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
LIVE from the Turtle: HOCO Edition
Hawk Talk rings in its 80th episode live from The Green Turtle for Homecoming week. Tom Frank, with co-hosts Greyson and Jaden, kicks things off with a full South River sports rundown—boys’ and girls’ soccer, field hockey, volleyball, and a 4–0 football start—before previewing a neon-soaked Rave Night vs. Severn with Coach Erxleben. Then it’s alumni time: Mitch Suplee, David Foust, Mike Sammeyer, and Ron Rossi drop stories about boom-boom pregame chants, “Legacy Field,” and rivalry lore. Tradition doesn’t graduate—press play, feel the lights, and keep it 1–0.
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
All right, welcome back to the Ock Nation. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Grayson, and I'll Jaden. And we are talking all things South River High School support. 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 Marilyn Remodeling Expert. Now this is my crew right here. For those who don't know, we've been, you know, Gray, you've been on every week. Right. Jaden, I think the last week you had to go home because you smelled a little too much. But but we got you back. He's consistent, he's consistent. We got an interesting show today. We have today marks our 80th episode of Hop Talk.
SPEAKER_02:That's a lot of episodes.
SPEAKER_05:80th. That's a lot of episodes. How many football games have you played for South River? Not 80.
SPEAKER_02:Like 37.
SPEAKER_05:37. Yeah. Alright. I got you. I got I'm W. Just to make sure. And then we're live from the Green Turtle. It's homecoming week. And we got one of our favorite alumni, Mitch Sablay. How are you, Mitch? Good, good Tom. How are you doing? And then we got the captain. We got the coach. Steve Ursley.
SPEAKER_04:Hello, everybody. Let's do this.
SPEAKER_05:Alright, fellas. Before we dive into all this alumni stuff, because I see a lot of alumni here, we gotta run down all of our sports. I need my co-host to help me here a little bit. So let's start. We got boys soccer. In a year plagued by a lot of injuries. Some bad breaks. We're 3-5-1. We dropped one to broadneck 5-2 last Friday, but bounced back with a 3-2 win at Old Mill on Tuesday. What do you guys know about this team? How are we doing?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I know the broadneck game we didn't play is good. Um I heard from some inside sources. They just they haven't played their best. And it's it's all about peaking at the right time. And they're not there yet, but they'll be able to do that.
SPEAKER_05:We're okay though. Yeah. In County, we're still like one and one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, we're getting our pieces back. You know, I remember Jay was on here mentioning like a lot of injuries, you know. We're getting those guys back. You know, Iowa had two goals last game. So shout out to Ad Wanda, Jay with the other goal.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And they have a little break. They're back in action at home on Tuesday, October 7th, versus Glenn Bernie at 5 p.m. We got a lot of Glenn Bernie coming out. A lot of Glenn Bernie.
SPEAKER_02:Lots of wins.
SPEAKER_05:Alright, but here's some here's some exciting stuff. Our girls are 7-2 following a 5-0 shutout to Old Mill on Tuesday. That's three straight shutouts. Who's our goalie? Come on, guys. Who's our goalie? Alright, goalie, whoever you are out there, you gotta let us know because they have had three straight shutouts.
SPEAKER_00:Let's get them on next episode. Have them on the show. Let's get them all.
SPEAKER_05:We'll give a shout out to the defense, too.
SPEAKER_04:It's a team effort. It's a team effort, goes.
SPEAKER_05:I was giving all the credit to the goalie. But uh they're gonna face off against Glenn Burney also next Tuesday at 7 o'clock. Girls are in the prime time now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. When you're 7-2, you take the prime time. You do. That's right. Our field hockey team is 5-4. We're on a two-game winning streak with wins over Broadneck, 2-1. I love beating Broadneck. And most recently over uh Severn Run, 6-0.
SPEAKER_09:Nice.
SPEAKER_05:We'll be at Annapolis Tuesday, 6 30 p.m. Be there. Be there. Alright, our volleyball team is 2-5. They beat Annapolis on Tuesday and have Crofton at home on Monday, October 6th at 6 p.m. And then on the road versus Glenn Bernie.
SPEAKER_02:Glenn Bernie on Tuesday. Let's get back on track. You know what I'm saying? Good win against Annapolis. That's always good. So, you know, I see we're tending in the right direction. We're going in the right direction. Yeah, at the right time. That's all that's all it's about. Everybody makes playoffs.
SPEAKER_05:Alright, and now we're talking football. We sit at 4-0, following a tight one, 19-14 at Urbana last Thursday night. It was a Thursday night game, right?
SPEAKER_02:Indeed, it was.
SPEAKER_05:It was. I'm gonna give you some quick stats. I gotta give a shout-out to Corey Warren. Corey Corey rushed for 31 yards, two touchdowns, and also had 50 receiving yards.
SPEAKER_04:And a tremendous backwards catch to set up our second score. There you go. Oh, it was a tremendous throw by Ben Rains, too. I see this video. With pressure off to the right in terms of uh working out of the pocket, it was a hell of a catch, but a hell of a throw, too. And and speaking of Ben, he threw for 258 yards. He's had a lot of yards so far. He's the second leading passer in the MPSSA. He's a second leading passer in in uh uh Maryland public schools, yes.
SPEAKER_05:Wow, that's impressive. All right, he added one touchdown to our guy.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_04:Great ball. Who's the second leading receiver in the state public school?
SPEAKER_05:He only had four catches, though, for 103 yards.
SPEAKER_04:You know, you know, everybody was getting FPs.
SPEAKER_03:I'm not good at math, but that's like 25 yards of catch.
SPEAKER_04:He does it all kinds of different ways anyways. You can have 13 catches, we have five catches. He does it all kinds of different ways.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, we got the dub.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. You got the dub.
SPEAKER_05:But let's talk about it. It was a tight game, though. And you went into a hostile crowd.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I I thought about I thought about all the and we talk about adversity in our program a lot because it's gonna happen. That's life, right? But at the same token, you know, I thought about all the things that were kind of we had to deal with in the week. Two practices practices that were separated from being off because of a holiday, traveling two hours, um, we have a lightning delay, which didn't delay too much, but still we got more. We've got to go back in the locker room. And and one thing that struck me, I think I talked about to you guys about this when we when we got here, is the bus door opens up. We're looking at 50 alumni. Looking at us. They were just standing right there. The field's called Legacy Fields. I mean mugging us too much. I know. Mitch, you should have been there. We needed you over there. And they're talking about the the glory days of Urbana football. And like I said, Urbana is one of the five or six blue blood organizations in the state. They're like a Damascus or Quince Orchard. Exactly. So the same token. Our guys came out, did not flinch one. It was not up, the stage was not too big. Unfazed. Oh my gosh, it was it was incredible, it was a great win. And you know, we're we're we're a one-on-one organization. We we got we got nine one-game seasons, so it's all about one-on-one. But the last week was a was a was a great. I'm really proud of our guys. You know, they really they did not flinch whatsoever. And we did we we we beat up on C, we beat up on Ransom, I beat them on Hereford. We needed a legitimate football. Yeah, and guess what? We never really trailed. You know, we had some situations where we we did it, we dealt with it the right way, and I'm just real proud of our guys. We have become that right now, we're kind of what we call battle-tested. We've we've seen it, we've seen it all. We've seen everything in in in football a situation. We've seen all the situations. Down, up, up by a little, up by a lot, down by a little, down by no a score. They've doubled it, you know, with with no flinch, which has been uh pretty remarkable. This group has a lot of really interesting pluses, and they're kind of scattered around. And it's still early, you know, we're we're still building this thing. So um stay tuned.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. So we're 4-0. We're going into our homecoming game. What's our theme, Greg?
SPEAKER_00:I believe it's Rave. Rave Knight. So Rave Knight. What do I what am I wearing for Rave Night? Uh Neon and Black is what I was told to wear. So um, neon and black. Get a scarf too if you want. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I I told the kids during stretch on uh Tuesday, I've been to a rave once. 1999. How was that? It was alright. It was my wife's idea. I can't really picture this.
SPEAKER_05:I can't even try.
SPEAKER_04:We went to one. Yeah. It was a 90s thing, you know, but yeah, so when I said that, JP Simpson had his eyes. I was like, dude, I don't know. You like the music, I get it, but I saw a live.
SPEAKER_05:So game, it kickoff at 6 p.m. at home, seven run. Severn run comes into the game one and three, following a tough one. They lost 39 to nothing versus Erna Park. What can we expect out of this game? I'll get your perspective and then your perspective.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I gotta go first. Okay, that's cool. Um, you know, our best is better than their best, without a doubt. So we come out like we sh like we can. It is gonna be a great football game for our guys, a great experience, and just you know, once again, going one-on-one. Um, you know, and and we don't sleep on anybody. We always take every uh we have a thing, we we respect our opponent, you know, and that's the way I think you should in the in the rules of competition. So uh we prepare like anybody else, but um, you know, our best is better than their best.
SPEAKER_02:Uh they're a well-coached team, uh, Troy Gibson. Shout out to him. Uh he coached me for a living while as well then. Great coach, won a lot of games. So I know we're not taking this game as like their records don't matter to us. We've been the one I've been on the one and three team thinking we have a shot to beat the four-and-o team. Yeah, and I'm the four-on-o team. Thinking, you know, the same thing. Uh it's just win the game that's in front of you and just go on to the next.
SPEAKER_04:I like it. And we and we taught our guys, look, this thing, and and funny, Greg Proud of all of all people, said he said it twice this week because we have a we have a circle every week, we let our players talk and we put things out about you know how to film, what's going on. And he said, hey man, we're we're almost halfway through this thing. Actually, we're over halfway through this thing. So we've taught our fellows from junk, celebrate it, and embrace it, love it, enjoy it. Because it's gonna be over. You know, and and and and coach the bleed will be the first one to tell you. And he used to tell a story every year. He says, Which one of you guys is gonna be the dude when the season is over? I gotta pull the stuff off of it in a locker round.
SPEAKER_03:That's right.
SPEAKER_04:Because you won't take your stuff off. There's always one, and we're still looking for it. Like the when it's not that we're looking past anything, but when this thing is over, it's an emotional thing for us. I mean, we're an emotional program. We have guys that that really put a lot of themselves into this. Not that nobody else does, but we do, and it is it is uh, it breaks my heart. And it breaks every coach's heart to see that because they believe so much. And, you know, we're not there yet, but we're gonna be at some point.
SPEAKER_05:Not there yet, though. I got some fun facts for you, though. Hit it. All right, now you Jane, you correct me on this because I went to Max Preps. I wanted to check out the team. So right now we're currently ranked 5,528 in the country. I have no idea how many high schools are.
SPEAKER_02:Public schools are all X. That's all schools.
SPEAKER_05:That's all schools. We're 75th in Maryland, and we're 10th in Maryland 3A. I don't know how this could be right.
SPEAKER_02:Uh three teams we beat are above us, so max preps are not updated. I don't know how that works.
SPEAKER_05:Um, we're throwing this out.
SPEAKER_02:No, so like some analysts in Maryland actually do uh ranking. We're fourth in Maryland public-wise.
SPEAKER_05:So that's that's that's true.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so that's good for us. I mean, I don't really pay attention to those, but Max Preps, if you hear this, like fix that, please.
SPEAKER_06:All right, Max. We'll pay attention to it at the end of the season. At the end of the season, there we go.
SPEAKER_05:We're here at the Green Turtle. This is the second time we're is this second or third time we've done it? Second time.
SPEAKER_03:Second time here at the Green Turtle. Last year we did it this same week with the uh 84 team to put in the state championship and lost by three to Kennedy. Um we had a good reunion last year and uh we had a lot of guys in a lot of guys, yeah. And then we're having an all-class uh homecoming celebration uh tomorrow. Okay. So a lot of guys are coming back from far and wide. The class of 85 has their 40-year reunion on Saturday. So a lot of those guys got guys coming from Arizona, Texas, um, all over the place to come and celebrate all weekend. We're having a little uh we get together in the parking lot before the game. Uh the team will be uh all the all the alums. And what we want is we want guys, this school opened in 1978. We want guys from that first class, all the way to guys who graduated last year, yeah, as alums of the program to get together and share fellowship and camaraderie and everything else.
SPEAKER_04:To build upon that, next year is 2026. The plan is to do kind of a combo our 86 team and our 2006 team. That's cool. I like that. Which Coach Suplet was part of both. Yes, I was. As a coach and player. So that's something I wanted to throw out there before we really got going. But that's a good one. Next year will be a combination for the first time ever. This is kind of an all-in. Next year is gonna be a combination of two different classes.
SPEAKER_03:So this is radio, and you can't see my hat. But I had hats made. I like it. So you have South River football alumni on them. I like it. I think it's important. I really do. I think that the older you get, you know, you realize how important it was to you in your life. The the coaches that you played for, the guys that you played with, um, it was before money got involved or whatever else. You played for your friends, your neighborhood, and your family and your school. And it's pure, it's as pure as it gets. So I want everybody who was a part of this brotherhood to come back and enjoy it with us. Yeah. Now, whether you were a starter, whether you were you know a backup, whether you just played on the scout team, you're part of this brotherhood, and you deserve to be here with us. So last year was a good turnout. We're gonna have a good turnout tomorrow. My hope is that next year it'll be better and it'll it'll build on us. Yeah. Next year is gonna be exciting, man. We'll have two teams.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's it's it's in the infant stages of working it out now. But um, and we haven't really talked about that because I really just thought a couple days ago. I'm like, geez, 06 is cool because 06 is the first time I made the playoffs in 17 years. Um and we could actually coach that team together. But um the A16 was also team that won, what, two playoff games and losing a Magruder? We lost to Magruder in State said. Yes.
SPEAKER_05:All right, so we got a lot of alumni here. Yes. You got to introduce some of these guys, let's get them over here, let's talk to them. Let's see what we got. We're kicking coaches. Yes, let's go with uh let's go with David, let's go with David Faust first. David Faust, we gotta get David Faust. He he is a uh alumni of not only South River football, but an alumni of Hop Talk as well. That's right.
SPEAKER_03:And and an alumna of the University of Maryland.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, we got lots of things here to talk about.
SPEAKER_03:So in the history of South River High School, the Roads Trophy in Ana Rondo County is given to the best player in Ana Rondo County. Okay. South River High School has had two winners of the roads trophy. Hopefully this year it'll be three winners of the roads trophy, but the first one was Mike White, who won it in the 1983 season. All right. The second one was David Faust. What year was your was you did you win a David? Uh it would have been the 2019 Rhodes Trophy. Nice. So we've got two winners of the Rhodes Trophy. Now you never won this? Who? You no, they didn't have the well, they had the Rhodes Trophy when I was a player, and at the banquet, um, they said we're not giving a Rhodes Trophy to a lineman. So on the heels of that, the Laramore Award was created to give to the best linemen in the county. All right, I like it. So yeah, um, but yeah, we've had two winners. Hopefully this year we'll have our third, and we've had a couple, we've had a couple guys at Spencer win the win the Larimore Award. Um David Coffin, uh Caleb Herb won it. Okay, Caleb. And I hope I'm not leaving anybody else out, but yeah, we're we're we're climbing. But David had a great career at South River, could really throw that ball, and um went on to play at the University of Marion. And um happy to have him tonight. Absolutely happy, sir.
SPEAKER_01:How you doing? Doing amazing. Thank you for uh bringing me on here.
SPEAKER_05:And you guys have to be equally excited because not only is South River doing well, University of Maryland's doing pretty darn well too.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, big game this weekend versus Washington.
SPEAKER_01:So are you gonna make any predictions right now? Um I want you on the record. I want uh all I care about is two W's for my uh for my turps and my Seahawks. Yeah, boy.
SPEAKER_05:We're gonna go 2-0 this weekend. I hope so. All right, what's what's your take on this team? You've been you've been watching it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:What's your take?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, it's a great team. Um, I mean, I've been falling with uh with McDuffie a lot. I love that they got Ben Rains back at the helm. Yep. Um seems like a really good team. It seems like they're having fun out there, um, which I think matters more than anything. It's really easy to say that when you're winning. Uh if you're 0-4 at this point, it's not necessarily about having fun, but when you are doing as good as they are, um I like to see the brotherhood that they have out there. It reminds me a lot of the team that I had when I was here.
SPEAKER_05:And so give us some memories from back then. Like what's some of your favorite memories from playing here? You had some good teams.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, we had some good teams. We had some really bad teams too. Um But uh man, I don't I can't even really think of like one memory necessarily. Like what I wouldn't me and my buddies sit around and we talk about our days playing high school football, honestly, a lot of what we talk about is like the high school workouts and going and grabbing breakfast after the workouts. Um, and like the locker rooms after the win. It's not necessarily like one game, it's just um, you know, that brotherhood that I talked about that we built there and just enjoying every single moment to it. Um, the summer workouts that a lot of other programs probably, you know, oh, we gotta wake up at this time in the morning and go, you know, play when everybody else is sleeping in, and then they get to sit and play Xbox all day in the summer. Um, I think that we really embraced that opportunity to be out there, be with our best friends, playing the best sport in the world.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And tell me, tell me a little bit about your teammates.
SPEAKER_01:So who who were who was on your teams? Uh we had some, we had a lot of really good players. Um, I think uh who I got to shout out first, Sean Leonard, my receiver. Um Sean Hemphill is another receiver we had out there, Jamison Gaskins, another receiver out there. Uh we had Delvin Johnson, a running back, um, we had Nasir Franklin Branch, Christian Anderson, a linebacker. I had Mike Lee back there at safety. That was all my senior year, but I played with a lot of really great people. Um my freshman year, we had you know Ryan Proctor, we had Caron Lewis. Um played with a lot of people and uh made a lot of really good friends on my time.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And I can remember, you know, I I didn't grow up in this area, but I can remember you playing it. You were probably one of my first experiences going to South River Games and seeing you throw that ball. Very impressive. I appreciate that. Yeah. Um give me your best game. Because we got we got we have Ben here who's throwing a lot of yards. What what what does he have to hit? What's one of your best games? Uh give me the give me the stats. I want the I want the real stats.
SPEAKER_01:He he has he has to just go out and win every single week. I'll give you an answer, but I want to backtrack a little bit. It's not about the stats, man. It's about going one and oh every single week. Give me that. I'll give you that. Um I mean, I think the Annapolis game, my senior year, um, I think I had five touchdowns in that game. Uh two of them were to uh one of my best friends, Jameson Gaskins. Um, and I think it was his first time scoring on varsity. It's cool. Um so getting being able to get him two uh in that game was was a lot of fun. I think I got pulled in the third quarter or something.
SPEAKER_03:Wasn't one of those touchdowns right on the goal line? Then you threw a pass right on the goal line, like on the two-yard line. Yeah. I saw it. And I was thinking to myself, Coach Papetti would be rolling over in his grave right now. That they didn't rush on on first down, on first down on the two-yard line, we're throwing the ball.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Almost a different kind of game. Different DNAs, baby. Yeah. But it worked. It worked. So at the end of the day, six points at six points, right? That's right. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. That game was crazy. More by like 50, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, and they uh they had beat us. They had beat us by like 40 the year before, so we were gonna come to that with some vengeance.
SPEAKER_03:If you get a chance to stick it to them, you stick it to them. Them and old Mill. I agree, I agree.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you for always being around. You've you've been around this program for a long time. We love it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me on. Gohawks.
SPEAKER_03:Great Seahawk, great terp. Yeah, absolutely. David Faust. There he is. Let's bring up uh Mike Sandmeyer, class of 1987, my teammate that I played with the South River, and uh Mike uh served in the Air Force. He's got the Air Force jersey on. I like it. I like it though, it's a good jersey.
SPEAKER_05:I think he's trying to disturb some trouble here in Annapolis this weekend, but we'll see. Yeah, that is true. You are at Annapolis. Good point. All right, so tell us a little bit. What you what what what year were you there, what position? So I was uh there through 84 through 86. Okay, so you were on these great T's. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Um I I started out actually as a defensive end, and then I ended up moving over to free safety, and I played split in. And since we ran a straight T formation back in those days, you know, a lot of times we went into a double tight end formation. Yeah. So it all depended on what we wanted to do, what our scheme was at that time, who we were playing, and uh so we just you know, we just went with the flow. But you know, I think a lot of that during that time, those years, uh, under Coach Bappetti and and the staff, it was very much about fundamentals. And and I mean they preached it every single day. And it was, you know, you made a mistake, and your your footing, your spacing, however it was, it made you do it again.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Run it again, run it again, run it again. And we would hear it every day in practice. That was just the way it was. So, um, but fundamentals were very important back now.
SPEAKER_05:And how often do you get back for games?
SPEAKER_07:Well, I gotta tell you, um, my career has taken me globally. Yeah, so um I came back here, I try to make it back when I can. Yeah, I came back here in uh I think it was about 2010, Mitch. I thought it was about 2010. Yeah. And um I actually was helping out a little bit on the side, helping her coach, you know, some of the defensive backs uh and participating in that, and and that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed being with the kids, being around the players, watching them grow as players. And uh, you know, it was a unique experience for me because I was just kind of a pseudo-coach, if you will, uh during that time. But it was it was nice, and I enjoyed that. And there were, you know, over the years uh there had been some down years for South River, you know, and for them to be coming back and and just missed uh the playoffs by one game that that particular season, that was saying something, I think, for for the Persian team. And that's when they were back on the rise there too. So where do you live now? So I'm in Newport, News, Virginia. Oh, okay. Uh and uh I uh recently moved up there about three months ago from Port Piscity, Texas. So I deal with military contracts as part of my career, and that's kind of taken me, like I said, globally throughout the world.
SPEAKER_05:So and uh have you been up to the school or the stadium yet? Yes. Uh how has it changed or has it changed at all since you were younger?
SPEAKER_07:Oh, it's changed. It's changed, yes, because uh you know you didn't have um the stands like they were. I mean, they were only about half half of what they were back then as compared to what they are now. And uh so seeing that, obviously the field was different. The artificial turf. Um we didn't have that, obviously we were in natural grass back in the day. The field was definitely, you know, it's one of those things that I kind of miss in a way, you know, when I see games all over, it's like, hey, man, I wish it was just on natural grass.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because that was just well, and no no other sports played on that field. That was it? Was this football? Yeah, football, football, and then maybe once in a while in the spring lacrosse for a big game, but that was it. That was it no soccer, no rocky plays. Yeah, no, the grass is about a foot tall, so um number five over here, he wouldn't like that.
SPEAKER_02:You trimming over muscle, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But uh, you know, we kept it long, we had some mutters, and you know, Coach Papetti Math is four times three, is not twelve, it's a first down. Exactly. And as we have the ball, as long as we have the ball, you can't score. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Um, did you guys ever have any pregame or post-game rituals?
SPEAKER_06:Oh yes. Yeah. And uh yeah, oh yes, we we we did a boom boom. We're doing a boom boom.
SPEAKER_03:A boom boom, a boom boom. So when I was coaching, yeah, I tried to bring that back. And we would, you know, every team has like a pregame chant, right? Man, I can get you fired up. You can still recite it? Yes, yes. Who are we? Seahawks. Where from? South River. Do we kick ass? Hell yeah. Boom, boom. Out go the lights. Boom, boom. Out go the lights. And you get you know 40 or 50 guys frothing at the mouth. That's an old Pat Traverse. That's maybe that's a more tomorrow. Yeah, well, I'm gonna get you that recording so you're gonna be. I'll be done for that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, I'll talk to the guys.
SPEAKER_03:So when I was coaching at South River, we would do that, right? I tried to bring, I was coaching, I coached at South River with Coach Eric Slavin from 2005 to 2010, and I would try to bring back little pieces of what we did back in the 80s, and uh some of it stuck and some of it didn't. And um, like for example, Aaron, my pregame ritual, I went to a friend of mine's house. We played at 7:30 back then on Friday nights. I would go to a friend of mine's house in South Down and watch the movie All the Right Move with Tom Cruise.
SPEAKER_05:That's not the movie I thought you were gonna say. No, I would watch that.
SPEAKER_03:I'd get all fired up because it was from a Pittsburgh steel town, it was important at that school, it was really hardcore football, and um I tried to show the team on movie night one time. We had a game on Saturday, right? So we had the team there at South Revenue Gym on Friday night, so we had movie night. Well, you know, these kids now, and this was probably 2009 or 2010, they're looking at this old thing, it's not in 3D, not uh HDMI, and they're like, this is corny, this is stupid. They they lasted like two minutes and they were done. They were done. So some things stick, some things don't. But the boom boom alcohol lights, that that that that's timeless.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, I want the I want the boom boom back. You might hear it tomorrow. You might hear it tomorrow. If you I'll be paying attention. If you did it tomorrow, these guys are going crazy with us.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, and the reason part of the probably part of the reason I remember it is because as a senior, I was the one who called that out every every every game. So that that that memory never never leaves, you know. Um one of the things that Mitch had mentioned, you know, about uh some of the things that he was bringing back back during that time when I came back to kind of um you know help out a little bit, was um was it's pretty fun because Mitch would ask me, hey, we're asking some of the alumni to come back, give some speeches to the team. And before the first game of the year that particular season, I was the first speaker. So I got to give a speech and talk to the team, and and you know, um, and I think for us, especially for Mitch and I back in the day, our rivals, our arch rivals was Southern. Oh yes. I'm sure it probably still is today.
SPEAKER_03:We never things have changed a little bit. For some reason, it it's a rundle or whatever. And when I coach here, I would tell the kids, I'm like, let me tell you something. A rundown, they don't care about you. They don't. But if you ask Southern, listen, fellas, you can only win one game this year, what game would you like it to be? We want to be South Earth. So you need to understand that's that this is their Super Bowl. Yeah, and if you're looking at a rundel or now Crofton High School or whatever, because they split the districts up and all that stuff, if you overlook those people, you're gonna get stuck. Oh, definitely. You're gonna get bit. So it's just a different, different day and age, but we knew what time it was. And we were always way better than Southern, but they always play this top. Yeah, that's a rivalry day.
SPEAKER_05:Who would you say is you over the course of your four years, who's the biggest rival?
SPEAKER_02:So, I mean, Southern's always like the top priority, but like like competitive games, like going at it neck to neck. Honestly, Savannah the Park.
SPEAKER_05:I was gonna say Sunny. That's why I would go Savannah the Park.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, Summer of the Park. Yeah, I'll say Savannah Park, definitely. I don't like Sumner Park. I don't like them either at all.
SPEAKER_03:So well, the team we really didn't like was Broadneck. Yes. They're still up there. We hate them, we don't lose to them. We never lost to them. Yeah, we never lost to Southern either. We we lost one county game in four years, and that was to Northeast. And the worst, the worst atmosphere you could ever imagine is dark. The lights of the field basically lit up half the field. It was just terrible. Was it at Broadman? No, no, it's at Northeast. We lost to North Northeast, Northeast. We never lost to Broadnick.
SPEAKER_07:We lost 16 to 6 to Northeast. What did they had?
SPEAKER_03:It was just dark and dreary, it's terrible. And the problem for us was we played Northeast, but next week we had Broadney. So we were compassing. I'm not making any excuses, but we may we may have had our sights set on next week.
SPEAKER_07:And here's the thing too, we we had we had a really outstanding defense that our senior year. Yeah. So we were shutting people out left and right all the way up through until we met a team from Allegheny. And then we ended up losing that game. And you know, they were they were at the time when Class A, B, C, Double A, but they were a class B team, but they were state perennial powerhouse class B.
SPEAKER_03:Kind of like Urbana was for these guys last week, right? So in the state of Maryland, there are certain programs you know who they are, and they have cachet. Like Urbana has that cache. Allegheny back in those days, they had that cachet. So did Fort Hill. I mean, they've Fort Hill still does.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. They haven't lost in 11 years on a state championship.
SPEAKER_03:They rolled down here.
SPEAKER_02:They haven't lost the game in 11 years? No, like in Maryland public school, they haven't lost the game and they went to state championship. That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and when they roll down here, you know it. So we put I pulled into the when we played Allegheny that time in '86. I rolled in the parking lot. There's like campers, it's like a college tail.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Campers, buses, everything else. And they're like, hey, um, you remember Mike said that the stadium's different. It's like half the size when we played compared to what it is now. Oh, this is a nice little stadium you guys got. Where are your people gonna sit? It was just a different, different kind of deal. Yeah. So that was uh, you know, it's a tight game. I knew we were in trouble. They had a timeout, and they wheeled oxygen tanks onto the field, and their guys like the pros, like in the NFL, they're sucking on oxygen, and then we're barely able to get walker. And they got oxygen attendant.
SPEAKER_07:And the other impressive about their team was they only had one senior on their team, all underclassmen. Oh, okay. They had speed. And that was that was our nemesis. We had the power, but they had the speed. And it was a zero-zero at halftime. But then we ended up losing 22 to 8 in the second half. And due to you know mistakes that we shouldn't have made. But you know, we're we're human. So but um I I I would like to to mention one one other thing. You know, with our um with our senior, it's kind of along those same lines, our senior year when Mitch and I were playing, and we we played against Magruder in the state semifinals. We played up in Rocka. Um their head coach actually was my father's head coach at Richard Montgomery High School back in the 60s. And Roy Lester, he and he actually coached at Maryland back in the early 70s for a while as well. Recruited people like Randy White, a couple other people that you know were NFL stand in, sorry, he slept out. Um but when we played Magruder, and despite the lopsided score of us losing that game, I remember my mother coming to me after the game and saying that their fans said, Hey, South River was the best and toughest team that they had played all season long, despite the score. And we had four four fumble miscues. We had the ball over, when we turned the ball over, it's hard to wet. Yeah, it's and uh we had it had been a sloppy week of practice, it rained all week. We were actually running plays in the gym and stuff, and it was it was just a it was just a tough week, you know, and then having to play on a sloppy field made it even that much worse. So not not making excuses, but that's what happened. That's what happened.
SPEAKER_05:Well, thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you for sharing some memories. Hopefully, don't be walking around Annapolis too much with this Air Force. Now now I'm kind of with you at the end. I had to stare at this the whole time. Uh now it's getting a little weird, say it. But thank you. Thank you for coming on for sharing some memories. Thanks, my sir. Yes, thank you, Mike.
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SPEAKER_03:And now back to our show. So next up we're gonna bring Ron Rossi. He also is uh class of 1987, was our starting right tackle on the 86 team. So I was the left tackle on offense, he was the right tackle on offense. Ronnie also wrestled at South River, went on to uh wrestling career at at uh Lockhaven in Pennsylvania, and then he transferred to Salisbury, where he played football, wrestled, and as I found out today, I probably already knew this, but I forgot, played rugby. Number 75, Ron Rossi. He is welcome.
SPEAKER_05:Hello so rugby, huh? You didn't play rugby in high school, right?
SPEAKER_08:No, no. I I I played rugby for one year and I was on the national championship rugby team, but I don't want to but you played for a national championship. I I don't want to say that because uh the team that I played for, I didn't so in I in in rugby there's no substitutions. I didn't play in the national championship. There's no substitutions. I was a prop. I didn't get I didn't play in the game. Uh I I barely even know the knew the rules to the game. I just went out because it was wrestling with no mats and football with no pads, and I was like, this is pretty cool, you know. So the it was they had a they had a good program there. They were whatever division they were in, national champions, and um it was it was just it was just kind of it was just kind of fun. Um those guys and it they were fun to hang out with after the and they were crazy. Those guys were they were drinking out of their shoes, they were I was like, I'm not doing that, like you know, but they were they were they were a bunch of crazy guys to hang out with, and they were they were even crazier than I was, you know what I mean. So I I I liked uh hanging out with those guys.
SPEAKER_05:You think you have rugby in you at at Northwestern?
SPEAKER_08:That will not be happening. Yeah, I don't think the Northwestern coach is gonna be happening in playing rugby.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think God gave me the the mindset and body for that. So I'm gonna I'm gonna pass on that.
SPEAKER_08:Well well the thing is that uh you know when I wrestled at Lockhaven, you had, you know, Mitchell Tay, when you're a Division I athlete, you got seven, eight hours of you know, you got lifting, mandatory. It's not like, oh, just go go to the gym if you want to go to the gym. No, it's mandatory lifting. There's somebody, you know, sitting there keeping track, you know, what time you get there, what time you leave. You have you know workouts, you have uh, you know, two-a-day practices, you know. Study hall. Study hall. I mean you have you have eight team meetings, you know, it's it's not a just oh I'll I'll it's not willy-nilly, it's you know, it's a job. So when I got to Salisbury, it was like it was willy-nilly. It was like, it was like, yeah, well, uh wrestling doesn't start until wrestling season. I was like, what do you mean? Like wrestling doesn't start till wrestling season. You know, I'm like, wrestling's year-round, what do you mean? You're like, football, you know, and so um I you know, I I was I was doing stuff year-round from the time I was in, you know, from the time I was in high school, you know. Um but I wound up uh, you know, I wound up enjoying actually one of my teammates at Salesberry, who's the coach of the Redskins now, uh Dan Quinn. Dan Quinn.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, Dan Quinn was your coach?
SPEAKER_08:No, no, he was my teammate.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, your teammate didn't know. Why'd you say that so casually?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, you did say that very casually. Very casually. So I played with him and I played with a couple other Seahawks too. That uh guy named uh Richie Simmons, who was uh who was one one of our teammates, a guy named Timmy Ferrara, who's one of our teammates. Uh they they were all on the same team with Dan Quinn. And um, so anyways. How was Dan Quinn as a play? He was one of those guys. So so look, I'm not a I'm not gonna get up here and tell you guys how much I love football because football wasn't my sport. Wrestling was my sport. But Dan Quinn and these guys up here was one of those guys that loved football. I have a different, my story is different than all these guys. My football, the reason why I played football in high school, the reason why I played football in college was different. I came, I I I told my mom when I was six years old that I wanted to play football. My mom didn't want me to play football. I said, I want to play. So I go out for football, and back then they didn't have age weight, they only had weight. So I'm six years old, I turned seven during while I was there, and I'm playing with 12 and 13 year olds. So the coach is like, get on offense, get on defense. I'm like, I want to be on the Redskins. What are you talking about? And so I'm getting roughed up here and there, and I know the coach is trying to protect me, and at the end of every practice, the last five guys to run the lap had to run another lap, or you know. So I remember vividly him saying, Anybody here want to go play soccer? Raise their hand. And guess what? You're an hand win? I raised my hand. So, as everybody knows, that's one of the most humiliating things that a football player could ever do. And I did it when I was six years old. So, fast forward, so I get to high school and I say to myself, so I'm not that guy, you know, like I'm you know, and so I go out for football, and all these guys I couldn't play for Davidsonville Gators when we moved out here because they only had you know weight, whatever it was. And so I was too big to play. But in high school, all these guys that were the you know all-star football players, they were 125 pounds, they were 150 pounds, they were too small. I was you know, I was uh you know, 200 pounds going into high school. I was 185, 100 90 pounds. So in high school, I was like, all right, I'll I'll come, I'll play. And I had gone to a military school as well. I transferred him from a military school. So I was I was I was fairly you know tough-minded, you know. Develop. Um, I was a you know mentally tough kid or whatever. So bottom line is I was like, all right, I'll I'll do this. So I came out, and our football coach was a very, very, very he was a man-maker, Coach Papetti. All right, he he was a man maker. And I I I'll just tell you, he was a I saw that guy tell the toughest guys that I ever, you know, some of the toughest guys I ever knew, get out of here. You cut him like the week, you know, the week of the game. He said, get out of here, you sissy, you know, and I'm like, did he just kick our best player off the team? Because, you know, he was going, oh, he's you know, trying to get a drink of water or say this back hurt or something. And but but Coach Papetti was uh a hardcore man maker. So, but I I came out for football to you know to set the record straight that I wasn't a quitter. My mom went out and bought me this book when I was six years old, the quitter, the born loser. So my whole life I had I had something to make up to myself for. So at the age of six. I was about to suppose Bob and Messenger. At the age of six. At the age of six. Ronnie's mom was tough. My mother was tough.
SPEAKER_03:Miss Arlene was tough now.
SPEAKER_08:And so I would the truth.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_08:So I wound up, you know, going out for football and being like, I'm not gonna get beat by anybody. I'm not gonna eat, you know, and you know, I could tell you stories against, you know, you got I heard them guys talking about uh what was the name of that? Allegheny. This team, you know, from this team of giants that came in. And I always joke with Mitch. I was like, that was the one team where I I mean I I I I smashed a bunch of giants. I was I was a mentally tough guy. I would do I would ankle pick the the I was a s I was a small tackle compared to him. I was an offensive tackle. I would ankle pick guys, never got called for holding or anything like that. And I kept saying I had this giant 10th grader on on top of me. He was 275 pounds, and he was just manhandling me. And I kept we kept going back to the huddle going, Mitch, switch sides with me, switch sides with me. And Mitch is going, no, he's just gonna follow you. And I'm going, no, Mitch. And so Mitch couldn't switch sides with me, and and uh I got manhandled at the end. He would have followed you. And uh that game was my fault. We lost. That's not true, but um, but anyways, no, we we had it we had a great team that year, and uh we uh we ran into a little bit of adversity in a couple of games, but overall it was it was awesome to play with those guys that year. We had had we had great players the year before, probably better individual players than the 85 and the 86 teams or whatever. But the I I feel our senior year, we had a better team, a better, you know, a better everybody was uh as a team, you know, we were we were better uh together all you know just fear and everything. Yeah, just everybody played together. We played for each other, you know. There wasn't no there were no individuals. There were probably a lot better individual athletes the year prior, but they didn't do any, they didn't go that far. And you know, when we lost in the state semifinals, I think that I think that team, if I'm not mistaken, I think they won in the state championship like something ridiculous, like something crazy, like you know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that that just the semifinal was the was a safe iron.
SPEAKER_09:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and that's why you know Mike said before that you know the the fans were saying you guys are the toughest team we played all season. So we tuned them, we were their uh practice game, I guess, for them to have a walkover in the state championship.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I get yeah, I don't take any solace in that. They give you like a little trophy afterwards, right? A little, it's um, I don't know, maybe a eight-inch by eight-inch trophy, state semifinals. I threw it in the trash. I threw it in the trash. I was so disgusted because I thought that we were gonna win it. I thought you were about it. And then my line coach, a guy named Jim Henney, I never even thought he'd like me. Never spoke to me, he just yelled at me, called me, damn it, Gumba. Yeah, yeah, dumbass, whatever. He dug the trophy out of the trash and he brought it to me on the bus. And he said, This might not mean anything to you right now, but one day you're gonna want this back.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And that was kind of like our bonding moment. Yeah. I played for this guy for four years, and all as I heard was how terrible I was the whole time. Now I'm a high school American. Yeah. And there was no, you know, there was no, hey man, you did great, none of that comes. There was none of that. It was always, here's what you didn't do. Here's what you did wrong. Here's what you didn't do. So when he gave me that trophy out of the trash, I realized that, you know what, maybe, just maybe, this guy actually did like me. Yeah. But it took a little time. Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_08:I also have uh I have two sons that also played for uh well, they also played, um they also played for South River um the year that the year I uh there was a break in Coach Zaplea and Coach Urks Laban's um coaching tenure. Yeah and uh there was some other guy, some big giant guy, uh what was his name? Clon. Well, it's clean. He he came in for uh a short period of time. But so my my my two sons uh played for for them that year, or a couple years, and um, you know, they're they're also Seahawk alumni, and but they're also wrestlers, and um one of them actually one of them is uh still a professional cage fighter um to the man you would not want to master.
SPEAKER_03:Fresh out of cage, that's a liar, cage fighter?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, he's he's had a couple, he's actually had two UFC, uh he's a bunch of other outside has two two belts and two. Where's that guy? I want to see him. Two amateur is.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, absolutely not. Just can't say it together.
SPEAKER_08:No, he's he's on our team. He's a he's a Seahawk, he's a Seahawk alumni, so hey, I think it's cool though.
SPEAKER_05:I got three Division I athletes right here. Me and you are the LM. Four. You got four. David Spouthson. I meant just right at the table right now, but yeah, we got a lot of them around here. I mean, it just proves that I mean South River's a school that we can produce athletes in.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, absolutely. In and in every sport. Like back back in my day, like I told you before, yeah, I've interviewed with you before, and um I was the last one of six consecutive Division I linemen in a row.
SPEAKER_05:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I had guys to look up to, guys that did it before, showed me the roadmap, all that kind of stuff. So when I got to be older, I would take younger kids under my wing and say, you can do this too. Yeah. And as a leader in a program, it isn't about you. It's about those that are coming behind you, right? And you need to show them that this is possible for them too. Because every on my first day at South River, and I told you this story before, Tom, but the other guys might not have heard it. Ronnie notes the story that the equipment manager saw me, you know, I'm 6'4, 220 pounds, just coming out of the eighth grade. The equipment manager looks at me and goes, He's got he's gotta be like a junior or senior. So he gives me varsity clothes. Yeah, so I got a varsity jersey, varsity, varsity everything. I get out on the field and I got two left feet, and I'm terrible, man. And one of the guys who so we had two actually two Division I linemen that year, one played at North Carolina named Tim Brooks, who for my money is the best player ever to play at South River, and another guy was a guy named Mike McElaney, played at Northeastern. You know, these guys are beating my tail every day, and they're like, wait a second, man, how old are you? I'm like 13. So they were challenged with the math a little bit. You could see the smoke coming out of their ears. They're like, 13, 13, but that would make you a freshman. I'm like, yes, I'm a freshman. And they're like, oh, that's your ass. You're gonna give that stuff back. You're getting a JD jersey, first Alf, and then second off, we're gonna beat your tail every single day. And they did. They whip my ass every day, and they're like, one day you're gonna thank us for this. Yeah. I'm like, one day I might, but today's not that bad.
SPEAKER_08:And he never had to give his JV, he never had to give his varsity jersey back. When I got it, when I came in, I came in from military school halfway during the I came in after the football season. So I got I didn't get here until 10th grade. Coach Petty gave me a varsity jersey and I said, Are you sure? Are you sure I I I haven't played football since I was six years old. And I he had I had all the stuff in my hand. He goes, it's probably after about 10 minutes, you probably have me going, Are you sure? Are you sure? He goes, All right, I take a gray one instead. So I talked myself out of being on board. I was I should have been on that varsity team, but you know what? On that that state championship team that went to the state championship. However, I had a great run on the junior varsity that that year. That year, I met a lot of good guys. You talked yourself right out of that team. But you know what? You know what? Some of those guys, those guys would have, they would have, they would have done the same thing to me that those guys, you know, those 13-year-olds did to me. And I'm grateful because when I got up the next year, they st I was still a neophyte, I was still learning, I was still, you know, I was still a JV kid in a in a big tough guy's body. And but I was a wrestler, so I was tough, and I was, you know, I was I was gonna come back. I don't care how many times you knocked me down, I'm getting back up, and and even the guys that could smash me in football knew that guess what, you don't want me in the locker room after after this because Mitch and Mitch and I were the back at back in the day, they there didn't used to be. Would you guys have like extra lockers in there? Uh I mean I'm probably talking out of school, but you can but the set the center was open, uh and that was that was the free-for-all. That's where all the seniors used to like try to pick on everybody, and that's where that's where it was go time after practice. And and the you had to handle business, yeah. It was every it was every day. It was every day.
SPEAKER_03:The only day you didn't fight was Thursday. Thursday was a non-fighting day? No, because that was the day before the game. But Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and even Friday after the games, it was fight time.
SPEAKER_08:And me and him no fighting on Thursday. Me and him were the biggest guys on the teams, but guess what? We weren't even boys back then. We weren't even boys until like our senior year, I mean we were we were friends, but we weren't, you know, like we weren't in the same corner because he was a starter. I was you know, you know, he was really better friends with them, but you know, one of the one of those guys was on my varsity, you know, wrestling team. I was a varsity wrestler. So it wasn't like it wasn't like me and him were like, all right, Mitch, back to back. You know, it was it was like I'm watching him get smashed by a bunch of guys. He's watching these guys duct tape my legs together, and you know, like, man, I'm just telling you. And this guy's hairy like a gorilla. I am, and so I'm telling you, these I'm I'm telling you, these we're off the rails.
SPEAKER_09:You are yeah, we all fight after days.
SPEAKER_08:You make TikToks. Yeah, it was dimming. It wasn't even it wasn't it was after practices every day. That's crazy. You had to prove yourself every single day. Yeah, it's just the way it was.
SPEAKER_07:I think we should bring that back.
SPEAKER_08:I mean But guess what? I'll watch. When we used to go up, I mean, and I'm whatever, but so you guys know that blue tower up there? No, like uh somebody told me about that blue tower. Yeah, it's the really day. J V hit the tower. So they would hit the so every with the varsity just to start to start off every practice. J V hit the tower. So J V would go up there, and varsity would break down on. Um nobody's allowed to be standing up, everybody had to be smashed to the ground.
SPEAKER_03:And our and our coaches, they didn't come out the first 30 minutes were Captain Lets. Yeah, first 30 minutes were Captain Let's there was no coaches out there, and then the coach would come out, and people it looked like a car accident. What happened to you guys? What happened? And nobody was.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_05:And different day and age. Different day and age. Well, thank you, sir. I enjoyed listening to some of the stories. Yeah, toughen this guy up a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, I'm uh I would have survived back then.
SPEAKER_08:Like I said, I'm an alumni from you know, graduated in '87, late in the 86th season. My sons graduated in you know 2013, 2014. My daughters, uh 2017. Um, you know, and uh I'm I'm a Seahawk for life. I have my youngest boy should have been a Seahawk, but then he built the new Crofton High School. So he's he's a senior at the Crofton High School, which kind of I'm always I'm always cheering for South River. You guys are playing in that took a couple leagues. He played he played JV, but he broke his collarbone. Okay. And they he wrestled. He was a state qualifier as a freshman, but he um he doesn't he he can't he tore both laborings, but he's a really good wrestler. You'll be rooting for South River. Well, don't tell anybody, keep it a secret, but I'm always rooting for South River. All right, guys. Very, very, very, very nice uh hanging out with you guys tonight. Thanks, man. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:So when I first cut back to South River with Coach Urkslav in like 2004, I told somebody I'm gonna get a bush hog and I'm gonna cut the path back in to the tower. We actually took an athletic director who's the same AD that is now. Yeah, he heard that, he goes, You will not be doing it.
SPEAKER_04:But we actually took a walk up there and there was a there was there was a plan.
SPEAKER_03:I was gonna cut that path back in. We were gonna start that again. And uh Mr. Klingle, for you Mr. Klingle said but absolutely not.
SPEAKER_04:But but in all seriousness, this this South River football thing is very, very special. Like, you know, I'm I I didn't go to South River High School, I went to Bowie High School, but same token, being here and being here as long as I have 24 years, you can see where it's special to so many people that when Coastal Police says it was the way it was back then, I'm like, well, you know, there used to be a saying, tradition doesn't graduate, right? And I think there are things that don't graduate. Yeah, you know, and it's it's it's crazy. Like, you know, I it's funny that like our jumping jacks have been the same for like the last 18 years. You know, those are things that don't change. And you know, I think we live in a world where things gotta change, and you know what? There's also the idea of the adapt or die, that's true, but there's also some things that usually don't change, and things like the tower or tradition is good, it's it's good, it's and and I'm I'm really proud of our football program.
SPEAKER_03:And for these young guys who don't know some of the old heads, there's so many people that you've never even met before that are rooting for you. Yeah, so many people who are interested in your success and are proud of you that you wouldn't even know. But um it goes way farther than what you think.
SPEAKER_04:Well, it's it's it's almost it's it's also going in reverse because there's not an SRY because I know who Jade McDuffie is. There's not one. They all know who he is. And they all want to be you. So it's all going, it's all going in both directions. Up, I mean, forward and also kind of backwards.
SPEAKER_03:They all want to be you, they're watching you. So, you know, and when you're when you're Jade McDuffie, not only the little kids watching you, the older people are watching you also. Everybody's watches right, everybody's watching what you do to see how you conduct yourself, how you carry yourself, and everything else. So that's really, really important that you it's a burden, but it's a privilege too, because not everybody gets that thrust upon them.
SPEAKER_04:He's been a tremendous steward of the program of Southern Athletics. You know, it's it's been remarkable to watch him grow up. And he's there's more growth available ahead, but you know, he's done a really, really, really good job.
SPEAKER_05:Let's try to get more than four catches for 103. That's my challenge. As long as you win, man. Oh, that's all you gotta do is win. Keep winning. Keep winning. We over me, right? Exactly. That's right. That's right. Hey, every time I do this, I get more and more impressed with the South River football program. Keep doing what you guys are doing. This is fantastic.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we're very and and and Jaden even said it, and you know, our our circle at the end of practice in games is really powerful, I think, and it's getting it's getting better. And, you know, the thing about being being blessed about being fortunate to be here, I I I thank it every day that I'm part of that I'm a small part of this, and it goes to what Coach Saple says, it goes to what Jaden does and the his teammates. It's it's a really it's a very remarkable program. People don't really talk about much in the state, but they are. They are they that the right people say the right things about what we're doing, and it's not, it's it's it's so big. Yeah, right. It's so it's it's really I'm very proud of it.
SPEAKER_03:All right, Seahawks get out there. So there'll be a good there'll be a good contingent of old heads, OGs, whatever you want to call them tomorrow night, yep, standing on the sideline watching these guys play. You got you got time for one more thing? I got time. All right, so last last um couple months ago at the South River Football Golf Tournament, we were talking about fundraising ideas. Yeah. I'm just putting this out to the Seahawk Nation. This is good. And one of the things I thought of was um when I was younger, buying a letterman jacket um was sort of out of reach for my family, but earning that letter, not everybody got one. You had to play uh a specific amount of quarters. And back when I played as a sophomore, you had to have 20 quarters. I had 19. So I didn't get bumped up, I wasn't graded on a curve, you don't get it. Yeah, I get it. You gotta wait till next year. So with that letterman jacket when I first got it, man, I couldn't wait to get that patch sewn on there and uh start wearing that thing around.
SPEAKER_04:Well, don't also forget that when we started giving letters out when you coached together, you get upset at me for giving out letters to guys. But I said, wait a minute. Where I'm from, you start and finish the season in good standing, you've letter. You know, guys that are that are we call we call our scout team the wombats. If you're a wombat all week, you're a wombat every every every week, you still deserve. You've done your job. And we've got some guys in our program that that bust their butt every day and don't play a lot in games, they still deserve to letter.
SPEAKER_03:I get it. I my stance on that has softened maybe over the years, but um my point to all that is talking about fundraising ideas, um we hatched an idea at the golf tournament. Maybe we buy our alumni group, not just football, but other sports also. Because a lot of women who were in school at the time I was there, you know, softball players, volleyball players, basketball players are like, can we do this for our sports too? I'm like, heck yeah, you can. So one of my thoughts was that for$100, um, we can buy a deserving player, male or female, their first letterman chick. So that takes that burden off their family, and we can present it to them at their respective award banquet or whatever. And uh it's met with pretty good um response. We've got some really overwhelming responses, people want to do it.
SPEAKER_04:When and Coach B does a really good job. He's usually he comes to all our all of our end-of-season banquets, and shout out to our to our our uh our varsity parents, or our JV parents too, but our varsity parents are Miss McGrath, Miss Simpson, uh, Miss Keith, you know, they're really into this stuff. So, but um Coach Sable does a really good job of talking about what it means to get a letter. Yeah, and he that's usually his deal to talk for five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes about what it is, what what a letter means. And then these kids, when it's all over, they look like a bunch of fish. They're they got the fish eyes like wow, I'm it yeah, it's it's gonna happen right now. Yeah, you've you've earned it.
SPEAKER_03:So it's uh it's a special process. And people don't want to wear Letterman jacket because they don't think it's cool now or whatever. Hey man, if you've earned something, like um the wrestler, what um Shipley. He wears his. He wears his Letterman jacket with all his with all his wrestling patches on it and everything else, you know why? Because he's earned it. He's nobody give nobody gave him that. He earned it, and he should wear it.
SPEAKER_04:Shipley's on the way, I think, to lettering like 12 times or something, because he's got four, he'll have four at four in and uh wrestling, two in lacrosse, two, two in football.
SPEAKER_02:Shout out, Trent. Yeah, it's it's huge.
SPEAKER_04:He's he will be a very well, he'll be one of the ones that we want to talk in a bit you know, 20 years or whatever. He'll be bad then, you know, as being a Southover Letterman. He's an he's an epitome of that. It's huge. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And be proud of it. He is proud of it. He earned it. He earned it. You no amount of money can buy that. So it would be our pleasure as an alumni group to get these kids started with their first check. Yeah. And with the hope that, you know, when they get on their feet 10 years from now and they're married and have kids and all that stuff, that they can do it too. They can play it forward.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_05:All right, we'll stay tuned for more on that. Yes, sir. All right. This is Hawk Talk. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Grayson, and I'm Gene. I'm Coach Hirschlyman. How are you? I'm Mitch of Please. And that's our show. And we'll leave you with a cheer from our cheer team. Go see yawning.
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