A Coach's Perspective

In this episode, former Vice President of NFL Officiating and current Fox Sports Rules Analyst Dean Blandino shares his interpretations and insights in to professional and college officiating. Mr. Blandino does an excellent job expressing the process and procedure of trying to get the calls right. We appreciated his in depth review of recruiting quality officials, getting the calls to be as accurate as possible, preparing for the Super Bowl, and evaluating multiple angles in order for officials to be a vital part of the National Football League. We covered a lot in this episode! Our gratitude to Mr. Blandino.

In this episode, we caught up with the multi-talented Callie Carroll on her path as a producer, anchor, reporter, reality star, and now, back home with the Bears as the Director of Athletics Development. Check out her role on “Breaking Greenville” on Amazon! My thanks to Callie for her time and conversation. Also, thank you to the accomplished Nate Lucas as my co-host in this episode. We always appreciate his discussion and two cents!

What a fun show! One of the best, and highest attended, high school basketball tournaments is coming up this weekend (1/17-1/19), the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions (TOC) at JQH Arena! My thanks to Marty Marsh and Josh Scott for providing the tournament information and team previews. Thank you to my co-host, Don Louzader and the TOC Stadium Announcer, Andy Taylor for talking about the added energy and entertainment for the tournament. Thank you to Don and Andy, too, for showing me “how it is done” in our voice off contest. Two legendary talents and tremendous gentlemen!

What a fun show, reminiscing on memories of games, teams, and experiences throughout the decades of covering sports. Don West, Scott McCauley, and Trevor Casterlin showed that they are definitely used to on air chemistry together and had a lot of fun talking about their past broadcasts. We thank these gentlemen for their dedication and energy in covering local high school and college sports.

In this episode, we went straight to the source. We have talked about youth sports and if we are doing it right, but never actually asked any youth athletes! Well, that is not that case anymore! Tonight we had a wonderful panel of insightful and interesting youth athletes, Tommy and Allie Burnett, Collin Clark, and Mikayla Pilley, did a wonderful job of telling us what they expect from coaches, parents, and spectators for a positive experience in youth sports. Awesome job, panel!

In this episode, we study a vital variable in successful coaching and that is the art of scouting your opponents. All of the hours of film, the thousands of variables observed and documented and compiling all of it for the ultimate game plan that gives your team the advantage. Coach Chuck Hepola from Evangel University football, Coach Caira Dortch from Southwest Baptist University Volleyball, and Coach Kelsey Keizer from Southwest Baptist University Women’s Basketball give us a small peak into their scouting style and routines. These college coaches, known for their diligent preparation, shared valuable tips on scouting and how they utilize it as a part of their success.

In this episode, we preview the traditional holiday tournaments in the southwest Missouri area. The Pink and White Lady Classic has a terrific field this year and Tournament Coordinator Marty Marsh gave an excellent preview of this historic girls tournament. Robert Vestal, local basketball historian, helped us preview the Blue and Gold and gave us a top ten of fun facts about the Blue and Gold. At Parkview, the Kinloch Wrestling Tournament will be in full swing and Coach Willie Russell previewed it for us.

In this episode, I give gratitude to BSN Representative Bryan Tucker for talking with us tonight about sports equipment and gear, plus (bonus!) bringing in trivia questions and giving away some very cool stuff! He also talked about what it was like to be a sports parent at the high school and college level with his talented sons and offered some valuable advice. Great show because of a great guest!

On this episode, we welcomed long time NBA coach and current ESPN Analyst, Stan Van Gundy. We discussed a wide range of topics including his career, college basketball, NBA basketball, and he answered questions sent in by high school basketball players. Coach Van Gundy did an excellent job sharing his experiences and perspective.

In this episode, we catch up with Coach Bill Gunn in a Fast Five segment. We, Guy Newcomb and I, also read listener letters to their former coaches and express the gratitude and impact they had on their lives. Happy Thanksgiving!