Hawk Talk
Seahawk Nation… Welcome to Season 3 of Hawk Talk, a podcast dedicated to talking South River High School Sports all season long. Join host, Tom Frank as we talk to school administrators, coaches, players, alumni and fans throughout the season as we breakdown last week’s games and take a look ahead to next week’s.
Hawk Talk is recorded live from Chad’s BBQ in Edgewater, Maryland. Since 2013, Chad’s Bar-B-Cue has been delighting visitors with great food, fun atmosphere, and excellent customer service.
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Hawk Talk
Season 4 Kickoff
Hawk Talk is back for its fourth season, and we’re opening strong with South River’s very own Athletic Director, David Klingel. It’s year 20 for Dave at South River, and he joins Tom Frank to reflect on two decades of Seahawk sports, the evolution of the program, and what’s in store for 2024–25.
From big leadership changes in the athletic department to the return of powerhouse athletes like Jayden McDuffie, to the growth of programs like cheer, golf, and field hockey—this episode sets the stage for an exciting year ahead. Dave also shares his bold predictions for which teams could bring home hardware, the importance of culture-building programs like Lead Them Up, and why community support makes South River special.
This is episode 77 of Hawk Talk, and we’re just getting started. Buckle up, Seahawk Nation—year four is shaping up to be the best yet.
Hawk Talk is hosted by Tom Frank, Jaden McDuffie and Grey Frank, and brought to you by Chad's BBQ, Merrick Creative, and Maryland Remodeling Expert. Don’t hesitate to contact us through Instagram @SRHawkTalk or by email at SRHawkTalk@gmail.com. Please reach out, send updates after games, let us know about fundraisers, big events, etc. This show is only as good as what we know. So get involved! Subscribe, Listen and Share the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on Apple, help support the show at https://srhawktalk.buzzsprout.com, and spread the word Seahawk Nation. #WERSR
Welcome back Seahawk Nation. I'm Tom Frank, this is Hawk Talk and we are talking all things South River High School sports. Hawk Talk is brought to you in conjunction with the Athletic Department at South River High School. Merrick Creative your end-to-end creative agency dedicated to amplifying brands' authenticity through branding, marketing and public relations. Chad's Barbecue and Maryland Remodeling Expert. Chad's barbecue and Maryland remodeling expert. We are officially starting our fourth year as Hawk Talk and there's no way to do it than have the South River Athletic Director, david Klingelhorn.
Speaker 2:Hey, Tom, Great to be back. This is year four of Hawk Talk and year 20 for me as the Athletic Director, which is Year 20. I'm getting old. I realized today I was sitting here at 3 o'clock and I'm tired and I don't think I used to be tired when I was at three o'clock, you used to be going out for an afternoon jog.
Speaker 2:Yes, I need a nap at the end of the day, but no, it's a great start to the season. The weather's been awesome for the preseason, just getting the kids acclimated to, you know, to not intense heat, which is awesome, and today it's 75 and sunny. It's perfect, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's like you live in San Diego.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's one of the big worries in the beginning of the season always is the heat and how the kids get acclimated to it, and with this weather you have to actually work up a sweat, which is nice, so that's a good thing. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1:Yep. So I wanted to reflect back for a minute. We started Hawk Talk in the fall of 2022. Yep, 2022. I did it for two reasons. Number one I had a freshman coming in who's now a senior, which is crazy, right, absolutely crazy. I wanted to stay involved somehow. And then, the second reason we started it really was because, I don't know, I felt like there was not enough media outlets that covered high school sports. The Capitol does a good job, but they don't focus just on South River. So this gave us an opportunity to just focus on South River with our kids, with our coaches, with our parents, everybody involved. So and I kind of think, I mean, after four years it's, I feel like it's, it's working a little bit.
Speaker 2:People talk about it and they're waiting for the next episode and talk to the coaches, talk to the kids. I think when you have the, when you have those groups on and you know some alumni at the alumni nights and basketball kind of brings the community back together, shows what our program is all about. And uh, you know, we're very proud of what we do here and, uh, you know, excited to do year four year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got a good community of people. We've tried a lot of different things on this show, so if anybody's listening, I'm always up for volunteers. I'm always up for crazy ideas. So please contact me. I think I'm a pretty easy person to find, but we'll take any and all ideas. We'll try anything. We've done all sorts of crazy stuff, yeah, and hopefully we'll continue to do some fun stuff this year. So this is episode 77, by the way.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, 77. Yeah, that was the year I was born, so 1977. There you go.
Speaker 1:I'm a tiny bit older.
Speaker 2:Getting close to 50.
Speaker 1:Yes, so tell me about the changes.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting in an office that looks completely different. Well, one of our bigger changes is Ms Tucker retired, so Brian Camper is taking over as the assistant athletic director. Brian was a baseball coach here for I believe four or five years and coach soccer, coach basketball. Has been here for over 10 years now. Great guy, very level-headed, and he's going to be a great asset to me and the entire athletic program. I'm excited to have him Going to miss, ms Tucker.
Speaker 2:She provided such energy and she was somebody that, as I'm in year 20, she was the assistant AD for 19.
Speaker 1:She was with you 19 of the 20 years.
Speaker 2:Yep, when I came in, that was who I hired as an AD and we worked very well together and you know I wish her the best in retirement and she'll be around. I don't know when or where or how, but she'll be back.
Speaker 1:I'm pulling her on the podcast because she always told me she wouldn't do it until after she retired.
Speaker 2:Okay, now she can say whatever she wants. She can get away with anything. She can talk. She can talk, trash on me and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if she's listening, I'm calling you, I know where you live, I'm going to come down there and we're going to get you on the show.
Speaker 2:Will do. I think that'll be a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how about any other big announcements? What do we got? What's new this fall?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think our sports on Monday, the first day for freshmen, in the afternoon, and they do a great job of, I think, bringing teams together, kind of talking about the stuff that is not related to the on-the-field product, the relationships and how you need to pull each other and you don't necessarily have to be best friends or like each other, but you have to respect each other and the ability to the for the coaches and how I think I believe it helps them bring that that chemistry out in the team. And you know you go through a long year of two, two and a half three months, sometimes three and a half, four months, and there are times where you're going to like a family, you're going to disagree with things and you're not going to be happy with the coach and you're not going to be happy with your teammates and you know, and especially with teenage boys and girls, like they're going through all that stuff for the first time. You know, as parents, we we don't go through that Sometimes we don't go through that well, and you know we get frustrated and and don't take our, you know, handle things constructively and you know you put that in a 14 through 17 year old, it's, it's hard, and that's what I hopefully lead them up is teaching those types of skills and how to, you know, manage through those types of things because, like I said, everything's not going to go perfect during the season. It's just not. You know, you can have an undefeated season. You can can win the state championship, like girls basketball day last year.
Speaker 2:But when you look at their record in December, they're two and six and people weren't at like I mean I wasn't happy, zivic wasn't happy, the girls weren't happy, you know the parents weren't happy. I mean, you know, and winning is a is a great cologne to problems Like when you win, it covers up a lot of stuff Like, but what that? I think what like a program like lead them up does is look like at the interior and that's the important stuff. That helps build culture, that helps build programs and ultimately helps build winning and success. That's we play the game because we want to win. Obviously, we're here to teach lessons, high school sports, and that's the most important thing and lead them up does a lot of the, a lot of everything to help us do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've heard nothing but great things. That's exciting, so we'll get Adam on here at some point.
Speaker 2:He's one of the most energetic guys I mean and and it takes a special person like lead groups like that, like I don't have that, I don't have that in me to do what he does and uh, it's uh, you know he's really developed good relationships with our athletes. I know he was at the the uh state championship game last year. Okay, so I mean he, he follows all of his teams and he does it nationwide. So he, I mean it's that's been a great, great asset to our program.
Speaker 1:That's cool. And then tickets this year, just just to get this stuff out of the way.
Speaker 2:The tickets the same, go, go, fan go fan, you know, through the booster club, the punch card system, where if you sign up to be a hundred dollar member, you get one free or one punch card with that where you get 10 admissions as a part of that. That that's. It's like a discount of, I think, $2 a ticket.
Speaker 1:So it's a good discount you know.
Speaker 2:So we'll, you know we'll, we'll sell those at the gate. But also we encourage you to join the booster club, to be a member, to get that benefit. And then you know the other the higher memberships of the booster club will get you more punch cards. So, and more and more other stuff.
Speaker 1:So I had somebody asked me this the other day you do the booster club, you pay the a hundred bucks. Where do you actually pick up your the punch card, punch card.
Speaker 2:So we'll have it at the gate and I'll send that out to uh to parents tomorrow. That like, for instance, if you are a volleyball parent, when you go to the first first volleyball game of the year, there'll be a list for the ticket taker and you just say my name's Dave Klingle, I purchased this and it'll be on there. The ticket taker will take the punch out and give you your card. So you have it for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1:There you go, so we got to get people out to games. I mean attendance, whether you're a student or a parent. I mean they're fun. It's a community event.
Speaker 2:One thing we did this week is, for every fall athlete that we have, they got a South River. You, for every fall athlete that we have, they got a South River. You know. Protect the nest t-shirt. We gave up about 500 or 400 of them this week, you know. Hopefully, you know, we're going to have days where all the athletic program wears them to school. There are white shirts, so we'll do white outs with those and we'll keep that going throughout the year. So every athlete that plays this year we'll get the same t-shirt, Just that plays this year we'll get the same t-shirt, just kind of build unity, and I'll get you one before you leave here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to ask for one. But I mean, imagine a basketball game white out with all those shirts. Absolutely, that's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know we talk about last year's class and you know if you've been in our gym there's pictures on the wall of all the athletes we had nine last year that we featured that were either multiple all-county that to get up there you need to be multiple years all-county, all-county first team in two different sports, all-american, or the player of the year and by the capital gazette. So I mean we had lucas gardeners, adela norton, ben adams, connor campbell, reagan ogle, jayden mcduffie. Well, jayden will be this year. I just gave away one, but he'll be this year. Jayden and reagan were the athlete of the year for the capital for the male and female for the entire year last year.
Speaker 1:Wow, so having that so we got south river, both got boys and girls, yeah, and that's the first time, you know, we've had that happen in the same year.
Speaker 2:We've had, like, we've had years where we've had brooke griffin, taynahan, lavon Chaney. They've won it, but never we had the boy and girl and it's, you know, it's great, it's a great honor for both of them. They're great kids and you know we're just happy to have Jaden back another year representing us. Yeah, and then, you know, obviously moving on to Northwestern next year to play football, you know, jumping out of last year and, you know, into this year. We last year's, like you talked about the sneaky, you know sneaky, you know year. This year, I feel like, yeah, we lost a lot of, I mean, we lost a lot of high-end talent from last year's class, but this year's class, I think, and the underclassmen as well, will help, you know, make our teams very competitive so let me ask you about jayden.
Speaker 1:Now, jay, so is that? Is that the first time a junior uh won that at South River, or no?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. I think it was the first time and obviously this year he's kind of right in line to win it again, I would think, because I feel like he's going to have a great football year, he's going to have a great basketball year and not many kids play more than one sport anymore. When you talk about the athlete of the year, it's got to be somebody that's playing multiple sports and for a guy like Jayden that plays it at such a high level football and basketball, first team all-county in both I say a lot of good words about him. He's a great kid and what I love about him is he believed. You know he went to Spalding his freshman year and then he came back Right and you know there's a lot of people that go to private schools and there's a lot of people that you know think that's a better avenue and you got to make the best choice for your family and that's, you know, that's what everybody does for their kid.
Speaker 2:But Jaden bought back into us and I know Coach Hall and Coach Erick Slavin and the whole athletic program right To have a kid like that, buy back into you and then produce like he has and do the things that he does. I mean he's going to Northwestern. I mean we have a kid that's going to play Big Ten football from South River and that just says that you can do it from anywhere, right, you know, I mean people, there's no doubt about it that those other schools have great programs, but I feel like we do too, and it just proves that if you want to go this avenue, that there is, you know, a good future on the other end from. You know Northwestern is one of the best educational institutions in the world and you get to play Big Ten football, yeah. So I'm proud of him and, like I said, thankful for him to be back here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, he's been a great example and it's going to be fun to see what happens this year. Let's dive into our sports. I just think I said this to you earlier. I think we have a sneaky good senior class here. This could be very interesting. I said this to you earlier I think we have a sneaky good senior class here. This could be very interesting. We've got a lot of fall sports. I'm just going to go through them. Give me your comments. We've got to start with cheer. Yep, they're the ones who get us all fired up, absolutely. We have very experienced coaching staff. They head up. They keep getting everybody excited. They're at all the events, or at least a lot of them. Um, what, what, what do we have to say about this year's cheerleading squad?
Speaker 2:You know they've got some young kids. I know that they've have a few freshmen on the team. I know a lot of a couple of sophomores as well, and then the senior class and junior class to you know, to build on that it's Ev always does a great job. When we talk about hard work and you know, and people say, is cheerleading a sport?
Speaker 2:And I went into a classroom the other day Mr Poole's classroom and he said, hey, mr Klingle is cheerleading a sport. And I said, well, what's your version of it? And he goes well, what you see on Friday night at football games, I said, well, no, that's more of a student spirited thing. I said, but what you see on October 13th at our Invitational, that's a sport and it's probably one of the harder sports that we have, if not the hardest. And their work ethic and the amount of time they put in, and I marvel at them because I couldn't do it and a lot of people couldn't do it. They sit there and they say I encourage everybody to go to a cheer event, Like I told my daughter to go last year and she's like when's the one this year? Because they're fun, they are fun.
Speaker 1:I her to go last year and she's like when's the one this year? Because they're fun. They are fun. I I've gotten to announce the last couple of them, uh, last couple years, and they're fun. It's loud music, they're doing some extraordinarily athletic things. Yeah, yeah. Now I do want them to incorporate the south river seahawk into their, into their routine yeah, that's always.
Speaker 2:That's something we're lacking on.
Speaker 1:I haven't really got that through yet, but we'll work on them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see what happens they got uh, they got brand new mats this year, so they're ready to go and light a nice light gray, and then I kind of threw them under the bus because they are the most expensive uniform that we purchased we noticed that when you announced that six hundred dollars uniform I did.
Speaker 2:When bev came to me with that and I said, yeah, they look good, how much. And she said six hundred dollars and I said whoa. But like I said, they're there for four years and they, you know, and they it's, uniforms are important to kids they got rhinestones they do, and especially the cheerleaders. I just hope that we take good care of them, wash them and hopefully they bring home a state championship there we go.
Speaker 1:We need a state championship with us. All right, how about golf? Golf seems to something it's kind of like been growing over the last couple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I mean we have over 35 kids try out for golf this year. We had to actually make cuts this year. You know we got a good group of boys and girls. I think we have. I know we have 10, I think we have 10 boys and four or 10 girls and 14 boys we used to only have, we used to only have like three or four girls. Now we have 10, which is an awesome growth to the program, some freshmen coming in.
Speaker 2:I know Coach Schlossberg has really done a good job of building the program and, you know, making it important right. And I saw their score. They finished third, tied for third. And what's hard for them is every match they go against Severna Park, broadneck, crofton, because there's an A division, yeah, so we don't get the. They never get like an easy win every once in a while because they're always going against those same teams, but they're very competitive. I think they tied for third yesterday and you know it's a. I mean, they'll have days where they finish first, they'll have days where they finish second. It's a really cool sport because, like, I feel like the camaraderie of the teams, because you're with the same teams the whole year. You know you really build on that. Uh, you know aid notice is a is a good returner, uh, you know. And then the girls sarah valencia, maya parker you know that. You know we'll be very competitive, both boys and girls, and hopefully we'll, you know, compete at the county level and so they.
Speaker 1:When they play, though they play all the different courses around the county, yeah, so yesterday we played this out.
Speaker 2:They played the south river, so they had like a home match yesterday, which is, you know, they're rare but they'll go to compass point eisenhower where's our home south river? Yeah, they'll play a compass point. Eisenhower renditions, crofton, so sign up to play.
Speaker 1:Well, now you got to make the team. You got to make the team, but yeah, you get to play golf a lot yeah, absolutely it, it's definitely a. Do they take a 52-year-old man on the team?
Speaker 2:Maybe a volunteer assistant coach Okay.
Speaker 1:So, All right, and then we got cross country Caleb Foster. He's been here for a couple of years now. Right, because I feel like Third year, third year.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, caleb's got a. He's running a great program, great things, and he's got a group that, like I always felt sometimes that our running programs we've had sometimes too many kids on the team because we want to be inclusive. But I feel like this year we have 50 on our on our cross country program and I feel like it's a lot. It's still a lot, but we've had 75 to a hundred sometimes and I feel like you can coach better. That way the kids can come more of a team. We did lead them up with them for the first time this past Monday and you know I feel like if you have a more tighter knit group, that you know, like I said, you're really focusing on the varsity athlete and building a bunch of varsity runners and I feel like we can do that. And you know, and it continues into indoor track and outdoor track and we have great kids running and you know they do well. So I mean we're excited for you know, caleb, in the season, seahawk invite is September 6th at 8 am.
Speaker 2:We're hoping for this weather. Yeah yeah, usually that day is 94 degrees with 100% humidity.
Speaker 1:And raining, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's brutal.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll hope for good weather.
Speaker 2:Cheer for 75 and Sonny.
Speaker 1:And then we got volleyball Yep, and we got Maureen Carter 31st year 31st, so she beats you by a mile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she beats me by a mile, you know she tells me what to do but no, she's just as energetic as she's ever been. I was watching the other day and I was driving home. I was watching the other day and I was driving home. I was like geez, mo is like she runs with the kids. I'm like that's amazing that she can keep up after with these kids at that age. You know, I don't want to say at that age that sorry, mo, but 31 years of coaching, I mean, and she's keeping up with them and the little levels she brings to intensity. She brings the practice every day. It's fun.
Speaker 2:They have a good group of seniors Soraya Chavez, hannah Tackix, jilly Newbanks Like I said, I don't like to start naming names because I'll blank sometimes and they've got a couple. They have a freshman on the team, caden Johnson. Lauren Philpott is a transfer from Spalding as a sophomore and then a good group of juniors. So they're going to Mo's team I was talking to. Patsy is a transfer from Spalding as a sophomore and then a good group of juniors. So you know they're going to most team. I was talking to her husband, brett, where we're we're good friends and he said in 31 years she's never had a losing season, really.
Speaker 1:And that's crazy, that is crazy, yeah, 31 years.
Speaker 2:Two years ago she was four and seven and and they were playing three tough teams and I was talking to Brett, I remember I said I think this is the year they go 3-0 in those games against, like Huntington, two Howard County teams. Then they win a playoff game and end up. I think they end up over 500. And that's not the goal, obviously. But even in our years where we're a little down, the kids will overachieve and I think that they're going to be right in the mix of the county league and then you never know when you get to playoffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still want to get Coach Carter on.
Speaker 2:She's right there. She's been avoiding me. We can talk to her.
Speaker 1:We're going to go over there and get her on there, yeah, and we'll be right back. Welcome to Merrick Studios, where stories take the mic and culture comes alive. We're not just a network, we're a family, bringing you smart, soulful, unfiltered conversations In this season we're bringing the heat with our biggest lineup yet.
Speaker 2:Whatever you're into, music, sports, business.
Speaker 1:We got you covered Merrick Studios, where the conversation starts and keeps going. Check out our full lineup, including Unglossy with Bun B, jeffrey Sledge and myself, tom Fran Now streaming at wearemerrickstudioscom. And now back to our show. And then we got girls soccer Christine. Now I feel like she's been here for a while too, she's been here.
Speaker 2:yep, I don't know what year it is.
Speaker 1:It's like five, maybe five or six, four is it, could be four, could be four I feel like she, the first year we did the podcast was her first year, but I could be wrong this might be her fifth year in the program.
Speaker 2:Fourth year is the head coach. Okay, that's right. So, yeah, good young group that she has. We only have three seniors on the team uh, maya, foy filer raylan. Uh, raylan ford and I'm blanking on. Like I said, I don't like name names. I'm blanking on the last name, but they got a good group of juniors Tierney, gary, sambita, kids that have played, cammy Burke, who plays basketball. I mean, they'll be competitive. That name, severna Parks. Severna Parks won the last couple years of state championship. They have two twins that are amazing soccer players that are back for their senior year, that they've haunted me for four years Cause they've been really, really good.
Speaker 1:And they're twins, right yeah.
Speaker 2:And they are. They're both going to play division one soccer, but I feel like this group is a, you know is a is a good group of. You know they're going to work hard, they're going to get better and you know they're young, like I said, but you know, sometimes it's good to have a young team to you know you might have a little growing pains, but also it builds for the future. I think over the next couple of years we're going to have a really, really strong team.
Speaker 1:And they start September 6th versus Indian Creek, first game of the year. That's the boys, that's the boys yes. The girls are, or maybe no, they are. Yeah, I think that's the. That's the girls. Girls are at glen. Bernie boys are anorak.
Speaker 2:They're at christian school, yeah, and then I think they their first official game. Those right is annapolis the boys. So the boys play, uh, anorak christian school next saturday and then they open up the county schedule, I think the mead on the 9th, so yeah, um, and then the boys are back again.
Speaker 1:They had a tough one at the end of last year.
Speaker 2:I don't want to talk about that one still has.
Speaker 1:Marlon finally got over that.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so, but I think that's what makes them a strong program, is that hunger kind of feeds them into. This year. You got some guys back, got Patrick Mitchell, jack Gibbons, jay Hughes, that group that's coming.
Speaker 1:They lost a lot of kids.
Speaker 2:They did, they did. But you know the good thing about having a program that's been successful is those kids see what it takes and they can step in. Like we had Lucas Gardner's last year, we have Jacob, his younger brother. Now it's a lot to step into right. You're the younger brother of, like, a Division I soccer player but you know I watched Jacob in the first scrimmage and you know I looked out and took a double take and I thought it was Lucas out there and you know they have a similar look, similar hairstyle. You know I don't want to put too much pressure on him but I think he can step up and into a role for us. And you know the guys up front and we got a lot of young guys, a few sophomores and a few juniors I think they'll step up. Will they be as dynamic as they were the entire year? Maybe not, but I think that they will also step up.
Speaker 2:When it counts later in the year and that's what you're ultimately building for is the late end of the season and then when you get on a roll like they have I don't know if we were all. I mean, nobody was expecting it two years ago and then boom. Same thing with girls' basketball. I mean, we thought we were good, but when you get rolling, it just starts to roll in the right direction and winning. Creating that winning culture is intimidating to other teams too. No-transcript. How's that going for him now?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to say this about Coach Marlin. I was at the field hockey the parents they come back for the night and we were in the cafeteria. I was with the field hockey, marlin was with the soccer on the other side. You couldn't help but overhear him, because the passion that comes from that guy, I mean I wanted to go play soccer for him because he is into it and I love it and he's passionate about what he's doing, he wants to win and he runs an outstanding program and I heard from a lot of field hockey kids and parents that we can't be in the same room as Marlon because we can't hear our coach.
Speaker 2:So we'll make that adjustment next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we may just maybe get the field hockey coaches a mic or something. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, let's dive into field hockey now. So field hockey. We got two solid teams here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we're going to have a great season. You know the kids coming back from last year. Obviously you lose Kelly Weber, who is a great player, but I think we have kids to step up and step into roles. We have a couple new freshmen that are really dynamic Kaylee Crovo, Blake O'Connell and then you have some sophomores that are Addie Parker, who is really strong, with a good group of senior leadership, and then a good group of juniors, also with Bailey O'Connell, who I'm expecting big things from this year, Sophia Peoples, Lauren Reedy, who's been on the team for three years, Avery Ford coming up, and she's a great softball player as well. And then you know the person in the back who is one of the top hundred players in the country. Emma Bonacorsi is our goalie. Just to have her back there as a security blanket is You're at least in it.
Speaker 1:You're in every game.
Speaker 2:I mean, crofton's won a few state championships the last couple years where they've obviously had great players up front. But they had riley osborne, who was at university of maryland, and she was a difference maker, and I feel like emma has the same ability to be that kind of difference maker for us where, you know, when the other team comes, they, they see her and she has red hair and they see that red hair and they're like you know. But you know also we have, you know, we have another great goalie, addison Bruther, and then the other seniors, angelina Lutterby, sarah Theobald, lydia Hooker and Layla Boucher, who will bring great things to the program as well. So we have a tough schedule. Who will bring great things to the program as well. So we have a tough schedule. You know, when I looked at our team right and I looked at the talent that we have, we bumped up the schedule a little bit. We're playing Maryville, no pressure on the team?
Speaker 1:No, no.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I did the same thing with girls basketball last year, and we're playing River Hill, maryville Prep, longreach, winston Churchill, smyrna Park, crofton, broadneck, mcdonough, and then you have Annapolis, chesapeake, arundel, who are no slouch themselves.
Speaker 2:So I mean, out of the 14 games we play 12, if we don't bring our A game we're going to have, you know, trouble. So I feel like you know these girls are up to the challenge and, like I said, you know, like the iron sharpens, iron type of thing, we are in 3a this year and saverna park, broadneck and crofton are in 4a. Okay, so part of the scheduling dynamic was we want to be ready for the postseason run and any team that we play on our schedule. We're not seeing better than that in the playoffs. So when we, when you look at a saverna park across and then you look at a mc, so when you look at a Severna Parker Cross and then you look at a McDonough and you look at a Maryville Prep and a John Carroll, when you get to October in playoff time, you don't see anybody. That's better than that.
Speaker 2:They might be good, but they're not gonna be better than that. And tomorrow is case in point. They scrimmage Bryn Mawr, who might be one of the top teams in the country. You know they got their work cut out for them and I'm not guaranteeing record, but I will guarantee come October they'll be ready.
Speaker 1:They'll be ready and they have a fairly young coaching staff right.
Speaker 2:This is their second, this is Kate's second year and you know she's done a great job with the program. Kate coached at Pace University as a collegiate coach and now is with us for her second year and you know, like I said, we're very happy to have her and her staff and looking forward to a great year for field hockey.
Speaker 1:And then we got to end with football. Football could be very interesting this year, absolutely. We got a lot of kids who have come back Again. I think the credit to you a lot of these kids starting to come back from these private schools. They're starting to see success here at South River, a great community, and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know I joke with Steve that the transfer portal was open at South River this summer and you know, the funny thing is they they're all. They all were our kids at one point, you know, like they just went on to play at Spalding Mount, St Joe, St Francis, but the good thing is that they came back right. You know, they're like the S-R-Y-A 13U team four years later they're all back and that's a great feeling to have.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, do we wish we had them for four years? Of course, but everybody's journey is different and the fact that they felt comfortable enough to come back says a lot about what Steve has done as a program and culture building, says a lot about our athletic program. Guys like Jaden, people wanting to play with Jaden you know Ben Raines, who is a tremendous quarterback. I feel like him and Jaden are going to have a great chemistry this year throw a lot of touchdowns.
Speaker 2:The Phil, zach Philpott we haven't seen. I haven't seen many kids walk around the hallway that look like Zach. He's just a big kid and a big personality too, which I love. He's a you know, just you know, hit it off with him right away Just because he's he's an energetic big guy. That just you know. He loves football and he, you know he wants to play at the next level. Then we got your guys, like you know, pax Amatis and Sean Cox, and and that group that Corey Warren and JP Simpson guys that were with us, that we were going to have a good year even if those guys didn't come back to us, and you add that, that that group, to the mix, I think we're going to have a really strong year. We I mean, I think, our out-of-county schedule. I think a lot of people are like a little sleeping on it, like oh yeah, it's not that, but urbana is always tough the schedule.
Speaker 1:To that point, though, I went through. It is very different this year, very different than any year I've ever seen so we're strictly 3a now.
Speaker 2:So this is the first year of a scheduling cycle where they try to match up the 3As versus all the 3As in county but there's only like four or five of them. So we have five county games which are Severn, chesapeake, northeast, southern and Crofton, so they're all smaller, like us. And then when you get that, you get flexibility in the beginning of the year to pick up four games which we picked up Randallstown, randallstown, hereford, who's always had a great program. The seed school, which people are like, who's that?
Speaker 1:It's a charter school in.
Speaker 2:Baltimore. They played for the state championship in boys basketball last year. We're talking to the Milford Mill coach who Milford mill is a tremendous program, yeah, and we're, we said who we played the seed school week three and he's like they got our running back from one of our running backs from last year, so they're going to have some talent too yeah.
Speaker 2:So, and then Urbana has all always had a great athletic program and a great football team. So you know, those four games there, I mean I think that we're going to get tested early. And then, you know, we have Steven Decatur in our region, who's another tough team. So it's you know, I think there's a tremendous amount of potential. But I'm a Penn Stater and we talk about that a lot, and James Franklin's mantra is you got to go 1-0 every game, and we got to go 1-0 against Randallstown, because that's all that really matters is playing them week one, and you know you can't worry about the eight after that. You've just got to beat them week one and then, you know, move from there. So you know we're really excited about it. You know this is the first time that I've had this excitement since the I think it was 2019, when we had David Faust in that group.
Speaker 1:So you know, I feel like there's that's big expectations right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's going to be some big, hopefully big crowds. You know, and like you know, coach Clark the way he calls offense it's an exciting brand of football Coach Erickson, how he calls defense, and we're blitzing constantly. I think we're going to get a lot of you know, a lot of great, exciting games for us to play this year.
Speaker 1:What's our first home game?
Speaker 2:We play Hereford week two, september 12th, seven o'clock game, so it's a little later we're playing a JV varsity doubleheader that night.
Speaker 1:I like the JV varsity, so we have.
Speaker 2:I think we have two of them this year, where the JV well, the Hereford game and the Urbana game are doubleheaders and then the Randallstown game. So three of the first four are doubleheaders.
Speaker 1:And then when do we play Southern?
Speaker 2:Southern is October 17th senior night for everybody here at the nest. Yes, that'll be a big one, obviously mid-October.
Speaker 1:Mid-October, because that's different than it's been in the past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's usually first game of the year.
Speaker 1:First, game and in the way past it used to be the last game, but now we're in the middle somewhere.
Speaker 2:All right. So we're. You know I like. I like those middle games Cause, like it's, you're right in the middle of the school, like getting back into school, you know you're in your routine and then you have a big game and everybody should be jack Any big predictions going into this year.
Speaker 1:Give me one. It can be crazy, it can be weird.
Speaker 2:Last year I think I said Reagan Ogle would win the region championship.
Speaker 1:I didn't go as far as state. I said state. Yeah, I did say state, and they proved me right.
Speaker 2:All right, for the fall, I will say that our field hockey team will win a state championship, ooh, yep. And for the winter, oh, I wasn't even going to push you on that, I'll go for the winter. You know, and I want to, I'll say that coach Hall will get over the hump and win a region. I'm not going to say he's going to win a state championship, but he's going to play for one.
Speaker 1:He's going to play for one. Yes, we will be at Comcast again. That would be pretty amazing With the boys this year, all right.
Speaker 2:And then for the spring, I think that our baseball team is going to be solid. This year Nolan Hooker is going to hopefully be back pitching for us with all the depth that we built last year when Nolan couldn't pitch. I think that team is going to be somebody that you know now baseball is a. It's a crapshoot. One game baseball seasons, you know, in the playoffs, like any sport, it's one game elimination and baseball totally matches up with who you're pitching against. You Hitting's very. You know it can be on and off, but you know I think the baseball team's got a chance to, you know, raise some eyebrows this year as well. So feel'm not saying the other sports aren't, but those are my top three picks for fall, winter and spring.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say football. What's the school record for points in a season? Oh geez, Would that have to be back in.
Speaker 2:It would either be 2000. I would think it would either have to be 2019 or 2012. 2012,. Lance Clown's offense put up a lot of points. I'll check with Coach Dolch because he would know something.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say they're going to make a run at the total points for the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think they're going to be dynamic. We'll see, yep.
Speaker 1:All right, we've got an exciting fall season coming at you Again, call me, get in touch with me. You got any crazy ideas for Hot Talk? This year I will have my co-host and my correspondents on. Throughout the year. I got to pull Jayden every once in a while. We'll have Gray Frank on here as well, thank you, Dave, Absolutely Looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:Like I said, it's a year 20, but when you look at those things, like you know, I always look at these kids and you know they only get one shot at this. Obviously, it's my 20th year and I've had like five full classes come through and this is year 20. And I, you know, I'm very excited for this year and look for great things and got great people, great coaches, kids, community. It's just a matter of putting it all together.
Speaker 1:Yep, come out, see these games. There's going to be some great games this fall. That's our show. Please don't hesitate to contact us through Instagram at SRHawkTalk. Let me know what you think of the show and who you want to see on a future episode. Subscribe to the show on Apple, spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a rating on Apple and spread the word Seahawk Nation. Until next time, I'll leave you with a cheer from our South River cheer team. Go Seahawks, go blue, go white. Ready, go blue, go white. Go Seahawks and fight.
