Hey, Coach DeLay, thanks for joining us.

You are entering your second season as head coach of the Bulldogs in your second season as a head coach ever.

What have you learned?

I feel like I'm learning something new every day.

So the one thing that I got this year that I didn't have last year, the head coach is really an offseason, you know, starting in January with the kids in the weight room and form ones and then, you know, morning conditioning into spring practice.

I feel like I have a completed all season under my belt and it's good for us as a team because we're going to be a little young in some spots this year.

We needed that.

We needed that growth and development.

You know, we were in 24 seniors last year, so it's been good to have an all season as head coach.

And, you know, biggest thing you learn is your phone never stops ringing.

January, February, March.

Yeah.

Coaches call and kids call and parents call them.

You know, it's so it's fun.

So you mentioned how it is for you as a coach.

What is it been like for the assistants and the staff losing those two dozen seniors?

And what's spring and summer been like on the field for you?

Oh, it's been fantastic.

You know, we won we lost two coaches on the staff last year, was able to fill those spots with some some guys that played here at Thomasville.

But on the field, you know, just keeping that continuity on the staff has allowed us to be so much farther along at this point than we were last year.

I was talking to the offensive line coach last week and I was like, we were just looking at the board at things that, you know, we we like that are good and things that, you know, we want to see.

And I said, remember this time last year where we were this there's about half the stuff on the board.

We didn't really get any of this til the end of the year.

So that's been nice, you know, working, working with a core group of guys from year one to year two surely does make it a lot easier.

You mentioned coaches calling you like crazy, and I know some of those are college coaches because recruiting is a big topic in the off season.

Tell me about some of the guys being looked at on your team and then somebody that deserves an offer as well.

I gotcha.

So, you know, I've got guys Cole Schall, he's a receiver.

It's been looked at.

He's a great kid.

Keyshawn Jordan, Jay Randle, Andrew Bennett.

Those are really the four seniors right now that has offers at this point.

And I've got some some kids in my junior and sophomore class that are getting some looks as well.

But one guy that has an offer.

But I would I would say, you know, that a a power five school or a group of five still needs to come and take a chance on this coach.

I mean, he does he does everything that we ask, right.

He's six £395, runs a four or five plays receiver to go inside out step forced leader in the weight room.

He's a 4.1 GPA.

Kid's going to graduate in December.

So someone needs to somebody big needs to come take a chance on him.

Yeah, sounds like it.

Region Title last year in Region one triple-A.

You're in a region with Carver, Columbus, already Crisp, Monroe and Columbus, which means that you've got to fill up half of your schedule with non region games.

When you look at the second year of this cycle with the schedule that you have, what do you see with the teams on it this year?

You know that region schedule that you just mentioned, I mean, it's daunting.

You know, you got there's five really good teams that you're going to play right there in Tripoli and you know, some of us made some deep runs last year.

But then when you look at the front end of our schedule, there's there's there's no slouch.

They're on our schedule.

You know, we open with Valdosta Austin scrimmage.

Then Brooks County comes to us, we go to Thomas County Central, then we have Cairo.

Come to us, Bainbridge, come to us.

Then right before the open, we go to Tift.

And so, you know, the the non region schedule you know people talking about oh well that's a tough schedule.

Yeah it is And and you know we went two and three in the non region last year, but you know at the end of the day that playing those teams playing those really good teams, that really good competition really helped us as we went through region play.

We know how important football is to South Georgia.

What does it mean to your community there in Thomasville?

Oh man, Thomasville football is is the the the thing in Thomasville, you know, when we're when Thomas was winning, when Thomas was playing good you know, from school morale to just community morale, because, you know, we're we're a diverse community and we're a devout, diverse football program.

And that's when you come to Veterans Memorial Stadium on a Friday night.

That's one of the biggest signs of unity that you're going to see in our community.

But I believe in south Georgia and in all the state, you know, it's a bunch of people from different backgrounds coming together for one common goal.

And it does a lot to help our community.

If we're if we're playing good and we're putting a good product out there on the field, we're winning.

It really does a lot to boost what's going on in Thomasville.

So with that being said, yes to our bonus bonus question and what is a gameday tradition that you would like to share with us there in time?

All right.

So I got kind of a couple of things.

So when I you know, I've been an assistant here since 2017.

My job was to as the quarterbacks coaches, make sure I clean the footballs and get them set on the field.

Right.

And then, you know, pregame stuff.

We do certain things.

But I'm a stickler.

I'm still a stickler for footballs.

And when we have it, we got a set of eight balls that all we do is play games with them.

We've got a set of six that all we do is we pregame warm up with those six.

We've got a set that we just practice.

But there's there's a lot of things that that go into that.

But so Friday nights when I go out there and I set the balls, if I put them a certain way, wear the GST logo, it always has to face the end zone.

Oh, and that's just that's something that I do.

And then so the first group that we always bring out is quarterbacks and centers, and their first thing they do is they stretch each other.

And I don't know when this started, I was an assistant, but you know, usually when we're at home there's music playing when when that's happening.

So we got somewhere and there was no music playing.

And I just looked at the guys and said, Hey, y'all want me to sing?

Yeah.

So Black Eyed Peas, I got a feeling that's whether we're home or why music's playing.

Whatever I'm going to, I'm going to start with that one.

We've put it on our pre-game lists here at home, so this kind of this is something that we did a video.

But but is it is it your version that is played if you're on the road, is it okay?

Just checking like it's missing.

And I can tell before the music comes on.

Okay.

Oh, we need video of this.

Oh, somebody's got to have video of this.

Awesome.

Good.

Well, thank you so much for sharing it.

I look forward to hearing that.

Yeah, no doubt.

I appreciate you guys having this.

And no dogs.