Join host Korbyn Clifford as he welcomes in coaches and players from the football, boys golf, and girls golf teams.
This week’s guests include Coach Vince Nedimyer, Michael Colyer, and Mekhi Jackson. Boys golf coach Chuck Meyers and players Adam Kanouff and Reese Hite wrap up their season. Finally, girls golf players Karis McGhee and Vionna Jackson along with coach Joel Gilbert sit down with Korbyn to talk about their season.
[Music] Welcome back to the Lions Den. I’m Corbin Clifford. This episode features our weekly football segments as well as a look at both the girls and boys golf teams. We will be right back to talk about football with co head coach Vince Nemire. [Music] Welcome back to the Lions Den. Let’s start the show with football. We are joined once again by AHS head football coach Vince Dianire. Coach, welcome back to Lions Den. Thanks for having me back. So, there’s another tough loss on the road. Coach, how do you keep the team morale up in the locker room? Um, I mean, we were in position, you know, middle of the third quarter. Uh, I think we’ve did some some good things on both sides of the football. I mean, give credit to Cedar Cliff. They were physical. Um, you know, it took us a minute to get off the bus. First quarter was tough both, uh, offensively and defensively a little bit. Um, you know, got an early touchdown, I think, on our second series. Um, but, you know, the physicality kind of wore on us down the down the stretch and just couldn’t overcome a couple penalties in the third quarter, but, you know, you take those two penalties away and and we’re a possession away from, you know, tying the game. But, uh, you know, we’ll we’ll be back on track for this week. All right. That was the second time you faced your Cliff. Did you like learn anything from the relatively new opponent? Uh, no. I I think, you know, we knew going into last year that they were physical just from watching them on film. Um, and and they were the same thing this year. You know, they try to be uh get as many people as they can at the point of attack on offense and and try to have more people there than than we do, you know. And like like I said, we you know, early on it was tough for us, but I think we woke up and uh and started making some plays and getting some stops uh at different times in the second half and and put oursel in a position where we could have been in the game. Do you have any strategies going into this week against Carile? Um you know, a lot of the stuff that we do, we we we try to, you know, just get better at what we do. We have a few wrinkles of of what we’re going to do offensively. Some different things that uh that coach Camber um you know installed that we can’t we can’t give away right now, but you know going to try and have some fun here in the in the last week of the of the regular season and uh and put our kids in a position to win. It’s not only the last week of the regular season, it’s also the last home game of the season. Is there any added pressure knowing that? Uh I don’t think it’s pressure. Um, I think that, you know, I I hope I know that our kids enjoy playing at home. Um, you know, we’ve our wins have come unfortunately on the road. So, you know, what a way to to finish off to to get a win, especially for our seniors, uh, in front of their home crowd the last time that they get a chance to play at Mansion Park. And, you know, we’ve we’ve talked about that since August, really, and how quickly the time goes. And and here we are in week 10, and we’re just glad that we have our our last one at home. Yeah. I mean, it is a big week at senior night. Does that mean anything to you or Oh, yeah. It means a lot. We’ve had these kids for four years. Um, been through a lot together. Uh, you know, and and and have stayed together through some adversity and and through some challenges, not only in their senior year, but years leading up. And you know, ultimately we always talk about what a small percentage of football is in the in the life of of anybody that plays, but you know, we’ve heard hope that they’ve learned some lessons um through football that’ll help them, you know, be good young men, too. And I’m confident that that that’s what we’ll have as they move forward in life. So, how was it being able to see these seniors grow and develop for four years now? Four years on their Yeah. No, it’s been it’s been good. And you know what I like is when they come back after they’ve been gone for for a year or so. And you know the redundancy sometimes of the things that I say and and how I repeat things and talk about how it would affect them, you know, later in life. You know, we’ve definitely had kids that have come back and and that that have, you know, realized maybe a little bit too late that some of the things we say are true. But, uh, you know, couldn’t be more proud of the group that we have and and excited for them tomorrow night against Carlau. How’s the audience affect senior night? Uh, I mean a lot of kids it it I hope that it’s a good crowd for them. You know, we get some family that may not normally be there uh in a given week. You know, kids family that will come in to watch, you know, their uh grandkids and and cousins play for their for the last time at Mansion Park. And, you know, as special as as it is for the seniors, we we know that it’s special for their family members, too. So, we hope to have a good crowd. It’s supposed to be a decent night. So, we’ll be ready to go. There you go. All right. Thank you, Coach Nemire. Yeah. We’ll sit down with two football players after look at upcoming sports schedules. [Music] It’s time for a players perspective. Michael Koyer and Mai Jackson join us now. Welcome into the Lions, guys. Good to be here. Last home game of the season. What is the morale like going into the locker room today? I feel like it’s pretty good. you know, we have high hopes of beating this team and I feel like we can succeed in the things we do. Like um uh yeah, I’d agree. I think morale was pretty high. I mean, it was a tough loss on the road, but I think we’re going to bounce back and get a win here. Mai, what’s the mindset going into this game as QB? Uh I feel good. I feel confident in, you know, my actions that I can I can throw the ball, I can run a little bit, you know, so I feel good. Michael, what does it take to be successful in the linebacker position? Just doing your job. That’s the biggest thing. Just executing, just not trying to do too much, just do your job. Speaking of your job, would you consider yourself more as a pass uh pass uh defect pass coverage linebacker, runs stopping linebacker? I’d say runs stopper. I’m not uh I don’t really go into pass coverage much. Mai, as a sophomore, how does it feel to be recognized as the leader of the offense? Um, you know, it’s different. Like last year, I didn’t really think I’d be in this position I’m in right now. So, it feels good. You know, just being the quarterback, I guess. Like, do you feel like you have any pressure on you or a little bit, but not too much. You know, I feel confident in what I do, so I don’t feel like I have as much pressure. Is there a certain way you like dial down the pressure like clear your mind or? I just take deep breaths really, you know, just calm down. With it being senior night, do you guys feel any extra pressure to show up for your seniors? I wouldn’t call it extra pressure, but yeah, it’s in the back of my head. You know, I mean, you got to send these guys out with a win. You know, it’s their last game they might ever play. Some people are never going to put these pads on again. So, yeah. Who would you say has the harder in practices, guys? Offense or defense? Like, I’ll give you the answer first since you’re a QB. I’d say offense because you have to be more locked in, you know, just getting all the reads right and, you know. Yeah, I’d say offense, too. You think offense? Yeah. No, no arguments here. No, no, he has to read. He has to read stuff. I don’t I can’t do all that. Who do you guys look up to most? really just like the seniors, you know, they’re a good example for us, showing us what we have to do to become successful and things of that nature. Wow. Do you think there’s a particular coach who’s harder on you guys or I’d say for me probably Adams, but I think that’s just because he wants us to do good. So, who who do you think is a tougher coach, Adams or Camber? Adams for sure. Adams. Coach Adams. Coach Adams. Is there any particular reason why does he does he push you guys harder or Yeah. He gets on us a little bit, you know? Yeah. Yeah. He finds new ways to tell us how he did stuff wrong. You could say that. Um what does Camber do that or is he more like uh Would you say nicer or he’s more um sarcastic? He’ll he’ll ask you why you did this and be sarcastic about it. You know, he’s funny. Yeah. Yeah. What what do the coaches mean to you guys as players? They mean a lot. You know, they teach us things that we don’t know before and they encourage us. They just want us to do better for ourselves. Yeah. So, I think it’s kind of tradition now to ask every sports player what their pregame meal is. Uh, so what Mai, what’s your pregame meal? Um, I like the chicken tenders from Ruters. I mean, Ruters. Ruters. Ruters. Yeah. Yeah. With Old Bay on them. Mhm. Rudders or sheets? Sheets. Probably. Sheets. Okay. Michael, do you have a pregame meal? I’m the same with him and I’m the one that gave that to him. I got put on last year. You stole that from him? Yes, I gave it to him. Zion Patterson put me on last year and then he put me on I put him on too this year. All right. Well, uh, is there any al is there also any music that you guys would put on before the game? It’s really whoever’s on the speaker at that uh time. Yeah. I forget my headphones most of the time, so yeah, I usually put headphones in and I have one or two songs I like to listen to to try to relax, but usually I’ll just listen to whatever somebody has on. Well, good luck to you guys this week. Um, hope you guys get the big win. AHS boys golf coach Chuck Meers and players Adam Kuff and Reese Height join us for a season wrap-up after the break. [Music] Don’t miss a minute of great MLTV programming like the Lion’s Den and live sports. Be sure to like this video and click the subscribe button below. Help us grow viewership by sharing our links and events to social media. Thanks for being an MLTV viewer. [Music] Coach Chuck Myers, Adam Kuff, and Reese Height are here to talk golf. Thank you for joining us in the Lions then, guys. Thank you. Thank you, coach. So, most people know golf as an individual sport. How does it work as a high school team sport? Uh, as a team sport, so we normally play a match with six golfers, say, and they all play their individual round. Um, and then normally we’ll count the top four scores and add those top four up and that’ll be the team score. So, it’s still they’re still playing individually and we just add up the top four of six scores and that’s our team score and hopefully we have less than the other team. That’s that’s interesting because every other sports more than the other team. That’s right. Yep. Coach, what made you want to coach golf? Oh, good question. I was coaxed into it a little bit, but um I’m happy certainly happy that I made the decision to take it on. Uh it’s been really rewarding experience. a lot of fun. Just Yeah, it’s it’s been great. Happy to have had the opportunity. Adam, what made you want to play golf? Uh, I got into it like my freshman summer and a friend of mine like just randomly told me like, “Let’s go golf.” And I was like, “Okay, let’s try it.” And then I got way suck into it after I like I just kept playing. I kept playing and then I played pretty much like every day. And then I ended up joining the golf team the next year and I enjoyed it so I kept playing. Reese, what made you want to play golf? Um, my dad always has played it and then he took me golfing a couple times and I really liked it and then I started to get into it more seriously before my freshman year maybe because my dad played. Coach, can you give me a rundown of a typical practice? Uh, we do different things of practice. Sometimes we’ll just go play. Um, sometimes we’ll do drills. We might just work on short game. Sometimes we will go out with only irons. We won’t take our drivers out or or woods, you know, so we learn to hit different clubs and manage the course differently. Sometimes we’ll just chip and putt, you know, all depends. So, is there any strategies you guys have going into a match? I would say stay calm and and just play. Yeah. Just get there. Play the best. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Um, Adam, is there a particular part of the game that you’re strongest at? Like putting, uh, short game, long game? Uh, I want to say my irons. I feel like I have a very solid iron game. So, yeah. Great irons. Reese, is there a particular part you’re strongest at? Uh, probably not. Maybe my driver, actually. I mean, he hits it a mile. He hits a mile. So, he’s underelling himself a little bit here. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the time it’s depends on the day and it’s all over the place. Are there any rituals that you as players have before a game? I’d say no. Maybe just like kind of warming up on the practice screen and maybe the range here and there. Yeah. Is there any motivational speech you give to the players before? Oh jeez. Not really. It’s just, you know, focus on the basics one shot at a time. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t put no pressure. Go out and play the game. Now, any pregame meals, guys? It has to be Sheets. Yeah, this guy. This guy. I would say sheets, actually. No, I’ll say Chick-fil-A and then sheets coffee. Uhhuh. So, we got to make two stops. He gets So, you go Chick-fil-A to get food and then stop at Sheets to get coffee. Yep. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I don’t have I don’t have any pregame like food or anything. Yeah. No, I don’t really care about that. I just want to play good golf. That’s fair. Just get out there. Yeah. Play. So now the season has come to an end. Were there any highs and lows to the season overall? Uh, sure. Yeah. Um, I’d say a highlight, you know, we had eight guys qualify for sectionals. Um, this guy made it out of sectionals and and played in districts. That was a highlight. And then our our last match of the year, we call it the Big Cat Challenge. We play a Ryder Cup style event against Holidaysburg. And that it was it was a great day. It was a great experience. So we had people out watching us and it was a little different different atmosphere for the guys. Yeah. Did you guys have any highs and lows of the season? I mean obviously you made it to district. Yeah, that was my high for sure. Yeah. But it was a fun season all together. So I mean it was kind of just great all around. Um yeah, there was definitely some highs and lows. I’d say my high was probably playing really well in the big cat at the end of the year. My low was probably oh rough round at sectionals. Yeah, really rough. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the offseason. Next, we talk to girls golf coach Joel Gilbert, Caris McGee, and Vanna Jackson. But first, a look at recent scores. [Music] Welcome to the Lion’s Den, Coach Caris and Viana. Coach, so girls golf is a relatively new sport here. Aluna, can you explain the history of how the team started? Uh uh the it started as the girls showed up to the boys meeting in the spring. Uh and at that time uh there was no girls team. So from there it kind of opened up a little bit. They decided to have one because they had enough girls to create a team. And uh I believe it was I think five girls may have showed up for the first meeting. So it was one of those things where the girls basically started the team. Um they they went and talked to the ad. They petitioned to get this stuff started and that’s how it all began. So what made you want to coach the girls golf team? Uh my story on coaching the girls golf team is actually kind of funny. Uh you know I was in Mr. Ricko’s office dealing with wrestling issues and he asked me if there’s any is there was there anybody I knew that would coach the girls team and I basically told him no there’s nobody that I really know. I said I know a little bit about golf and I said if you can’t find anybody give me a call. Right. Well the job opened up and I applied for it. I put my name in for it. Well I walk in. He said you’re the only applicant for the job. So basically that’s how I ended up being the girls golf coach at that time. So, it’s kind of a funny story to kind of put it into perspective. And but I’ve been the coach for five years now. So, you know, the the team’s been going and and we have more girls now than we’ve ever have. We had uh 12 girls this season out for the team and uh we started, like I said, with five and it just keeps growing and growing. Now, girls, what made you interested in playing golf? Uh my dad’s a big golfer. Coached Gilbert dragged me out there summer practices. Kind of got started like that. Um, I just like golfed in my free time and then I just like thought I would give it a try and try something new. Coach, the girls team have achieved the most wins in a season this year. What does that mean to you? Uh, it means a lot. It means we’re getting better, right? Basically, it’s coming down to getting better. Uh, I believe we had an eight and six season this year. Five of those losses were teams that were they had placed in the top seven in the state this year. So, it was kind of crazy. I think Holidaysburg placed uh fifth yesterday. Westmont Hilltop placed fifth yesterday. Okay. And River Valley, I think, placed ninth. So, uh, those were five of our six losses this year as a team. So, we had a very good team. I mean, the girls were very competitive. Uh, we had lots of wins. We didn’t start out great at the beginning of the year, but, you know, as the season went on, we really picked up and got a lot better. Now, what does most wins in the season mean to you and the team overall? Um, I think it’s a really good achievement and shows that we’re improving and making progress and adding a lot to the foundation. Um, I feel like it’s like good for us to like feel that we have the wins and like achieve that. What’s your favorite part about playing golf for Alina? My favorite part is getting hot dogs at practice. um being with my friends and just playing golf with them. Now, what do you guys think is the best part of your game? Uh I think it changes a lot. I’m probably most consistent with my driver because I’m a softball player, but you know, soon as something’s going right, something else is going wrong. That’s kind of just the game. Um it always just depends on the like day, but usually my driver. Now, coach, can you give me a rundown of a typical practice? Uh typical practice we change up a lot. I mean some days, you know, we’ll just send them out, let them play five holes. Uh some days we’ll work from 50 yards in, some days 100 yards in, some days 150 yards in, some days a putting practice or a chipping practice. It just all depends. We try to change practice up a lot. And what’s funny about these two, you know, it was funny because I got an opportunity to see Vion’s dad out at the golf course a lot. So I’d be like, “Hey, why don’t you get your daughter out for the team?” Ah, maybe I’ll take her. But well, eventually she shows up, right? Caris McGee, how how do we get her out for the team? I hap happened to be walking in the athletic office one day and she was coming in there talking. She was being introduced to the school, walking around and I said, “Yeah, we have a golf team, you know, and that’s that that’s kind of how it it started, right?” like, you know, and that’s how it it it gets started with most kids and families is, you know, they’re they’re a little hesitant about coming out for the team, you know, but when they come out, they seem to do well. They enjoy it. Now, we do have we put demands on them. There’s no if ends or buts about it, but to be good, you have to have demands and you have to have expectations and goals and uh so those are things that we do with the kids. Well, thank you guys. Thanks for joining us on the Lions Den. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the MLTV YouTube channel. We’ll see you next week for more AHS Sports Talk. [Music]
