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
Building Culture with Football Coaches Erxleben & Clark
Seahawk Nation, Hawk Talk is back at Chad’s BBQ. Tom Frank and Grey Frank sit down with Head Coach Steve Erxleben and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Clark to break down South River’s big season-opening win, the depth of this senior-heavy squad, and how the program is building a culture of excellence on and off the field.
From middle school flag football to the return of former players as coaches, the staff shares how they’re strengthening the pipeline for the future. The conversation dives into recruiting buzz around star players like Jaden McDuffie, the “wombat mentality” of the scout team, and what to expect in the upcoming home opener against powerhouse Hereford.
Plus: Scores and schedules from around South River, bold NFL predictions, new footbal uniforms, and why the sideline sounds a little like Metallica on gameday. This one’s packed with football insight, community pride, and a clear message—better people make better Seahawks.
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. Merit 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. All right, here we go. Welcome back Seahawk Nation. I'm Tom Frank. This is Hawk Talk. We're back at Chad's Barbecue and Maryland Remodeling Expert. But at least smile. I got my co-host here next to me. Gray Frank Jayden McDuffie, I guess, had to go take a shower after practice. Thought he stunk too much, but we'll have him back very soon and we're talking all things South River High School sports. So it's your senior year. Yeah, you kicked off with Senior Sunrise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that was fun. I got to see all the seniors come back out play a little die on the field. It was fun, and you guys actually watched the sun come up. Yeah, mostly, mostly All right. What are you excited about this fall? I'm really just excited to get the college application process over with. So am I. I would also say it's just cool. I mean, this is the final ride with everyone. Just live it up, live it up, it up for the moment you got it.
Speaker 1:This is it, and the real world begins somewhat, somewhat in college, in addition to to my guy here, we got, we got some football coaches in here and we're going to talk a lot of football. We're not going to get into football right away. We got to go through the other scores, but first you guys got to introduce yourselves all right um coach kevin clark here, offensive coordinator, um.
Speaker 3:thank you for having us on Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You slipped right in the Jaden spot. It's going to be perfect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, somebody had to fill in his shoes.
Speaker 1:And then we've got our regular on the show, our head coach. How are you, hello, hello it's.
Speaker 4:Coach Erksleben how are you?
Speaker 1:Good, you seem a little bit more now, intense, now that the season has begun.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I mean that's just you know, I mean sure yeah, sure, all right.
Speaker 1:All right, we've got a lot of football to get to, but first let's run down our other sports here. Help me out as best you guys can. First we've got soccer. I love Coach Marlin because he's the guy who actually sends me updates all the time. He said that the boys finished up the preseason undefeated, with a 3-0 win over Kent Island. They win over Kent Island. They also beat Eleanor Roosevelt and Falston and we will kick off the regular season at home, actually right now, today, saturday September 6th, at 3 o'clock against Annapolis Area Christian School. By the time this comes out, I'm just going to say we're 1-0.
Speaker 1:You know, Tom, I taught Marlon.
Speaker 4:You taught him, I know.
Speaker 1:You're that old? Yeah, Tom, I am. We'll get into that too Great. All right, the girls' soccer. They'll also start today at the Glen Birdie Tournament Versus Indian Creek at 9 am. And then Harvard to Grace. Am I saying that right? Harvard to Grace, Harvard to Grace at 1 pm.
Speaker 4:A little bit of trivia. What county is that in oh?
Speaker 2:jeez.
Speaker 1:I was going to say Howard, but that's probably wrong.
Speaker 4:Harford, harford, harford Do you know where that is.
Speaker 1:It's somewhere up north right.
Speaker 4:There you go. Yeah, good boy up, good job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got him in the right direction yeah, yeah, haver to Grace, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:All right, I played with a Varsity Squad started their regular season last night at the South River Invitational. They played River Hill, won 5-1, and then they went on to play the winner of Maryville Prep versus Bel Air. I had no word on that game, though. Should we just take a guess?
Speaker 2:and say they won. I would assume we won so you think we're 2-0?
Speaker 1:Uh-oh, coach has jumpedoh.
Speaker 3:I talked to Klingel last night we dropped the game to Maryville.
Speaker 1:So we lost to Maryville, so we're 1-1.
Speaker 3:They played tough, though, he said.
Speaker 1:They played hard. Yep, that's why you're on the show right there. All right, volleyball Our first regular season game is this coming Tuesday at home versus Severn Run. Why don't we have a men's volleyball team?
Speaker 4:I believe only Montgomery County Public public schools as male volleyball, but I think it's a spring sport.
Speaker 1:That's kind of a West Coast thing too. Penn State has always been great at men's volleyball.
Speaker 4:At the interscholastic level. I think it's a West Coast thing.
Speaker 1:You want to coach volleyball.
Speaker 3:I couldn't coach it, but I'd come watch it.
Speaker 4:Speaking of that not to fast way forward. We're both coaching flag football after the football season's over For the high school, for the middle school For the middle school and our linebackers coach. Coach DeSantis is coaching the girls flag football team.
Speaker 1:So we're going to actually have middle school? Yes, it's part of middle school.
Speaker 4:Yes, it starts relatively at the end of our season. Why do we not have middle school sports period? Well, I think they're going to it. They've, they've gone. It's like right now we have middle school basketball going on. Okay, it was middle school soccer last year. Uh, it's. It's a push by our board education to try to make the middle school experience. You know, I love it, but when us, I mean one thing that we've done to south everybody's really really good is. You know, all of our coaches are pretty much coaching that too. So you're building relationships yeah, it's great it's, it's, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's great for parents too. Yes, I'm sick of sending my kids the rec. I look the minute they got done with the rec.
Speaker 4:I was very excited yes, yes, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's a win-win for everybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah dc actually does it and they have tackle football in the middle school level and you think we'll eventually get there, or you think flags gonna kind of take over?
Speaker 4:okay, I think flags, yeah it's uh, it's breaching the gap and and once again, we're trying to build relationships. We're trying to know kids so we can get them in the weight room in the spring as eighth graders and then eventually get them in the program as freshmen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean flag is getting bigger and bigger it is. Do you think there will eventually be a girls' flag football team at the high school?
Speaker 4:I hope so. When do you play it? Do you compete with lacrosse in the spring or do you compete with that's going?
Speaker 1:to be the big question.
Speaker 4:I know there are pilot programs in Montgomery County and Howard County PG County and it's worked out. When do they play In the fall Fall, they're going on, right now the rumor is we have over 100 girls at the middle school that want to play fly football.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome. Is it on the same format as 7-on-7?
Speaker 4:See, we don't know that. Yet we don't know where we're playing. Is it a 40-yard field or a 100-yard field? We don't quite know, and if you ask questions, there's really not, but just the interest alone should make people excited, right All right, that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:All right, but before we talk about the big win last night which we did have a big one, All right, you got it. First, let's get a little introduction. We do have new listeners out there. I gain listeners every year, so give us a little bit of your background. How did you come to be here? And you've been here obviously for like 50 years now 24.
Speaker 4:24.
Speaker 3:Almost half that.
Speaker 4:I've taught at South River for 24 years. Originally from Bowie, maryland, which is not too far away, I played my college football at Frostburg State and I coached here at Frostburg and then came here and sort of been here ever since and you've been very successful here. We've had great players, we've had good support, we've had great coaches. You're a cog in the wheel. We talk about getting 1% better at 100 little things every day. I'm just 1% of what goes on, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm just 1% of what goes on. And then, where did we?
Speaker 3:find you. So I'm actually from the area, grew up in Edgewater, played for the Southern Brigades growing up and Edgewater Blue Devils was around then. The Edgewater.
Speaker 1:Blue Devils.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I've ever heard that one.
Speaker 4:They were still around when I was growing up.
Speaker 3:Best team money could buy. But yeah, went to private school. Actually for high school my dad was principal at McNamara, so I went to McNamara.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Played there, ended up playing in college, at King's College, for a little bit, came back to the area, got into coaching. I was coaching at McNamara and DeMatha and a couple other schools over across the bridge and we moved back to the area and I was looking to make a change after being at DeMatha for a year and I hit up Coach Erks and he was like, yeah, I mean, let's meet. And we met one day and about three days later he called me and was like so you coming over? And I said yep, I'm coming over, and that was last season.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's good. I've always been the yang I've got to have a yang.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know like the antithesis the opposite.
Speaker 4:So it's, you know, it's been good, it's been good.
Speaker 1:Tell us about the rest of the staff, because this year you kind of a lot of the guys have come back, yeah.
Speaker 4:So one thing I'm really proud of our JV staff. You know we've got three, obviously. You know Coach Woodruff has been there for a while now. He teaches at the elementary school, so it's good with you know, making connections at an early age. Keir Chapman, whose stepson Mike Oliver plays in our program he's new, he's calling our offense. You know, real dedicated guy and really actually the biggest benefit down there is Coach Mike Henshaw. Coach Mike Henshaw has coached for 53 years. Frostburg State graduate coached in Calvert County for a long time and he brings that fatherly approach to JV football but he coaches those kids hard. If he comes in the weight room in the offseason, all the JV guys bolt to the door to shake his hand. It's really pretty remarkable and having his wealth of knowledge up in the booth defensively is just a real, real credit to our program.
Speaker 4:And on varsity, you know, obviously you know Lucas Jamerson, coach on the office line. He's been a steady coach we teach together. He's, you know, been there for a long time, as I have. Coach John DeSantis coaches our inside linebackers a real dear friend of mine. We've coached together before different all-star games, but he's been at South Air versus 2019 defensively. Aaron Matz, another fine lieutenant, has been there for a long time too as well. Coaches our special teams and our outside linebackers. Jamal Lunny coaches our receivers and cornerbacks, so we've got actually also Coach Nick Austell. It's always awesome when a former player of yours comes back and coaches, especially a guy who's coached in college. Coach Austell played at Kings Point US Merchant Marine Academy, then coached at Catholic for a while and now is back coaching on defensive line and he's done a tremendous job just making that group better.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Alex oh, I'm sorry. Also another former player in a way. Alex Baldwin, who has Frostburg State connections, was a GA there for a while, is back helping as an offensive analyst for us.
Speaker 1:You've got a big staff. This year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we have 11 coaches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. That's what you needed. I feel like in the past you didn't have as many Right, and it's nice.
Speaker 4:It takes time. Building a large staff takes. You know we don't want to have the same personality. I've been on staff that has the like friction, and now as a 2.0 leader I guess you want to call me we try to balance it out with different personalities and I think we have gelled pretty well and I think the kids feed off of that. The kids are very observant with that kind of stuff. Yeah definitely it's been good.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's talk about the team. Let's start with the returners.
Speaker 4:I know we've got a lot of new faces as well. Yeah, first off, on the bus ride up last night I looked at DeSantis. I said you know, we have 11 senior starters on defense, 11. We have 10 senior starters on offense. The only person, I'm sorry, nine. We have our left guard, right guard yeah, he plays left side.
Speaker 1:And Cor Warren. Our tailback is a junior left guard. He plays guard. Yeah, he plays left guard.
Speaker 4:He plays left guard, yeah, either side and Cor Warren, our tailback, is a junior. Outside of that we have all seniors, so we have a huge senior class. Not to mention we've added some pieces that have really made this thing gel together. But this core group, we started on the way of December 15th and actually we talked about this last Thursday. I said, man, look away from december 15th. And actually we talked about this last thursday. I said, man, look, it started december 15th. We are now to the point where all the practices are over, all the weights are over, all the film sessions are over. It is now time to play.
Speaker 4:We put nine months into this for right now, you know, and um did some recent. You know, you, you try to get better as a leader, you try to get better within your culture. You know, we've studied some other cultures around around, other cultures around sports, like rugby culture, which kind of amazed me because it seems like it's so player-led, it's transformational, not transactional. And, you know, started studying the haka, the dance they do in New Zealand. Do you know what the haka means in Malayan? I don't. It's our time, it's very intrinsic. It's not an intimidation thing, it's a self-motivation thing. It's intrinsic, extrinsic, and we've kind of focused on that mentality and we talk about really three things every day. You know play with a purpose with everything, practice the purpose, play with the purpose, live with the purpose, get 1% better at a hundred things daily, which is 100% improvement. And lastly, play with excellence. And the last thing is better people make better. Seahawks Focus on being better people and really you know what They've taken that thing and they have run with it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So can we expect a little dance coming down to the field? That's all I heard, really. I've watched these guys dance. I don't know if we're ready for that. That's not going to happen. That's not a big deal, but it's that mentality of it. It's our time. It's our time.
Speaker 4:It's our time and they've run with it, and we're still getting better with it. We're still. You know, we talked about this more after our film, so actually, look, it's nine one-game seasons. We won over the last season. Now we're on to this season.
Speaker 1:Let's go 1- one of your biggest senior classes, then if you have that many starters, I think back in 2019 when I was still an assistant again.
Speaker 4:Uh, we had like 31 or 32, but this senior class is deep like a lot of those guys play.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know it's not like. You know we've got guys that don't play a lot. We have a lot of scenes of playing special teams. They start on either one or two sides of the ball, um, but they we've got a lot of seniors that are contributing, which is that's that's important to me contribution and getting your piece of this whole thing so you can remember it forever and you can apply it to the rest of your life. Become a better father, husband, employee. That's very, very important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I can remember saying to Klingle I have such belief in this team because of the depth, yeah, and that's important and you know depth gives you like okay, another thing that Coach Henshaw kind of brought from his days.
Speaker 4:we call our scout team the Wombats and it's like a Wombat mentality and I'd say, look, the Wombats should be the best team our ones play every week. And that's our scout team and you know what One of our senior, or actually two of our seniors, trent Shipley and Jack McGrath, are kind of the chief Wombats.
Speaker 2:They kind of lead the charge, they do, and they do a great job, they get after it, they get after our offense.
Speaker 4:Look, the Wombats are the best defense you're going to play all week, so it's been good. It's been good, yeah.
Speaker 1:And how about some of these new guys? You did get some new guys, in which I think is interesting right that you got some of these kids that were maybe at the private schools coming back.
Speaker 4:People talk about the transfer portal. Ours is the transfer vacuum. Ours is the transfer vacuum. We're going to suck them back. But, tom, we found some guys through, you know, and we were pretty liberal with our conversations to guys about what their experience was of the place. Just in case, you know, you got a little doubt as to what's going on. You can always come back. We'll give you a full scholarship. Yeah, you don't have to pay to go here. We had a few guys that heard that message and you. We had a few guys that heard that message and they liked what we were doing and came back Between Zach Philpott, ben Rain, xander McDowell, greg.
Speaker 1:Proud All South River guys Exactly.
Speaker 3:All guys that live right up the street.
Speaker 4:They really have filled in some pieces that are worth several successful opportunities for us. It know and it makes us so much better and you know, in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm going to take credit on the podcast. I think they had been hearing us on the podcast for years, I think so too.
Speaker 4:No, they talked about that Absolutely Right.
Speaker 1:Hey, you got to take some credit when you can 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.
Speaker 3:And this season we're bringing the heat with our biggest lineup yet. Whatever you're into, music, sports business, we got you covered.
Speaker 1:Merrick Studios, where the conversation starts and keeps going. Check out our full lineup, including unglossy with bun b, jeffrey sledge and myself, tom frank, now streaming at. We are merrickstudioscom. And now back to our show. And then we got to talk about one of your players. He was going to be here today, but I read, I read an article yesterday. I read an article everyone, what's up, media and you said I've never had so many college colleges come through the school in a month to recruit a player. 47.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 47.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, and it's a we're talking about Jaden.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we got a guy, we got a guy, jaden, has changed the trajectory of our program. Yeah, and through his, I guess his, him being him, who he is and how special of a person he is and how he carries himself, the family he comes from. Somebody asked, some reporter asked us, what's his best attribute. I said, high or low, he's always the same guy. You would never know if we win him by 60 or something bad happened. It's always next player to that guy and he's made our program so much better with him and his presence and the recruiting thing was just a byproduct of him.
Speaker 4:And I think, once again, our recruiting philosophy had to change as the game changed. The game has changed and you have to embrace it. They used to say either adapt or die and I think with social media, with some other coaches like Coach Clark being involved in the whole process, it was truly a cumulative affair. When he got that offer from Northwestern, we were in the weight room one evening and you know he's in the hallway and I see him bent over. I'm like I said what's up? He turns and he goes. I just got an offer from Northwestern. I said stop the workout. I said we have a Big Ten guy in our program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 4:You know it was in. It just changed the trajectory of our whole program.
Speaker 3:I would give him the biggest credit is his loyalty yeah, his loyalty to South River. Right In a day of again we talk about the transfer portal, right, we know he had teams calling him. Yeah, st Francis called him once a week. I think right for him to stay home and then push for other guys that he played with growing up to come back home. That's great, yeah.
Speaker 4:He has such a presence and such a believability. He's so genuine and I think that and we try to he encapsulates what we try to be as coaches genuine, you know, real transparent. You know Transparent. There's no ulterior motive. We're not doing this for other reasons, but to get you to become excellent, excellent people, and that's all that really matters, and I think he's run with that more than a lot of our guys have.
Speaker 1:Now, does that help you as a head coach when you have a player like that who brings in a lot of college recruiters? I mean, obviously you build a relationship somewhat with those guys, without a doubt.
Speaker 4:I mean the amount of cell numbers that we have now and recruiting is a relationship business, absolutely, and I think we do a great job, when they come into school, of being real with them not really, you know, not being truthful with them, having information, because, once again, we're just the go-between, we pass information from one to the other. Yeah, they want to build a relationship with the, with the, with the, with the recruited player, and that's our job is to make sure our ducks are in a row, we're organized, we're there greeting you, the door where they're getting kids out of class, where they're having, you know, transcripts and information available, or twitter handles all that thing and and making sure we're returning phone calls. And also, on our end, making sure we're reaching out. You know the we looked at statistics. You know An email is going to get you almost zero chance, but they will. Every human being on the planet will open a DM, every single person. Oh my God, I got one. You know.
Speaker 4:So using social media and just sending direct messages was probably the strongest thing we did. Awesome. And just get out, you know. Go online, I go. You know. I remember what I did. This is just one day I did it. We had a. We had an online learning day last year. We had snowed out. I went in and you know, I just thought I'm just gonna start dming those guys. So you look them up, they follow, you follow them. I think I sent out 150. You get a phone call with jayden 10 minutes later. I just got an offer. I just got four offers. I'm okay, I'll just keep doing it. And we just kept over and over and over again. And he's doing the same thing too. Our other players are doing the same thing. We're throwing out so many different webs. It was pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3:It was an exposure for the program.
Speaker 1:The other guys get seen All that stuff. That's fantastic. Alright, so let's start talking about well, first of all, I made a bold prediction.
Speaker 4:That's all you said in the text was a bold.
Speaker 1:You didn't even say I didn't tell he heard it because he listens to the show.
Speaker 3:Bold prediction. He said we're going to break the scoring record this year.
Speaker 1:Okay, Do we have a chance at that? Do you know what the record is? Do you know what?
Speaker 4:the record is. I'd have to look up. It would have to have been 2019.
Speaker 3:That's what Klingel said 2019.
Speaker 1:I need to look this up, ben, because I need the exact points. We got off to a pretty good start, sure, yeah, I would have liked maybe one or two more touchdowns.
Speaker 3:I would have liked to have seen 49.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we had an opportunity too. Let's talk about last night's game. You last night's game, you were there, you made it up there. We had a handful of students there Appreciate you making the drive.
Speaker 4:First off, finding four games at a conference, which we had to with our schedule and also being a seven-win team last year, is not easy. When you schedule games, you schedule the win, not the schedule. The lose the four. We're playing at a conference are no slouches. Randalltown High School was 10-2 last year. We're playing on a conference are no slouches. Randalltown High School was 10-2 last year. They were one game away from the state semifinal and they lost that game 7-3. So they were a good team and I'll be honest with you, they were beaten in the second quarter. The air was out of it. They couldn't move the ball, they couldn't stop us, they couldn't get us off the field. On special teams. I think they were beating the second quarter. However, they will win. They may be a 9-1 team. Look at their schedule. They're going to probably take one against Milford. I don't think they're going to beat Milford. But the rest of their teams I bet on them every game.
Speaker 3:They should win about seven of their games this year in regular season. They're a tough team.
Speaker 4:They're an athletic team. They'll strike you, but our kids didn't flinch have we played them before. No no.
Speaker 1:So that was okay, coach.
Speaker 4:Lucas said that we played them back in the 90s. Oh, okay, so we had a game, because he made a comment. He says this place hasn't changed since I played it.
Speaker 1:So it's been a while, all right, so give us some of the highlights from last night.
Speaker 2:Gray. What did you think? I thought that one wheel route touchdown from Zando, along with his punt return, were amazing. I thought Pax made a lot of great plays on the ball with two interceptions. Greg had a great pick as well.
Speaker 4:Pax also had a cause fumble too so he actually caused three turnovers himself.
Speaker 1:So Greg's back too. That's a guy we hadn't talked about right as a kicker too.
Speaker 4:That's your, the kicking thing is he had Greg gets, it seems like, and you've got to watch he gets stronger. Like his first kickoff, I think he hit the side, I don't know I was, but his third kickoff was like five yards in the end zone.
Speaker 1:He's getting more and more fired up as the game gets on. Well, I'll see you.
Speaker 4:He had a pick. He was all jacked with it.
Speaker 4:And really Greg is as a defensive back and I coach him directly as a safety. He will bait you into throwing the ball. You don't want Trent's like that too. Those are our two guys that I and we've got some other guys behind him, jariah and Jack McGrath but those two they'll bait you, and Greg is really good at kind of staying there and get your eyes on you and then breaking at the very last minute. So his pick was awesome, getting his foot down too as well. How'd the offense.
Speaker 3:Look, I thought we played well, moved the ball, three touchdowns passing. We got to fix the run game a little bit. I will say that I don't think we ran the ball as well as we could have, but zero sacks. You've got to love that.
Speaker 4:We got weapons this year. That helps.
Speaker 3:We've just scratched the surface.
Speaker 1:We've got a new quarterback. He's a new but old quarterback.
Speaker 4:Ben Raines is back with us. He had a strong night last night. One thing we're giving him, like Coach Clark said, is above average pass protection and that's something that we did good last year too. I think. If Finn doesn't have the season he had last year, jaden doesn't either without pass protection first. So we've gone right, we've picked up where we were running and it's been. But I think Coach Clark's right, the run game is somewhere we want to, because we have two good backs and we have a guy, xander Dow, who I would say probably until we reach the playoffs, is going to be the fastest guy on the field.
Speaker 4:He plays for us. So the jet game, the bubble game, the perimeter game, that's his deal. But we're always looking like I said 100 little things to get 1% better at throughout the course of the week. And their homework this week is watch your tape, watch you. Just don't make your highlight tape. Look at one thing you get better at a step, a read, a key, and then work on that all week and then we're 100% better. We're at least 49% better because 49 players, we do the math.
Speaker 1:So we're off to a 1-0 start. We got the home opener this Friday Hereford. That's another team. Have we played them a lot?
Speaker 4:No, hereford's a stone's throw away from PA. It's on the way to Harrisburg. It's a good thing it's here.
Speaker 3:How do you see Harrisburg from there? It's a good thing it's here. Back-to-back games like that would have been rough.
Speaker 4:They're historically a. They've won state championships. They are historically a pretty tough team and they beat Manchester Valley last night 20-15. It's a close one, but all their hands will come down here. They've got to get on the bus, They've got to drive almost two hours down here and they're going to have to deal with us.
Speaker 1:All right, it'll be a big night, probably a raucous crowd, big crowd we're trying to get our
Speaker 4:rec program we're going to try to get the rec programs out there to see it and, I think, get your tickets early.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be a I think, I think our entrance is cool, you know.
Speaker 4:We, you know, come out to the Metallica stuff and you're stealing the Metallica from Virginia Tech.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if I've got it if I've got a like a down day at the gym.
Speaker 4:I'll YouTube that. Watch that on the trip on the elliptical.
Speaker 1:It'll just get my blood going. As a Hokie. It brings tears to my eyes every time I see it, my hair sticks up every time.
Speaker 3:I see it.
Speaker 4:I've actually touched that rock. When we would play Greensboro College, memphis College, north Carolina, we'd always stop to practice averaging attack. They'd say you want to come to the stadium? Yeah, that'd be great and walk down, touch that rock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Hokie Stone, the Hokie Stone, yeah, yeah. So it's awesome. Now all I ask is let's turn it up a little bit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we asked John, can we just get a little bit more thing in, and one of my also, and I brought this because they do this at Navy too. After we enter, the next thing is the Danger Zone from Top Gun. All right, I like it. Crank that up too. Yeah, crank it up.
Speaker 1:I like it. Why we need the music.
Speaker 4:One thing also put out to the listeners what about those Navy helmets? Have you seen them? I haven't seen it yet. What did you think about those? I liked them a lot. They're sweet, they were sweet, they are sweet and the players love them recursive. I haven't seen this yet. I've been in school for 24 years. One goal I've always had is can we ever go all Navy? It's coming. It's coming Because we've got new Navy pants, we've got a new Columbia jersey. We're going Navy Columbia.
Speaker 4:Navy, navy, columbia, okay, kind of like a Tennessee Titans kind of deal, but it looks good and our new Columbia jerseys have the stripes on the shoulder.
Speaker 1:Oh, there they are. I did see that. I saw that online. That looks fantastic. You got to send me that photo. We got a bunch, we did a media day. I saw some of the great photos. That was a great idea.
Speaker 4:And we got a game day placard for every week and we've embraced the social media stuff as much as we can, but it's been good.
Speaker 3:The Navy's nice Paid homage to the old Edgewater Blue Devils. Yeah, it used to be that Navy color helmet with the blue devils and everything through it. So we did that Bring back some of the alumni who played for them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's also something else. Our pseudo football alumni director, mitch Suplee, is selling hats. He's got T-shirts and sweatshirts coming out for a football alumni. We're working on purchasing letter jackets, not just for our football program but for the entire school. That's something he's kind of handling as a donor and alumni. On homecoming, we're going to have all the alumni down in between the first and second quarter to kind of give a wave, because last year we honored the 84 team.
Speaker 4:This year, it's not really a team that matches up with a number. Next year will be the 2016, which made the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. We're getting that organized now, but we're going to do a one kind of Letterman kind of walkout, hopefully during homecoming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm in for whatever you need. Yeah, just let me know Awesome. Yeah, you just let me know Awesome, yeah. All right, so a big game Friday. How about the students now? I love Klingle's idea. Everybody at the whole school has the white shirts. Now White shirts. I'm still waiting for mine Klingle Me too. Yeah, what have we got on tap? Why do all the students got to come out for this?
Speaker 2:game. We just got to show love. We've got to be hostile. I mean, we've got to come out to win. Is there a theme for this week? I believe it's youth night, right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so just youth night, Nothing crazy. Somebody asked for it.
Speaker 4:Wear your youth jerseys if you've got them, youth jerseys, that'd be great. Any sport.
Speaker 2:Anything, it doesn't matter, just show up.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we're excited about this Friday. We've got Chad's Barbecue's opening right now. But I want to end with something, because I've got to get your feedback here. Nfl season started this week too.
Speaker 4:It did. It did two nights ago and last night in Sao Paulo. I can't believe the Chiefs and the Chargers did an in-division game overseas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's actually jungle theme.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's jungle theme, jungle theme. Thank you for the correction. Jungle and you, what are?
Speaker 2:we wearing for jungle. You can maybe go Tarzan with the jersey.
Speaker 1:I don't see myself going as Tarzan, me neither.
Speaker 2:Get creative Sins, All right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we had the Chargers last night. Yeah, Now I want you guys to give me a bold prediction. You're football guys. Bold prediction for the NFL.
Speaker 4:Well, first off, we're both Commanders fans Washington.
Speaker 3:Commanders win the Super.
Speaker 1:Bowl. So, all four of us right here are Commanders fans. We dig Jaden Daniels buddy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, jd5. Exactly.
Speaker 1:So what's the big?
Speaker 2:prediction.
Speaker 1:Super Bowl.
Speaker 4:That's pretty bold After watching Philadelphia and Dallas, we can beat them both. Yeah, I mean, I know one thing, I understand the whole thing with Jalen Carter, but the Cowboys can run the ball.
Speaker 4:That was ridiculous, but the Cowboys did prove they can run the football, so that won. But they've got to handle five and I don't know there's not a lot of people that can. I think we're better on defense. I think we're. You know, getting McLaurin signed was huge. It stressed me out for a while. But I heard that the game Sunday is sold out. Northwest Mutual whatever they call it is freaking sold out and I go to one game a year, usually in November. I can't wait.
Speaker 1:We go to one away game a year. We're going out to. Kansas City this year. Oh, I love that Monday night I have some co-workers out to.
Speaker 3:Kansas City this week. Oh, I love that Monday night. I have some co-workers who are going also.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yeah, I love that it could be interesting.
Speaker 3:Arrowhead's going to be rocking. It's going to be yeah, chiefs, wear your.
Speaker 1:Redskins or Commanders jerseys? We will, of course we will. We wear them everywhere to do.
Speaker 4:It's funny, because I don't usually say things that are that funny, but when Jalen Carter spit on, well, there's a back story with. Dax, I'm like who cares, the Philly fans might spit on each other.
Speaker 1:As a coach, though, what do you do to that player?
Speaker 4:I mean in the NFL.
Speaker 1:Fine, but what if that happens at the high school level?
Speaker 4:Our players wouldn't do that, obviously. But you know there's a way to win and a way to lose. There's also a way to deal with adversity, both good and bad. Okay, you come out. It's your Super Bowl celebration game. Well, first off, that's over. And two, act like you've been there before, because you have. You don't have anything to lose. You have nothing to lose. It's the Cowboys for crying out loud. Act like a winner. You're a Super Bowl champion. It's almost like being an Emmy winner, an Oscar winner or a former president. You are a Super Bowl winner the rest of your life. You're a Super Bowl winner.
Speaker 3:Act like it. He brought himself down, I think it's a conversation because they were wrong.
Speaker 2:They'd already been ejected In high school.
Speaker 3:You're getting suspended for two more games after that you think he'll get a suspension.
Speaker 4:I think he'll get one game, that being on national TV like that.
Speaker 1:absolutely the way they captured it.
Speaker 4:Well, I mean, I'm old enough to remember, like Bill Romanowski when he spit at JD Stokes on Monday Night Football.
Speaker 1:I do remember that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was terrible, Terrible, I think also like Steve Wozniowski did.
Speaker 1:One there's been a couple times. That's just insane to me that he would do that.
Speaker 3:I think it's such one of the lowest forms of disrespect. It really, is it really?
Speaker 2:is.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a rivalry game. Yeah, you know, you quote unquote Sports is not about hate. It's about healthy competition, juice and enthusiasm, but not like I don't know, to that point, I don't think it's that it's still a game. It's not life and death, it's still a game, well and with this you're Frostburg.
Speaker 1:How are they going to be this year? We?
Speaker 4:are well, first off, my boy, Treshawn Timmons, who is a South River alumni, is tearing it up. Is he Tearing it up? He's playing wide receivers though he's now number one, the wide receiver Number one. He's got the number one jersey and he is tearing it up.
Speaker 3:Number one in your playbooks and your hearts.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's great to hear they won two nights ago against Millers University. They go in conference, I think, next week. Hey, they keep on going 1-0-2.
Speaker 1:Hey, go Bobcats.
Speaker 4:Go Bobcats. We were actually up there last weekend. Oh were you? Yep. All right, I also kind of throw out to the listeners last weekend was a big weekend for South River High School football because it's the first game at least in my long history of being here, we had former alumni players on both sides of a football game.
Speaker 4:Sh history of being here. We had former alumni players on both sides of a football game. Shepherd played for allsburg, so shepherd had colby as colby strange, and caleb herb, who starts at right guard for them, and then obviously trey sean, so we got a picture. It's on social media. That's awesome, all of us and actually there were like almost 30 people from the 2037 that were up there for the game. Um, it was a. It was almost like, uh, edgewater extended, yeah, and for me, being a football and alumni, my wife being an alumni who was also there, it was special to me too as well.
Speaker 1:I mean this is credit to what you've done. You're starting to have a lot of kids.
Speaker 4:Also, we've got two girls basketball players up there and we also have a girls basketball coach up there, so Edgewater is represented hard at Frostburg, up on the mountain. There we go.
Speaker 1:All right, people, You've got to get out this Friday 7 o'clock game right.
Speaker 3:Yes, 7 o'clock, 7 o'clock, be there 7 o'clock.
Speaker 1:Jungle theme Show up at 6.30. Get your tickets early. Yep and we'll be ready to go.
Speaker 4:Yes get them early because Rand and when that Sandman hits, I'm ready for it. Let's go.
Speaker 2:All right, let's go. Let's hear it. We've got to get jumping in the crowd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've got to lead that let's go.
Speaker 2:Let's go.
Speaker 1:All right, that's our show, guys. Please don't hesitate to contact us through Instagram at SRHawkTalk Coaches, send me your updates from your team, subscribe to the show on Apple Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on Apple and spread the word Seahawk Nation. I'm your host, tom Frank. This is your football coaches. Let's go, guys.
Speaker 4:Let's go Absolutely, let's go Most points in school history.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm shooting for. I can say that. You can't say that I.
Speaker 4:I can say that you can't say that, I'll say that, and if they don't score, we can't lose. There you go, there you go Right now we're on pace.
Speaker 1:Score more points to them and you'll be all right. You'll be all right. All right, I'm Tom Frank, I'm Grayson, and until next time I leave you with a cheer from our South River cheer team. Go Seahawks.
