Opening remarks …
“Well, first of all I want to give all praise and glory to my Lord and Savior. Then I want to thank my family, who — a lot of sleepless nights, allowing me to do what I do. I want to thank the coaching staff, I’m telling you, I get so much of this credit, and it’s a shame. I tell myself all the time, like, if y’all only knew the kind of work they put in behind closed doors and how they have completely bought in, and being challenged about ‘we got to be more hardheaded than our kids; like, they need us.’ Like, honestly I feel like this is what the good Lord designed us coaches to do, is to pour into these kids’ lives, because I once had coaches pour into my life from Steve McConnell, who was my peewee coach; from Rod Gray, who was my middle school coach; and to coach Raymond Farmer, who was my high school coach. They kind of laid that foundation for me, and I’m forever grateful for them.
“I want to thank these players. I mean, how awesome are they? I challenged them guys to be vulnerable, open your heart, let us in. You got people that care for you, got people that want to see you do good. A lot of times, it just felt like they didn’t feel that way, and at times — like I told my staff when I took this job, and I’m part of it, we have failed these kids. It’s our job to elevate them, to inspire them, to empower them, to get them going, and we ain’t done a good enough job.”
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