Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
From Tough Seasons to Triumphs with Drew and Jordan
Get ready to uncover the secrets behind a successful high school football season! Join us as we chat with Mathews Mustangs assistant coaches Drew McLaughlin and Jordan Hefner. Learn from Drew's decade of experience and Jordan's fresh perspective as they share their journey and discuss the lessons learned from a tough 2023 season. Discover how a revamped schedule and strategic team changes are setting the stage for a promising season ahead.
Curious about the dynamics of Division VII high school football? We break down the classification system, comparing states like Ohio and West Virginia, and delve into the declining participation trends. Have you ever wondered what it's like to play under the lights on non-traditional game days? Weigh the pros and cons of Thursday and Saturday games, and how these changes impact both players and coaches.
Stadium upgrades are transforming the high school football experience, and we share firsthand accounts of these exciting changes. From turf fields to new scoreboards, see how these improvements are boosting team morale and community support. Plus, learn how offseason training programs are shaping standout players like Connor Thompson and Grady Garrett. With engaging personal anecdotes and a focus on perseverance and character, this episode is a must-listen for football enthusiasts and community supporters alike.
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Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is, as always, your host, mike Bono. I have a great and annual episode here for us that we will be breaking down, and I have a great group of guests here. But first and foremost, we do have two new sponsors I have to get in and that is Buddy's Beard Care. Buddy's Beard Care provides premium men's grooming products at an affordable price. Products are made in Ohio and Buddy's Beard Care supports local. The majority of their supplies are from Ohio-based companies. You can find them on social media at Buddy's Beard Care or online at buddiesbeardcarecom. Use the promo code Bono15, and you will get 15% off. Also, we are bringing back another great sponsor in Sweet Hands Sports.
Speaker 1:Sweet Hands Sports. Elevate your game with Sweet Hands Sports. Our sports gloves are designed for champions, providing ultimate grip and durability. Achieve greatness with every match. Choose Sweet Hands Sports for the winning edge. Grip your victory at sweet handsportscom. Use the promo code Bono 10, and you will save 10% off of your order. Sweet hand sports is batting gloves right now and they just opened up a golf club. And for my guests today, they are actually looking into football gloves too as well. That will be coming here later on. But once again, sweethandsportscom, use the promo code Bono10, and you will save 10%. All that being said, my guests today are the football coaches of the Matthews. I believe it's Mustangs. I should know this. This is like the third time we've done this show. I believe it's the Matthews Mustangs, but I have Drew McLaughlin and Coach Jordan Haig joining the show. Guys, thanks for joining.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having us, Bono.
Speaker 1:Not a problem. This seems to be an annual show for us here, drew, and we're happy to do it. We're happy to get the team out there and everything like that for Matthews football and everything like that. And so let's get right into it here. For this question is going to be for both of you what's your coaching background for both of you, and how long have you been at Matthews?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for me, this is going on a decade. That's my 10th year coaching. Um, I started right out of high school in 20, 2013. Um, I've been out of my 10 years. I've been five places uh, my home, monroeville. I've been a cable memorial latonia champion and uh, here at matthews, and I've been this is my fourth year at matthews. I here in 2016, 2017, when Jordan was a player, actually, and then I came back last year in 2023, as the offensive coordinator. And I'm here again same thing, offensive coordinator in 24.
Speaker 1:All right, Jordan, what about you?
Speaker 2:Mine's just beginning actually. This is actually only my third year coaching at the high school level. I started two years ago. I was at Kennedy Catholic over in Hermitage, pa. It was a startup program. I don't know how much longer they're going to be around. Then I came here under Coach Bolta when he got the head job. It's very special to me because I had Coach McLaughlin and Coach Bolta and there's a couple other guys on the staff who were actually my coaches when I was in high school. It's a very special place.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Definitely. Going back from being a player to a coach has to be a surreal feeling for you right, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:I learn a lot every day, learn new things every day, and I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to be around.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, drew. You were on last year previewing the 2023 season. I know how it went because I follow you guys too as well, but for the listeners out there, how did the team turn out?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So last year was more of a kind of rough year for us. We ended up 2-8. For the size of our school and the schedule we had, we knew it would be a challenge off the rip. So we kind of made a hard offseason, hard summer, getting prepared for that. Just one of those deals where you play 10 games and eight of those 10 teams make the playoffs and then three of those teams make it three rounds in. So we had a difficult schedule. We accept the challenge but sometimes it's harder than it looks.
Speaker 3:We did get two wins, which we're proud of that. But we have a few guys who went back this year from last year's team. You know it looks. Um, we did get two wins, which you know we're proud of that. But, um, we have a few guys from back last, this year, from last year's team, that understand how hard. You know how hard it is, how hard it takes. So we're prepared this year, a little easier schedule than we had last year. So we're excited for that and, um, yeah, we're just getting ready for this year for sure.
Speaker 1:It actually brought me into the next question. So, like you know, are you having the same schedule with that type of a schedule?
Speaker 3:And are you playing most of the same teams from last year? No, so we dropped Springfield, we dropped Louisville, we dropped the Ridge, middle Ridge, three teams that actually those three teams made it three rounds in last year. So we dropped those three teams. We picked up three new teams. Grand Valley came back in our league they were in our league last year, so they take a spot up with that and we picked up Crestline and Bridgeport, two teams that are more comparable to us and where we're at right now, so exactly where we need to be, we can keep our same opening three. We have Jackson, milton, southeast and Newton Falls, but at that point we go to those Crestview and Bridgeport and then from there we're in our league, which that stays the same throughout.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's where we're at right now schedule-wise, we dropped those three.
Speaker 3:We picked up Grand Valley League and then Bridgeport and Crestview.
Speaker 1:All right, well, looking for good things from you here. So for both of you here, you know what are your expectations for the 2024 season yeah, you know expectations for us.
Speaker 3:Um, we are very young. Um, we have about 26 kids on the team. I'd say probably about 13 of those kids are freshmen, so we have an extremely high freshman class. They're very talented, though that's the biggest thing about it. You know, you talk to some people and they say we're young and it might take a few years to rebuild where you want to be. But as a staff I think you know Jordan thinks as well we're right where we want to be with our players. We're going to be playing a lot of freshmen, but they're ready for the challenge. They're an extremely talented group of kids and, to top it all off with that, we have a great upperclassmen, junior senior upperclassmen as well guys that are leading our young guys to the right way, the right direction, the right way to do things. So we are excited about the group of guys we have and they're bought into what we're doing. So we have high expectations this year. With how young we are, we do have high expectations, and Jordan can back me up on that as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jordan. What are you thinking about the team this year? You know, being in your third year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Drew said, everybody's bought in. I'm a firm believer. If you got everybody bought in, you can line up under center and run quarterback sneak every play and it'll be successful as long as your guys are bought in. I feel like last year we had some floaters of guys who weren't 100% bought in, and now everything looks great. I'm so impressed with what we're doing so far.
Speaker 1:So just from the beginning of that, you're a big fan of the tush.
Speaker 3:Push play that, billy kind of made made famous.
Speaker 1:Right Big fan, we're yours in the condos, baby it works a hundred percent of the time, according to Jason Kelsey. You know you got the right guys there, that's right. That's a. Got the right guys there, that's right. That's 100% right. Absolutely, drew. So with the with this I mean the schedule has changed. We talked about that from last year. I mean you talked a little bit about those changes and who those teams are and who you guys will be playing. Do you know anything about those new teams that are coming in this year and how do you think you guys match up against them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so actually Grand Valley, a team, like I said, they're in our league when Jordan played and then they left, went to a different league and they just got approved to come back this year. We scrimmaged them last year, so we have an idea of who they have and what they're bringing back. We think we're comparable with them, we think we can compete with those guys, which we love that. And then when you talk about Bridgeport and Crestline, we really don't know too much about them. We're going to do our research and our homework on them. We want Joe Idol to see, record wise, what they were the past few years, um, who they play.
Speaker 3:They're both division seven. So we know they're, you know, comparable to us, compared with kids and a lot of kids on the team. But right now we don't know who they have, what they're bringing back exactly. We just know who they played and what their record was and just based off that, it is very comparable to us, which we're very excited about. You know you get into Division 7, it could be a crapshoot. Any coach knows that. Based off of what they played and what their results were, we feel just fine with those two teams. We're very happy about that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for some of the listeners out there that might not know what Division VII in high school football is, talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Division VII. It goes in high school football. Actually they approved it for almost all sports. Now it's Divisions one through seven. Division one is the highest amount of boys, grades eight through 11. It goes down to division two, three, four, five, six, so on and so forth, seven being the smallest and division one being the biggest. For listeners, maybe around this area you talk about an Austintown Fitch. I think they're D2. That's probably the biggest you're going to see around here. I think Ward Harding's D4, maybe Ward Harding's D2 too. That's the comparable size to the kids from there to going down and so on and so forth. You see a Springfield. Maybe New Middletown Springfield. They're D6. Champions at D5. Maybe New Middletown Springfield, through D6, champions at D5.
Speaker 1:So it's just based on the amount of boys in a school, grades 8 through 11. Yeah, see, for me that's a little bit backwards. Growing up in West Virginia and playing high school ball in West Virginia it was D1 was your lower level and then D5 was your highest level. So it's a little different from West Virginia to Ohio. I mean, when I played Brooke High School we were D4. And now they're all the way down to D2. It's a sad day seeing that there's not and it's based off of, like you said, the amount of players coming out to play for a particular team. I mean, have you seen like a drop off in high school kids wanting to play football?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say Jordan, since you're a former player here.
Speaker 2:So I think I think my junior year was the most I've ever seen here. I believe I could be wrong probably had around 35, 38 kids this year. We're looking at anywhere from 21 to 24. That drop-off has just been huge. I don't know what it is If kids are picking up new sports or they're just afraid to play. I have no idea what it is If kids are picking up new sports or they're just afraid to play. I have no idea what that is, and actually we talked about it yesterday too. It could be the schedule. So, like last year, we had Middle Ridge, springfield, lowellville and kids see that and they're like oh no, those are big schools, we're not doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was, I see, like, like I said it, just completely different from when I played. But now this was back in the early two thousands and you know we had 54 kids and 54 guys on the team. I know I'm aging myself with the early two thousands playing and playing high school ball.
Speaker 1:But but yeah, you know, 54 kids on the team. You know what I mean, and it was, it was. That was what you did. You know, in high school you played football and you played sports and you were kind of the kings of Friday night, it seemed like. Back then I know Go ahead. Drew.
Speaker 3:Oh, go ahead. No, I'd say it's more like even I was like. You know, I graduated 2013. When I played, it was like a pride thing, you know, you wanted to do it. It was like, you know, it was cool to play football at that point. You wanted to do it, you know, and you had some guys that were bought in and loved it and some guys that just didn't do it, but all that together you add up to about you know, 40 guys on a team. Now you're losing that kind of, maybe, sense of pride per se. You're dropping some kids off, but I don't know what the correct answer is. You try to do anything you can to recruit these kids in the school to come on out, and some don't even want to hear it, or some are like, yeah, yeah, I'll hear you out, and then you get those kids, which is nice, but it's harder than it really was when I started coaching in 2014.
Speaker 1:And it's crazy how much it changes just in 10 years. Yeah, I mean, even the schedules are like when you play games. This one's for both of you. You guys have two Thursday night games and a Saturday afternoon game this year, so what are your thoughts on not playing on a Friday night?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, actually we have two Saturday games this year Now it's changed recently.
Speaker 3:So Saturday afternoon, saturday afternoon, yeah it's. You know there's pros and cons to everything in life. You know it's nice to have a Friday off. I really haven't watched a high school game. You're coaching. You don't get the chance to go see another team play or just get the atmosphere of watching a high school football game. You're always involved, so that's nice.
Speaker 3:But the crappier part is when you play on a Thursday of a short week, you're bunching everything into only three days. Or on a Saturday it's a short week, you're bunching everything into only three days. Or on a Saturday it's kind of longer. It's like what do you do for that extra day? Planning-wise it gets kind of hard. You've got to wait. On Saturdays You're anticipating a play. A coach is like I've got to wait that extra day. It kind of sucks on that part. Also, I'm a big college football fan too. When I get a Saturday I'm taking away from my college football Saturday. That sucks. I like sitting down drinking a nice cool beverage and watching football. It takes away from that as well. There's pros and cons to it. I would rather just have a Friday schedule and keep it as is. I don't make those decisions.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, jordan. What about you with that, with the two different day games than Friday night?
Speaker 2:So when I started my coaching career at Kennedy, our home field didn't have lights on. They didn't have lights in the stadium. So every time we played a home game we played Saturday afternoon. So I'm kind of used to it. I don't like it. Kind of, like he said, college football, you know, Buckeyes play Saturday. I don't want, I want to see that. But a part of me too is like you know, I don't care, I don't know, We'll play whatever day, wherever, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I'll let the Buckeyes thing go.
Speaker 2:Jordan, you're talking to a mountaineer the guy who can't stand the Ohio State Buckeyes, but well you're new, we'll let that slide for the year.
Speaker 3:Watch your roads. Take me home, baby.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Drew knows the deal. Get those mountaineers in there for sure. So, drew, I mean you know there at Matthews the stadium has undergone some renovations. Can you talk about the new things that you guys have done there? And you know what you're most excited?
Speaker 3:about with the new renovations. Yeah, it's been huge changes, even since when he played. They have a new home stand, a new press box, they last year just got new away stands and they also got a new band stand like a band shell, and so it is a completely different look than it was probably even four or five years ago. It's a more modern new look. The stands look really nice, the press box is beautiful and now this year they're just doing a band show, which has looked really nice as well. This is what it's put in the, because this is a great facility for a Division VII school, excuse me and it's put in the whole kind of like the finishing touches on it, excuse me, and it's putting the whole kind of like the finishing touches on it. It's looking really really nice now compared to where it was. The administration did a great job putting money into this and getting us to look how it needs to look. It looks great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I even know you know, just going back to my old high school to watch my nephews play, you know it's amazing what they're doing with these stadiums now. When I played there, we were begging for turf and everything like that. We were still one of the few teams that played on natural grass and had that aspect of it. And now they have this big, beautiful turf, new big scoreboard, the stands are all redone. It's like, well, where the heck was all this? When I was playing, I think we would have got a few more people to the stands than what we have now. It's great to see that these high schools are buying in and helping out the stadium and trying to draw more fans. Do you think these renovations will help with your attendance at these games and everything like that?
Speaker 2:Either one of you. I couldn't hear you.
Speaker 1:Do you think these new renovations will help bring more people to the stands and to the games this year, with all the new renovations that have been done?
Speaker 2:I hope so. Last year we had an issue I think it was when the Louisville came here. They had to rent stands for the away side and it was actually really funny. They had them pushed up all the way almost to the sideline because they couldn't get them behind the fence and the stories we heard from parents heckling them over there is still funny. But I feel like the administration did a great job rebuilding the stadium, the field itself, minus what's going on with it right now, just a little filling in a couple holes with some questionable field dirt. I think honestly in the area, compared to what other schools have for grass fields, we probably have the nicest one around. I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't go wrong with a good stadium and I definitely get it with the parents heckling the players. As a father of a son who plays high school ball he's not playing, this year Kind of had some academic things come up, but you know, the wife pretty much tells me I'm not allowed to go to the games anymore because I am one of those parents that you know gets way too invested into the game.
Speaker 1:But I'll still be going because my nephews play here in Philo Ohio here now. But yeah, I'm not allowed to go to a lot of the games because my mouth kind of gets beat up a good bit at a time.
Speaker 2:When I was here, the home bleachers were so bad that, um, I actually remember one time it was actually when I was, you know, prepping to go to basic training uh, I remember running the bleachers and I actually fell through and busted up my leg and it was all nasty with blood everywhere, but um, it used to be so bad. I remember on Friday nights people wouldn't even sit in the bleachers, they'd bring lawn chairs and go all the way across the home side and the bleachers are maybe 10 people, but there was still. I mean, you know, you'd have 200 people either standing or along the fence, just standing behind chairs or sitting in chairs. It was completely different. Now we're not seeing too much of that because we have a really nice phone section. I enjoy the box every Friday night. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:I love the air conditioning in there. Especially on those hot summer games at the beginning of the season. I know I'm ready for.
Speaker 2:August. I have to wear a hoodie if I kick off in the box.
Speaker 3:He goes up there, he has his drink and his snacks. He has a good old time up there.
Speaker 1:I'm sure he does. Other than that, jordan, you know what would you say is the best thing about the Matthews football team?
Speaker 2:Like we already kind of touched on before, it's the attitude around these kids we have coming up, especially these freshmen. Last year, I don't know, they went undefeated, didn't they in middle school? They lost one game. They lost one game. They don't want to lose. We don't want to lose. Last year was rough for us. My coaching career, my first two years, started off very rough. When I was at Kennedy, we won one game. We beat Cochran and they had like 13 kids. But also at the beginning of the year at Kennedy we had 11 kids. You know, I think I could speak for everybody that steps foot in this locker room and all the coaches. Everybody's ready to win. We need to get some Ws on our schedule.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely looking forward to seeing more Ws come across. When I keep up with Matthews football this year, I'm always rooting for you guys and everything like that. I wonder what happened. Everything good, drew. Can you hear me? Oh wait, can you hear me? Oh, wonderful technology, did it turn off, paul?
Speaker 3:do you?
Speaker 1:hear me? I got you good. Do you hear me? I got you good. Can you hear me? Our screen turned off. We can't hear you, though you can't hear me. Oh wonderful technology.
Speaker 3:Good to see you here.
Speaker 1:How'd that happen?
Speaker 3:I don't know, is it? Let's see.
Speaker 1:While we wait for Drew and them to get everything figured out here, I'll take this moment to let everybody know. If you love the show and want to support the show, go and check out my Patreon page that link will be in the support the show in the description and check that out. I have a lot of great giveaways and free merchandise from the show and everything like that. Check it out. Patreoncom slash Rod Home Rants great giveaways and free merchandise from the show and everything like that. Uh, check it out. Uh, patreoncom slash ride home rants Funny, you hear us. Now I can hear you guys. Can you hear me?
Speaker 3:We got you. Now we're good.
Speaker 1:Oh right, wonderful technology, right? Oh yeah, my favorite saying is it's great when it works, uh so uh. Is it's great when it works, uh so uh? I love it when there's when there's stuff like this, I kind of lose my train of thought a little bit here. Um, but yeah, you know the one. You, jordan, you were touching on, you know the the winning way and wanting to win and I I was just saying, you know, I I'm definitely looking for a few more updates when I'm following the team, that there are more W's in the column for you guys and definitely rooting for you every week to hope that we can put some W's on the board for Matthews there. But you know I always follow everybody that comes on the show. We're now up over 200 episodes, so I have a lot of things that I keep in touch with for sure.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I always look forward to it and to see those updates for sure. But for both of you here, your football field is not at your high school. Does that present a problem with the students going to practices or any off-season liftings or anything like that?
Speaker 3:So actually, again, the school does a good job. There is a bus that's just for football kids after school. That brings them right from the school to where we're at um. It's probably not even a two-minute drive, it's right down the road, um. So, yeah, they have a bus that takes these kids right from school to where we're at. Um there's we've never had a problem with it once, um, even for games. There's no issues at all. Our locker rooms right here as well. So, um, which is nice, the whole, you whole locker room with the facilities being here. The only issue we would have is just if that bus wasn't running, but it always runs. We've always had success with that, with no problem, with all the kids coming here.
Speaker 1:Jordan. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:He pretty much hit it. Like you said earlier, we've got a good group of upperclassmen, most of them drive.
Speaker 1:They kind of help out with that too.
Speaker 2:Not a ton of kids ride the bus. They still have it every day Shoot. I remember when I was here they'd been running that bus for a long time. Just from the school down here it's only like a mile and a half. I remember a couple times there was only like two kids on that bus and they would still run constantly. Just because everybody else came here, they rode with somebody. The school does a really good job. They help us out a lot with making sure kids get here after school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got to say that was a new thing for me when I moved here to Ohio because I guess I was a little bit spoiled at Brooke High School. You know, our field was right at the high school, everything was right there. We didn brook high school. You know, our field was right at the high school, everything was right there. We didn't have to get on a bus to go to the facilities for lifting or anything like that. We pretty much school edited and we were walking right to the locker room, uh, and then down on and then down onto the field and then you know, move here and you know, philo here, it's the same thing.
Speaker 1:The high school and the field are not they're. They're within a mile of each other but still, you know it's not at, the facility's not right there, um, and it posed a problem for a little bit of time and especially in the summer off season, uh, the conditionings and the weight trainings and everything like that, getting kids there. But the school does, you know, a good job, like you guys said, with having buses ran, uh, and the upperclassmen are, are seem to be bought in with, uh, you know, giving the underclassmen uh, rides we don't have at nearly as many freshmen as you guys have. Almost over half your team is, you know, freshmen. Uh, yeah, so you know that that could pose a problem, but it's. It's nice to see the school and the upperclassmen are bought into that for you guys to make sure the team stays connected and build that bonding and rapport like you should in high school sports.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they help us out a lot, for sure, it helps us really nice. I couldn't imagine, say, if your locker room wasn't next to your school, say the locker room was at the school and the football scene was different, that would suck, that would really suck.
Speaker 1:Having to get all suited up. Then all right guys get on the bus. We're going to go to the game.
Speaker 3:That would be horrible. I couldn't even imagine, couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be a nightmare situation. I'd be building some type of scaffolding or something, just the coverall, to let them go there to feel the change of that was the case. Have some big tents set up, all right guys, get in there and change, you know. All right Again for both of you. Jordan, we're going to start with you. What are your opinions on the team having a ton of passing scrimmages all summer? Does this truly help or hurt a team?
Speaker 2:I got mixed feelings about passing scrimmages. Actually, now in Ohio, after your season's over and you have your no-contact period, you can start doing 7-on-7 scrimmages as of this year. So I think, offensively, they're great, awesome, especially for us this year. We wanted to get a few in. I think we have one scheduled, though at the end of the month, especially because we have a young quarterback. It'd be nice to get him out there and see, you know, a little bit, go with a little bit bigger school so he could see some faster DBs and really focus on making good reads throughout a seven-on-seven.
Speaker 2:And the other side of the ball, I hate it. I hate it so much because this year I'm coaching linebackers and I hate like you, hate. Like you always. You always like really push, okay, take your check steps, take your check steps and then, by like the fifth play they're just bailing. So it creates bad habits for them. So actually this year what I think I'm going to have our inside backers do we do our seven on seven is start on a knee so you have to get up and then take your check steps and then you know, depending on if we're a man zone, whatever, just cover three, hit your hook and curl after that. Yeah, I just don't like anything that would create bad habits for our guys.
Speaker 1:All right, drew. What are your thoughts? Offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know. Again, it's like Jordan said, there's pros and cons. My biggest thing is just being competitive. Going out there and going against another school, you know, for a kid, you know 15, 18, it always brings out a competitive edge in them. Just to see how we react in game time situations. You know, if good things happen, if bad things happen, how do our kids respond? It's a good, it's a good, uh, tell to see before we hit our actual scrimmages coming up, um.
Speaker 3:So I think you know I'm not a guy that's gonna say every week, let's go hit this, hit this fast scrimmage, go hit that one, go hit that one. I think one's good. I think if you are, if you're an older group that's been around each other for a while, two's good as well. But for us right now, freshman quarterback, a lot of young guys in the system we changed up our defense from last year. So I think one will be good to kind of show where we're at, to see what we do well, see what we don't do well, see what routes work for us, coverages work for us, and then tickets in August, and then that's when it's really a ball's throw wall. So I think there's pros and cons. I like the competitiveness of it, so I think one's good. I'm not trying to go overboard with them, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, last year we had one here for the high school and that was at Ohio State.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a cool one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a cool one to go to. The downside is my son's a lineman, he's a center. Yeah, it kind of got him in, like Jordan was saying. It kind of got him into some bad habits snapping the ball and then he was just kind of standing there, no one to block, there's nothing to do. They weren't allowed to pass rush or anything like that and it was all passing. So it definitely got him into a lot of bad habits of snapping the ball and then standing straight up.
Speaker 3:Standing right up? Yep exactly.
Speaker 1:So you know, it took the coaches and myself a while to kind of break him of that habit. A lot of fun for me as dad in the backyard when he was snapping the ball and I was just pushing him over, he was standing straight up.
Speaker 1:So you know that's a happy dad moment for me, Absolutely. That's a happy dad moment for me, Absolutely. But but I get it. You know there's pros and cons. Like you guys said, I was, we did four when I played and I was a receiver, so it really helped me work on my routes, my timing with the quarterbacks and everything like that. But other than, that I don't. I don't know what real need there is for that many. You know one, maybe two.
Speaker 3:Some points you can never kill, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so, that being said, you know with that I want to get both of your opinions here what is the best away stadium you'll be playing at this year?
Speaker 3:Best away stadium. Yeah, I'd probably say it's between, probably Southeast, or are we playing?
Speaker 2:at Ravenna.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we're playing at Ravenna. I might be wrong, but last year they were going through renovations with their stadium, so instead of playing at Southeast, we're going to play at Ravenna. That's the school that has the blue turf. Okay, they're a bigger school. If that's the case, because we're away this year we'll be playing at Ravenna. That would be really cool to play on a different color turf, that would be cool. And then, really, because actually this year we kind of we're going to be the road warriors this year we call ourselves Because out of the 13 things we have scheduled one pass scrimmages, one pass scrimmage, two scrimmages and ten games we are away nine of those times, so we only have four things that are at our place this year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're the road warriors for sure. Absolutely, it's insane, it's insane. But I've got to say Southeast if we're up, rivera, if not, let's see. What do you think?
Speaker 2:High Valley, no, they're here, Windham's not too bad, windham's nice, windham's not bad. There have been falls.
Speaker 1:There have been noon falls. Noon falls, yeah.
Speaker 3:That'll be a first.
Speaker 1:I don't know anything about.
Speaker 2:Crestline or Bridgeport, it's probably Southeast River, no matter where it's at.
Speaker 1:It seems like next season, when we do this show, we're probably going to have a lot more Answers to that question being the road warriors this year and having a lot of road games.
Speaker 3:We're going to have a more defined answer.
Speaker 1:But you know, question being the road warriors this year and having a lot of road games, we're gonna, we're gonna have a more defined answer. But you know, you know, yeah, it's, it's always tough playing away games, but nine of them like that's, that's tough on the team that's two minutes away.
Speaker 3:Both our streamers are away, then we have six away from there, yeah. So yeah, nine things away. We do throw up Campbell at the end of the month. Campbell is a nice game as well. Beautiful turf. They have two Deckard's fans on each side. That'll be cool to go there and throw there. That's kind of where we're at right now with everything, a lot of away games for us.
Speaker 1:A lot of gas money. That's a lot of gas games for us All, right Well that's a lot of gas money. That's yeah, that's a lot of gas money right now.
Speaker 2:I just bought a new truck in the winter and I'm going to put a ton of miles on it this year?
Speaker 1:I don't like riding. I don't blame you. I don't blame you at all, yeah. So lastly, here I want to kind of get into for both of you, both being, you know, offensive coordinator and you coached the linebackers there at Jordan. You know what is your off season versus in season? Strength and conditioning programs like Definitely yeah.
Speaker 2:Actually, coach Polta does everything for our off season stuff. Each, each athlete gets their own individual plan and I wasn't around too too much in the offseason.
Speaker 2:I had a job change during the offseason and I had to be at work a lot so I could be here more in the summer. Now I'm here every day. I'm very thankful for that. My boss is great. He lets me pretty much make my own schedule, so I'm here every day. I'm very thankful for that. My boss is great. He lets me pretty much make my own schedule, so I could be here whenever.
Speaker 2:What Coach Poulter did this summer, wow. Or this offseason, holy cow. I would come in probably once a week and kind of talk with the guys and meet with him and talk with him and see, you know, check up on how everything's going on here, as I could. And just some of these guys have put on from their different lifts, 100 pounds per squat, you know, 100 pounds for a bench. Like these kids. You can tell who was here all winter just by what we see out on the field every day at practice. Like you see the kids that really put in the time and effort to come in here and lift and I think I think an offseason program is like kind of the foundation of how your year is going to go. Like we had a little tip that you know, Kirtland, they played the state championship game and a week later they had kids in the weight room Like they're that committed and that's what Coach Fultz is actually trying to build here, and he's doing a great job at it.
Speaker 3:Drew, what about you? To back up what he's saying? You look at some kids last year because they understood what it took. You know, when you go through a season we had last year, you kind of understand okay, I do need to be faster, I do need to be stronger to compete with these schools, right. And there are some kids like Connor Thompson, who was more of a receiver for us last year, probably, you know, 140 pounds-ish, 150 pounds if that. And now you know he worked his butt off this offseason. Now he's probably about 190, pushing 200. And that's just sheer muscle too.
Speaker 3:Like a kid that like that, or maybe like a Grady Garrett, a kid that has some knee troubles, kind of hurt him. And Coach Bolton told him if you want to up your knees out, you want to get on the field, you're going to have to really work at lifting weights. And the difference from last year to this year it's almost undeniable. He's moving so much better, he's stronger, he's faster. It makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3:And the biggest thing about that is that I've been seeing is the buy in from the young guys, seeing what the older guys are doing right, like a Drew Spagnoletta, another junior, who last year he broke his collarbone week one, had a great sophomore summer. He's going to be a great player for us week one and breaks his collarbone out for the year. So you know it stinks but it kind of built. You know, got this drive for him and ever since then he's been busting his ass. He's been lifting hard and a kid like that, he can't wait to get out there and play. You know, missing a whole year. Our freshmen see and our sophomores see the commitment from those juniors and seniors and now they're lifting their ass off too. So you know they're really setting a good example for our guys. Like Jordan said, you know Coach Bolton did an unbelievable job with our off-season program. These kids are really, really they know what it takes now and it's nice to see for sure.
Speaker 1:And I'll say this as someone who graduated high school at 155 pounds. Don't count out those skinny guys when it comes to that. Don't count us out. No, never.
Speaker 3:We love you guys. Trust me I love those guys like that.
Speaker 1:My coaches were always impressed when we did our max out days in the summer lifting, because they see me, you know, 6'5", 155 pounds. Just this string being of a guy was just a red zone threat wide receiver, that's a great receiver.
Speaker 3:Jump ball yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Inside the 20, I knew it was. It was my time to get off the field. That was it. In between the 20s. I'm cool. That's not me.
Speaker 3:I'm making a joke too, laughing at the guy, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm making a joke too, laughing at the guy. I've gotten plenty of personal fouls in my time for my mouth. It started in high school.
Speaker 3:Because your career did not mean it to be a comedian.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It helped Getting those chewings on the sidelines after catching a touchdown pass and then, you know, getting getting a personal foul and having our kicker have to kick a longer extra point than he'd be. So, yeah, they didn't like that part of me, but you know, it is what it is. I knew my role and I was going to execute it flawlessly. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. There's no doubt. Yeah, and you know I'm looking forward to you guys keeping up with you. I'm glad we were able to preview the season and everything like that for you guys, but, just like what I have every other guest on, I'm going to give you both about a minute. If there's anything you guys want to get out that we didn't cover in the show about the team this year. Like I said, I'm going to give you about a minute and the floor is yours.
Speaker 3:I thought you were going to give me the Fast 55 questions. Is that what you prepared?
Speaker 1:for he didn't have any Fast 55 for this one. No, no, fast 55 for this one. What would you?
Speaker 3:rather do jump in a river for 10 minutes or go catch a chicken or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would probably have been like all right, you're locked in a football locker room with a bear Mike Tyson and Conor McGregor who comes out alive Like that's just Jordan. That's the type of questions you get when we have a fast 55 for sure from Phinney you get when we have a fast 55 for sure from Finney.
Speaker 3:So just a touch on it. Like I, like we said before, it's it's a new kind of culture around here. It's a. It's a new. It's almost like a new beginning for us.
Speaker 3:We are so excited to coach these kids that they are so bought into what we're doing here. It's it's just, it's a really, really good thing that we have going here and we may be young, we may have light numbers, but you know, I always say this to anybody that I can tell you know you don't play 25 kids, you play 11, right, and the other team plays 11 as well. And you know we think you know honestly, every game we play. I have a great feeling that we have a great chance to win it with the 11 we have. You know it takes 11, but our guys you know one through 26, 25, are so bought in. It's a team. You know that they like each other and it's really really a good thing to see, as a coach, what these kids are doing. It's nice to see you're going to see this with these young guys for a long time. We're really excited about the future, but we're also really excited about the present.
Speaker 1:Jordan, what about you? Anything else to echo on that?
Speaker 2:I'm just excited to see him play. Last year I felt at this point of the year we were nowhere near where we are now. These kids that we have this year I mean we had a good group last year, but these kids right now they're so smart, they are so smart it's like we put something in and now now it's good, run it two or three times and it's good. Everything looks good. I'm also really excited to um to see how our staff works together. Um, last year we had some changes started off the year. Uh, we had three guys in the box. Me and drew were in the box together, along with another coach that was here. Now halfway through the year he ended up going down on the field and he had me on the headset. It took a while, but then we finally started to click. Everything worked good. We were flowing all right. I'm really excited to see what we can do week one so we don't have to start all over.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I will definitely, Drew. You know this. I'll be following you guys all season long. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your guys' hard work in the offseason and in the season here. But that is actually going to do it for our Matthews football preview show. Thank you, Drew and Jordan, for coming on and taking time out of your busy summer schedule and getting to talk about the team a little bit here. Uh, and, as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend, tell a friend. If you didn't tell them anyways, they might like it just because you did. That's going to do it for me and I will see y'all next week.
