An Army of Normal Folks - I'm Back Baby!

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

For Shop Talk, Coach Bill talks about coaching football again this season after a several year hiatus! And the amazing kids he's coaching. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of adorable folks. Shop talk number 64. Welcome into the shop. You brought your kids back. I think they're mad that you haven't been letting them ring the bell during shop talk. They've been giving you nasty side eyes. Oh, are they? Who wants to ring the bell? How about we let Landry give us to... Guess first. Guess first. Guess first. Come on, Landy. Get your butt over here. Where shop talk's open. You've got to let everybody know. Ring that thing. All right, here you go. Say, I'm Landry. I'm Landry. Hold it, not yet. Say, I'm Landry. This is Shop. Number 64. Welcome to the shop. Welcome to the shop. Welcome to the shop. There we go. Landry, welcome to Zinn. Number 64. The number of Jerry Kramer. I'll be dead gamed. It is the number of Jerry Kramer. All right, so here's the deal. Alex is making me do this shop talk. I'm going to discuss it.

begrudgingly again, but at the opening of every show, we talk about how I was a football coach in inner city of Memphis that led to a movie called Undefeated, which is basically why you're listening to me now, because that's what kind of thrust me out into the public world. I coached for 33 years, some of the most rewarding, other than my children and my wife and all of that, probably the most rewarding things have happened to be in my life or result of those 33 years of coaching, and the kids, many of which are now young men. It's just been a blessing of life around the time my last son quit playing. I coached for another couple years.

COVID came, got out of it. Pretty much thought that was the end of my coaching career because I've got a business. I got this podcast that Alex makes me do. Other things going on. And that was it. But I'm coaching football again. And back on the field for the first time in three years this fall. And Alex said, you know what?

You should tell everybody about that and what it's taught me and what I'm getting from it. So shop talk number 64 when we come back. I'm back, baby. Coach Bill's back on the sidelines in just a minute. We'll see you in a second. The Stuff You Should Know guys have made their own summer playlist of their must listen podcasts on movies. It's me, Josh, and I'd like to welcome you to the Stuff You Should Know summer movie playlist. scream summer more than a nice darkened air-conditioned theater and a great movie playing right in front

of you episodes on james bond special effects stunt men and women disaster films even movies that change filmmaking and many more listen to the stuff you should know summer movie playlist on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts american history is full of wise people what women said something like you know 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF, and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford,

host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history, and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses, and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was

Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said. It would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked.

I'm Maria Inogosa. I dreamt of having a place where voices that have been historically sidelined would instead. be centered. For over 30 years now, Latino USA has been that place. This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Cultura. As the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States, Latino USA delivers the stories that truly matter to all of us. From sharp and deep analysis of the most pressing news, they're creating these narrative that immigrants are criminals.

This is about everyone's freedom of speech. Nobody expected to popes from the American continent to stories about our cultures and our identities. When you do get a trans character like Imidav Perez, the trans community is going to push back on that. Colorism, all of these things like exist in Mexican culture and Latino culture. You'll hear from people like Congresswoman, AOC. I don't want to give them my fear.

I'm not going to give them my fear. Listen to Latino USA as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. We go behind the scenes

and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need veteran players and we need young players. Like you're building a team from scratch.

And so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined. We need to embrace this community. When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier, and we watched Ottawa against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me. Not only was that going to be my game,

but it was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow. Now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Adventure should never come with a pause button. Remember the Movie Pass era, where you could watch all the movies you wanted for just $9? It made zero cents, and I could not stop thinking about it.

I'm Bridget Todd, host of the tech podcast, there are no girls on the internet. On this new season, I'm talking to the innovators who are left out of the tech headlines, like the visionary behind a movie pass, Black founder Stacey Spikes, who was pushed out of Movie Pass, the company that he,

founded. His story is wild that it's currently the subject of a juicy new HBO documentary. We dive into how culture connects us. When you go to France, or you go to England, or you go to Hong Kong, those kids are wearing Jordans, they're wearing Kobe's shirt, they're watching Black Panther. And the challenges of being a Black founder. Close your eyes and tell me what a tech founder looks like. They're not going to describe someone who looks like me and they're not going to describe someone who looks like you. I created There Are No Girls on the Internet because the future belongs to all of us. So listen to There Are No Girls on the Internet on the IHurt Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, everybody, welcome back to Shot Talk number 64. Here's the deal. There's a school in Memphis called Middle College High School. It's a public school. Why that's college in the name? I'll tell you. Oh, gosh. He's so impatient.

Here we go. It's called Middle College High School. It is a public school, and it's called a choice school. And the word choice means you have to choose to go there. It's not in a district. But the other part of the choice is the school can choose to let you in or not. Kids have to take a personal interview with administration. They have to write an entrance exam, they have to write an essay

about why they want to attend a good school and what they want to do with life after school. In addition, the kids there typically satisfy all graduation requirements by late sophomore year, middle junior to late junior year. And they spend their summers and then their senior year, Alex, taking college courses. So it's called middle college. Oh. I learned yesterday, in fact, that they had two kids graduate this year with 70. hours of college classes.

Wait, 70 hours. Right. Because they're almost juniors. In college? Yes. Yeah, because you need 120 to graduate. Right. College.

Dang. They're going to save a lot of money. That's it. Not only do they save a lot of money. Think of their ACT scores are off the chart because they're just accelerated in their academics. Yeah. And you're more likely to know what you're doing in your future.

That's the other thing that they say. is after taking 30 hours of college credits, many times they start off the first semester or two, and then they change. But you know what? That saves them from changing in college. There's so many seniors in college, you still have no idea what they're doing. So these guys can experiment even younger. It's incredible. It's a small single A school. There's only about 350 kids in it. So here's what happened. Back when I was at Manassas... It's not a big field for a football team. it's not it's small yeah back it when i was at manassas middle college existed but they didn't have a

football team and so there's a thing called co-opping where schools that don't have football teams their kids can co-op with another school and so when i was at manassas i coached kids from middle college because middle college was the co-op with manassas so that's it about three years ago Lisa and I are at a Mexican restaurant, mine in our own business, having a margarita and some chips. And don't know if you ordered more than that. No, I think I probably got an enchilada. I like cheese enchiladas. What do y'all like for Mexican?

What's your favorite? I like quesadillas. You like casadillas? Okay, one vote for casadillas. How about a mulcahete? What's that? Do you ever have a mulcahete? I don't even know what the world you just said.

It's like a really hot stew where they put like chorizo and shrimp and peppers in. Okay, one vote for those. What do you eat? What do you like, buts? Barito. A burrito. Oh, yeah. Burrito's really good.

Brito? That's two votes, burritos. I'll eat a burrito, but since I'm really picking, I usually get the cheeseburger. The cheese. Mexican cheeseburger. That's great. George, do you like anything Mexican? Usually does cassidia, too.

What? A what? Fries. Fries. Okay. Y'all just proved to be quite uninteresting. the Mexican front. Anyway, I'm in the Mexican restaurant. Don Trey Harris walked in. Don Tray Harris played linebacker for me at Manassas, but was a middle college graduate. He,

he'd gone on to, to Marie, what is it, Murray State and Kentucky. It's fine. Murray State and Kentucky and graduated, went to OTC. Anyway, came back to Memphis, started work for middle college, and he said, coach, why don't you come back out of retirement and coach with us? and of course Lisa was sitting there and her mouth looked like the end of an uncooked hot dog when he said that because she kind of scrunched up wasn't really excited about me coaching again and I said man that's awesome

year past he called me back and he said coach you serious come come back and so Lisa and I went by and visited the school and what we found were bright hardworking no metal detectors not a bunch of institutionalized kids but but kids looking to do something with themselves and we fell in love with the organization

then i met the ad and i met the administration and here's this little school dead in the center of memphis that's a public school doing it right and i fell in love and um so lees and i started working on our schedules so that this spring I could coach and this fall I could coach. And I am now the offensive coordinator, a little single A middle college high school football in Memphis Tennessee. And our first game is in three weeks. And our first scrimmage is Friday. And I am having a blast. I'm like a eight-year-old on Christmas day. So the other part of it is I'm coaching kids who don't see athleticism or entertainment as their quote way out. I'm coaching kids who are studying their butt off and see a career in some

professional field as their way out and are playing football just for the love of the game. And the lessons of commitment and teamwork and integrity and character and the value of showing up on time, deeply resonate with these kids because they recognize that those tenants, those fundamentals translate well to them being successful at the vocation that they are already starting to concentrate themselves toward. And they are still 15, 16, 17, 18 year old meatheaded kids. But it's such a refreshing reminder of what kids can be when led, administered to and taught properly, and in some part, their attitude toward life, approach towards school, and their commitment to the practice in what we do has re-inspired and reinvigorated

me. And so I am able to have my cake and eat you too. Even you need that inspiration. I do. We all need it, right? I mean, I think with people after the success you've had and the acclaim and all lad. I mean, a lot of people think, all right, well, you're just an inspired person, but I think of this all the time. Like, with the stories and the people we get to meet, I mean, inspires me every single week and we all need it. I'm a normal dude. We start every show. I'm just like anybody else. The only difference in me and thousands of other people doing great stuff cross-country is my story happened to get told. I got a spotlight put on me. But I'm a normal guy. I've downed days. I need to be inspired too. I need to be re-encouraged

because despite the fact that I call out Fox and CNN and social media and all that stuff, it permeates under my brain. I read it and fill it too. And you can get your dober in the dirt if you're not careful. And engaging with these kids has reminded me, just like our guests do, how rewarding, engaging in areas of need where you have a skill set and a passion can be. and I'm able to do it, and I'm enjoying it. And so you guys, Google Middle College football in Memphis, Tennessee,

middle college high school in Memphis, Tennessee, keep up with us this season. We open, we're a little single-A school, and we opened up with a 4A school in Alamo, Tennessee, called Crockett County, and they are big and fast, and we have 35 kids on the team, and they got about 80, and that's going to be quite an assignment and a challenge. And then later on this season, we get into region games.

And I hope to take them to the state playoffs and go as deep as we can. And typical situation in our city school underfunded, raised a lot of money to get new equipment and to get these kids outfitted as best they can. And the call was answered by a lot of people in our community to raise money for all the equipment, the jerseys and stuff. And so we've got that. I'm going to say the amount because it's impressive. Around $115,000.

Yeah. Yeah, about $115,000 we've raised in the last, I guess, three months. Yeah. But it also speaks to the challenge, too, right? You've got to raise that much money. I mean, as you told me, think about all these other city schools and how are they possibly supposed to do it? It was, we did the same thing of Manassas.

We had to raise $15,000, $20,000 a year. I mean, here's the naked stark horrible truth is a lot of these inner city schools, they have six region games and you play 10, 10 games a season. and the four games that they go play against the big massive private, wealthy private schools out in the counties, they play those games because the county pays them $5,000 a game to come be their homecoming queen or their senior day queen. So the kids are basically being pimped out on the non-conference games

to bigger, more powerful, wealthy schools so the school can get a check to fund at the very rudimentary level equipment and buses and officials and everything else you've got to pay for because the districts in these intercity districts don't have the money to properly fund athletics. Well, I didn't want these kids to have to go through as much of that. So I called on a bunch of old supporters and friends and sent an email out. Within probably two months, we had $1,500,000, and we spent about $80,000 of it already on new equipment. And people realize when a football player walks out on a football field Friday night,

if you count his cleats, his helmet, his shoulder pads, all his pads, his jersey, his pants, his gloves, everything, he's wearing $2,000. So if you got 40 kids suited up, you got have $0,000. It's an expensive thing to do. And a school that their entire athletic budget from the district is $10,000 for football, basketball, baseball, girls, soccer, everything else. You do car washes, you sell sausage and cheese. You beg, borrow, plead, and steal, but even at the end of it, you're still short. So ultimately, your kids go out on the field improperly equipped. And we've remedied that for at least middle college, but there's a lot of schools around that don't have that remedy.

The only thing I was going to pay tribute to you. I think it's very cool that you're not the head coach. Like a lot of people in your position who've been the head coach before would not be willing to go coach again. I don't care about being the head coach. I just want to work with the kids. No, I'm just saying. Titles can bite my butt. I don't care.

I'm the offensive coordinator. I'm the head coach and the offense. I'm paying you a compliment for your humility. I appreciate that. You know that's true about a lot of coaches, right? If they have the success you had coaching, they wouldn't do that. A lot of people get infatuated with a title coach. And if you are, I think that's more of a turkey person thing because you're really not motivated by the right reasons.

I'm motivated by engaging with the kids, watching them succeed, watching them improve. and I'm also motivated by candidly, selfishly, I'm motivated by the fulfillment I get and watching their success. It's phenomenal. So anyway, shot talk number 64. I'm coaching football again at middle college high school in Memphis, Tennessee. I hope you guys will follow along this season and see how we're doing.

And if you see us getting beat seven to six, you know our defense coordinator's great and I suck because I'm the offense coordinator. So hopefully we'll see. score points. It'll be a pretty boring game. Yeah, no kidding. It will.

Yeah, I'm going to re-plug. Sparky Reardon event. For Ole Miss fans, Oxford people, August 28th, is that what's known? August 28th, Sparky Reardon. We're interviewing him about his book, the Dean, Memoirs and Missives. It's going to be awesome. Sparky's amazing. He's a friend.

He's a mentor to me and thousands of others. And he is one of the funniest, most engaging, inspiring guys you'd ever want to meet. You are nuts. not to take an opportunity to join us, to learn more about it, and to RSVP. You can go to Sparky Weirden. Dot eventbright.com, Oxford, Mississippi, August 28th. Y'all, you need to engage in it. If you like this episode, read and review it, join the Army at normalfolks.

You can email me anytime with ideas for shop talk or any stories about people you think we're going to highlight on Army and normal folks. How about coaches that have impacted you? Email us some of those stories. That's a great idea. If you've had coaches that have impacted you, tell us who they are on the stories and how they impacted you. We'd love to highlight stuff like that because there's nothing more than a normal folk than a guy that's coaching and doing that work. And, you know, I hope y'all will do that because then we can have a shop talk about how we should treat our coaches. But that's for another day.

Oh, I got a good one for that. Mike Mathini. Do you know the Mathini manifesto? Don't bring it up right now. Do you know what you know about it? I do know about it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but that's a future shop talk. Yeah, all right. So send those stories to Bill at normalfokes. Yeah. Rate us, review, subscribe, become a premium member at normalfokes. What else? That's it.

All right. Who wants to sign us out of here? Who wants to ring the bell? Come on. Come on over here. See you out of everything. All right. Say your name. Say, well, thanks for joining us to the shop, and we'll see you next. week and ring the bell. Do it. I'm Penelope Cortez. Thanks for joining us in the shop. See you next week. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock Elite Gaming Tech

at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit, and push your gameplay beyond limits with Intel Core Ultra processors. That's the power of Lenovo with Intel Inside. Maximize your edge by shopping at Lenovo.com during their back-to-school sale. That's Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. The Stuff You Should Know guys have made their own summer playlist

of their must-list and podcasts on movies. It's me, Josh, and I'd like to welcome you to the Stuff You Should Know Summer movie playlist. What Screams Summer? More than a nice, darkened, air-conditioned theater, and a great movie playing right in front of you. Episodes on James Bond, special effects, stunt men and women, disaster films, even movies that change filmmaking, and many more. Listen to the stuff you should know summer movie playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult. But it happens all the time to people just like you. And people just like us. I'm Lola Blanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. Each week we talk to fellow survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get out. Trust me, new episodes every Wednesday on exactly right. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions. Did George Washington really cut down a charity? Were J.F.K. and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American History Hotline

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. San Diego coming to MLS

is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need to embrace this community. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This is an IHeart podcast.