Welcome back to high school Coach Darren Shepherd Concord high school, uh, coach, uh, how are things going this offseason so far, things are going great off to a really good start at week two is better than week one. That’s all you can ask for. Yeah, that is all you can ask for. So, uh, so, um, I think three, was it three and seven season last year? Yeah, three and three in the Conference. Um, taking me back the last season telling you some of the things that that went well for y’all and, uh, some things that you’re looking to improve this offseason. Um, last year was year one year one for our staff, um, coming off a year prior with the previous head coach where they won conference championship. Um, you know, we, we really had an all new, all new team. Um, when I got hired in April last year, we were, we had about 2020 kids left in the program. The JV had finished the previous season with about 13 or 14 kids and, um, off that varsity conference championship team, the team that made it to the second round of the playoffs um, there’s only about six kids, uh, underclass when they were on that team. So we got a brand new team that we were breaking out a year ago. Um, we were figuring things out, had really, really great energy and enthusiasm all last season. Um, coming into that season. Uh, we, we really hadn’t known what we were yet offensively or even defensively, um, started out, oh, and three, lost a Ashbrook Parkwood and, uh, in Monroe and then we had a bi week at the right time and we really played our best football after that bi week, um, in either one or in every single game within a possession, um, playing our best football toward the end of the year. Um, you know, we’re pretty much a gun, single wing offense. You know, that’s what you’re gonna get. We’re gonna run the ball a lot. Um, we’re gonna try and take advantage of you on the perimeter. So those are some of the things that we do well and, and, and offensively defensively, um, you know, we wanna fly around and, and get a lot of guys to the ball and, um, we had a pretty young defense, had five sophomores on the team a year ago. Um, so our, our defense is actually our most experienced side of the ball coming in in this season. So that’s some of the good things that we have going for us coming into this season. Um, moving from the previous year. Ok. Um, how many starters would you see back, um, in general on both sides? Um, I would say we have seven on defense and three all offense, so 10 total. Ok. It’s not, it’s not bad on defense, but, you know, offense, of course, he likes some more. Um, do any of those guys back from the offensive line. Yes. Uh, we have two starters back from last year’s offensive line. um, that we, you know, we let our conference in rushing. Um, you have to look to look back the stats, but II I want to say we were right up there at one, if not to, um, in the top two or three in our county, uh, in rushing. Um, so we have two, varsity returners on offensive line. Jackson Joseph, he’ll be a senior, uh, team elected captain this spring and then Miguel Flores who’s a, uh, junior, uh, started last year as a sophomore for us on last year’s offensive line. Awesome. Um, I guess let’s, let’s cover that. Uh, defense. Tell me about some of the key guys that are back from that team last year. Um Yeah, so, you know, starting up front, you know, we, we like to talk about our big guys here at Concord High School. Um I’m, I’m very blessed here. We, we, we don’t have a short of a shortage of big guys, um, you know, on the offensive line or the defensive line Javi or Varsity. You know, we have plenty of those guys. Um, feel like a lot of my, my peers in the profession, uh, you know, would love to trade with me. Um, you know, but, uh, starting on a line we got Isaiah Wright started, let our team in sacks with 5.5 a year ago. He’s a, he’ll be a senior. Um, Tyro Rupo, um, really talented 2026 player that we had, uh, started as 1/9 grader. Uh, last year, he’s returning as a defensive lineman as interior D lineman. Katon Porter started last year as a sophomore, um, probably had our biggest, um, body transformation on the team. So last year he played and, uh, he was six. He was listed at about 6364, played at about 100 and £95. He’s now 64 £240 playing on defensive line for him. So, you know, those are three returners on the defensive line right there. Um, we returned both inside backers, uh, sophomore, Jalen Waterson and junior. Um, uh sophomore last year, rising junior, Jalen Watterson and, uh rising senior West boss. Um, in the secondary. Uh, we returned two starters in the secondary. Um, Alexander Petrov played outside backer for us, uh, is now playing safety. He’s a 2025 was an all conference player for us as well. Uh Kylie Davis, uh, is a rising junior. Um, started every game for us at corner and safety a year ago. And then we have an inside backer that we moved the nickel uh Ethan Treadway, uh who is now, uh a spider, uh which is our nickel and our defense. Um, he’s a rising senior. So like I said, uh, get a little long winded, uh talking about how many guys we got back man on the side of the ball and I’m really excited about it. Well, that’s exciting. And if I can have seven guys back on either side, I would pick defense for sure. Yes, sir. That’s pretty well back. Um Tell me about your B team last year. Um Any guys coming up from that B team that could be uh instant impacts on other side of the ball? Absolutely. You know, uh you know, one of the, one of the biggest, you know, challenges for our staff, um last year being a friend, year staff was really trying to set a foundation for having AJ V team, like I said, the year prior, um finished with about 13 kids. Um And then the COVID year, uh that was the first time in history. Um really at Concord High School, we didn’t have AJ V program. So, um building that backup last year was a goal and we did it with about 25 9th graders, um with about five or six sophomores. Uh So we had a team of about 31 obviously a lot of those freshmen are not, uh, not, not many of those freshmen are moving up to varsity. We’re carrying about five. So, um, our JV program, I’m looking for us to be very, very competitive this year. Um, moving up, we got about five sophomores will be in the mix, um, for, for guys that could play up, you know, we got one, Ken Andrew Davis Junior. Um, it was our team voted, uh, offensive MVP. Uh, he’s gonna make it real tough for us to keep him for, keep him down. Um, Kinen, another young man had a really good year. Alex Williams was a freshman. He’ll be starting as a sophomore and then, uh, some of the sophomores moving up in the key roles, we got them all over the place. Uh, Anthony Adam comes in my mind. He’s an offensive tackle. Um, you know, we’re really building from the ground up here when we’re talking about guys that are moving up. So, um, you know, I think, I think we’ll be pretty good on JV and those guys that are moving up will really help us out on Fridays. All right. Well, uh, last up here, uh, let’s talk about your conference a little bit. Uh, Southmont three, a fun league. Um, some teams there, uh, I’m sure you have fun plan. Uh, I tell you Northwest comparison look really good lately in the Yes, they were, they were good. There’s some other season here. That are gonna be pretty good as well. So I guess just take me through the whole thing. Well, I mean, if you look at it, me and some of the coaches, I know me and Coach Lowe, um, developed a really good relationship. The head football coach at Carson, uh, we talked about it in our conference. Many, I, I don’t think top the bottom, our football conference gets enough respect around the state. You know, we were three and we were three and seven ball club last year. All seven of our losses came to playoff opponents. Um That was in conference, the three that we did have and then the three that we did have uh nonconference and in the last game we lost uh to a L Brown. They were a playoff team as well. So, uh going into this year, you’re talking about off the top, you know, in an 18 league seventeens, um they have the ability to, to, to make the playoffs and compete. Um You know, you got, you got the four Roane County schools that are always gonna be scrappy. Wes Roran has been the class of this conference uh here lately. Um And then in Compris County League, you know, us Central Ofari Northwest comparison JM Robinson, Jam Robinson, uh dominated their league um in the valley, uh one, a, two, a split conference. They’re coming up with us as a mid-year realignment. So I think our, our conference as a whole is really, really strong. Um, but we look forward at the end of it to being right there up there at the top. All right. Well, coach, appreciate having you on today. Tell us about your team. Um I’m sure I’ll have more questions as we get closer to the season. So I I’ll reach out to you if I have those. Um But yeah, thanks for coming on today and tell us about your guys. Yes, sir. I appreciate you taking the time. Sorry for technical that, that stuff to be expected when we do it like this. So, yes, sir. All right man. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Take it easy, take care. Bye.