling, he goes, and when you were at Perry, there was Peach. You know what I mean? He goes, now you're in mouth nine, you're spouting, you know what I'm saying? Because it hadn't changed for you. And now it really hasn't, you know what I mean? But it's okay, you know what I mean? But that one conversation with that kid, that kind of changed my perspective on it. And like I said, it didn't mean that we weren't any less.

And we still busted our butt in the weight room all season, and try to put all the time in, he's supposed to, but hey, at the end of the day, it's all about those children right there. And those kids on the table with the shoulder pads, and it ain't about me. You know what I mean? And some of these coaches, we get out of the, you know, you get the Twitter coaches, and the street agents, and the self-emoters, and it's probably time for me to be long, you know?

It's probably a whole dinosaur like me, probably needs to hang on up, you know? Yeah, the Canva posts, I like to thank in the love letters to everybody, and I'm like to thank this person and that person, and I'm taking my talents to, yeah, people like us, that just didn't have, we were raised to. No, you know, if I go somewhere, you'll see me in a different coaching shirt at the clinic, and you'll figure that out.

And you know, I can remember like going to those clinics when I first started coaching, and seeing them, and like, when I first started coaching, there was Nick Hider, and Bob Dost, and Robert Davidson, one of Rob's, Billy Anderson, of Clark Central, T. McFair, Larry Campbell, Dan Pitts, the Dwyer House sales never big clinic guy, but I mean, those type of guys, they were like Jim Hughes, they were like, there was an aura around them, you know what I mean? Ben Scott, you know what I mean?

You talking about a guy that had commanded a presence in a room, so I was feel so fortunate just to have, I didn't work for any of those guys, but just to have been around them, and just to see them, and how they operate, and you know, they would talk, and heck, I texted with Justin Rodgers today, that we just wanted to say to Thomas County, we texted a little bit, and I congratulated him on winning, and we talked a little bit in our text, just about this kind of same thing.

And I said, I remember going to clinic, and just like hanging on to every word those guys said, and then a few years later, you know, it was Ed Pilcher, it's a group, Milkmailer, My Heart is, you know, My Hero with Danny Chronic, those guys like Jeff Haren, those guys, you know what I mean, like, they were them, for me, those were the real legends, the real guys, I mean, I think the golden era of high school football in Georgia, to me, and before we got into all this

crew stuff, was the 80s, and the 90s, and the early mid 2000s, they started changing about 15 years ago, but that, the 80s, the 90s, and the 2000s was the golden era, because you had towns that were just part of their team, and the players, and recruiting's always existed, it's never like, I'm not saying it never happened, but people didn't build their programs around that, you know what I mean, it's always been out there, and it's always, you can always name this case

or that case, but for the most part, you defile your players and you feed a program, you got them ready to play in the weight room, they came through your junior high, your middle school, they're even the red league, to the, to the ninth grade up to the varsity, and those kids grew up playing cup ball when they were nine years old, in the back of the end zone, one place for their school, when they got to be old enough, and that was high school football,

and two towns coming together and battling out, and go out there and knock heads with each other, and come back 12 months later and do it again, and you got bragging rights for that amount of time in between, that to me was the hero that will never go back to you, you know what I mean, just unfortunately, it's not going to, it's come a business now, it's commercialized, it's just like I said, with NIL, I was kind of self, I don't know what has to change or how it's going to change,

but I know one thing, not everybody's going to benefit from it, I tell you that, it won't be equal. Now, y'all tickled me when y'all wrote up on the board the Mount Zion NIL package and sent me a picture of it, and that looked about like the one we got at our place, except we couldn't offer the, we couldn't offer the fishing experience, ours was more of a hunting, and we had the same Jimmy Joe's quick sack, blue talkies and orange power.

There you go, we had Burwell corn stored, they had fresh biscuits, live bait, cold beer, and they were all stored down the road, this looks questionable in there sometimes, and I think we put out overpriced chips, underage babes, and gasoline that's quality 70% gas, only 30% water. So, that's what we had with the deal. We had local beets there, where we got, you know, bass fish. Yeah, y'all are six miles from Carrollton, where they've got whatever.

All the coaches are flying to see Juju Lewis, like stop there, 20 miles down in Carrollton, it's actually in our old school zone, so the famous coaches that ride through, the flying to Carrollton to go see these guys, they're flying into the Mount Zion, they're riding right by us heading to Carrollton, somewhere to go see. Central's gotta be running by now, and it's like a Power Five guy, so I guess it'll be the next one too. But yeah, that's how we roll down here, baby.

Like I said, I wouldn't trade it for anything, I couldn't make, I've done anything else the last three years, a lot of good relationships with kids, and then just great comrader and fellowship with coaches, yeah, it's just, it's been a blessed, ain't no question about that. Well coach, I sure do appreciate you being on, look forward to talking to you again, and as always, thanks for being there for me.

You've been my friend, my brother for the past 15 years, like a big brother I've never had, I love you, and if I ever need anything, you'll always be there for me. And I appreciate that. You know, I've been the same here, every bit of that, you know, that's true, it's just one of those days where it's like, like you just said, it's a brother, it's a fraternity, and we made it work one way or the other, you know what I mean, but I appreciate everything you just said, and I feel the same as I was.

All right, thanks DT, and we'll talk to you later. Talk to you Chris, man, we'll holla at you. All right, bye bye. Bye bye. I'll see you later. I'll see you later.