Undefeated Page #2

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You know, the sky's the limit.

I don't want to say football

is everything to me. But...

This is a very

good friend of mine.

And when you find out who

he is and what he's about,

and where he comes from,

you'll find out anybody

can do anything.

So, just to speak to you

for a few minutes,

is my buddy, Aaron Hayden.

Thanks Coach.

I always ask two

questions when I speak,

and I'm going to raise my hand

and answer the questions myself.

Raise your hand, anybody

in here, that has a parent,

that graduated from

college, in this room,

raise your hand.

You'll notice I

put my hand down.

Anybody raise your hand

if you have two parents

that graduated from college.

Mom and dad,

graduated from college.

Is there anybody in this

room who has two parents?

I've got another question.

Raise your hand if

you've had a close relative,

a brother, uncle, cousin, anybody,

that has served time in jail.

I have my hand up

as well, and that's...

...that's the thing, when I talk

to kids, from where we come from,

is that you got to think

outside your circumstances.

I didn't have

a dad in the home.

Loved my mama to death,

but she had a new man,

you know, every month.

Some dude was

sleeping on the couch.

And I walked by him

as I went to school.

And I could have went to school,

I could have stayed at home.

It really wasn't like anybody

forced me to do anything.

But it's not where you start.

It's what... what is it?

It's where you finish.

Thanks for having me.

And I appreciate being here.

Release, Julius!

Stop!

Stop, back, back,

back, back, back.

Get on the ball.

This is so easy, y'all.

You block.

When you hear the thud,

you get in your lanes.

And you got to hustle

into your lanes.

But you don't go anywhere

until you hear the thud.

Do you hear me?

When you look

around this program...

Not a lot of equipment. They pretty

much had to do with what they have.

You know, they have

a nice school here at Manassas,

a brand new school,

but unfortunately

they got that built and

didn't get the rest of

the school built, which

is the athletic part of it.

All right, let's go.

O.C., you have to block first.

There was nobody over there!

Damn it...

The city schools really are...

They play on a different level

in terms of support and

in terms of funding...

When you address that thing,

is the minute it hits his right hand.

That's the landscape that

we have in athletics today.

It's kind of like America,

the haves and have-nots.

Get it in there.

Oh, my God, Kevin.

The City of Memphis

school system

is always just way underfunded.

There's just no money, and if

you don't have a booster club,

the only other way

to pay for the program

is to play what

they call pay games.

We would bus out to places

like Ripley, Haywood,

Milan, Westview...

We're talking big, powerful

3 and 4A football teams.

They'd beat our ass,

they give us a check

and send us back on our way.

And those five or six games would

raise 15-20 thousand dollars

and that's what would

fund the football program.

The problem is, by the time

you got to your district games.

Your 19 kids were beat up,

and pretty much accepted

that they were horrible

and couldn't win any games.

Well, Jim and I started

Manrise for the soul purpose

of raising money to give to

Manassas like a booster club.

It's a program now,

it's not having to go

up the road to play these

huge schools that are going to

destroy us, and an opportunity

to tell kids in the hallway,

"Come play football."

Dickens?

You weren't in practice

yesterday were you?

- No.

- Huh?

- Yes, sir?

- You weren't there Monday, were you?

- No.

- You going to be there today?

- Yes, sir.

- Get your grades right.

You need to be on

the football field!

What a shame.

What a shame.

Why'd you fly the coop on me?

Rarely do coaches come back

and go through all the stress,

the headache, and the tired

and everything else,

for all the kids on the team.

It's typically one

or two that matter

so much to you that you're

willing to put up with it.

I'm not supposed to be

showing my project,

but I'm going to show you.

This is the one I spent four hours

in the early morning doing.

I'll show you my other project.

This is the egg in a bottle.

I'm the smallest lineman.

Like, I was the smallest linemen

on the offensive line last year.

When I first noticed, I'm like,

I'm the littlest

thing on the line.

Everybody else is

all big and wide

and I was just small.

But I feel like a giant.

But when you standin' next them.

I'm like a little pee-wee.

Coach, put me in,

put me in there!

He's completely

undersized to play right tackle.

He has no business

being a right tackle.

He's always

out-manned physically.

And he always wins.

And that's not because

he's some physical specimen.

It's because he's

so mentally tough.

I think of him

as preacher boy...

...like, he's so serious.

He's so young, but like,

Money got like everything

mapped out.

I'm pretty sure

he can tell you everything,

that's gonna go on in his life,

and he gonna go by it.

This... I be lookin'

at this all the time.

This tells me like, the

top colleges to go to.

Uh... getting accepted.

You got to have a high school

GPA, of a 3.7, I have a 3.8.

I'm living with my grandmother.

And you know, we stay

in North Memphis.

All my family has

been in Memphis.

They've never been

outside of North Memphis.

Even if I don't make it

out of Tennessee,

I'm gonna get out of Memphis.

Good morning, Manassas.

Would you please stand for

the Pledge of Allegiance

and the Manassas

High School Pledge?

Let's go!

Come on. Come on.

Very nice.

Good pitch Will!

We got it right the

third time, that's impressive.

Huddle up!

Huddle up!

Trying real hard

to get this team prepared.

Now I had to come off the hook,

three times yesterday,

I had to cuss way too much.

I have to go home and pray

for forgiveness for the way

I talked to these young guys.

And I don't want to be

driven there again.

Please do not make me

act a fool out here

to get you all motivated.

Your first football game

is in two days.

All this bullshit we've been

doing is all about tomorrow.

Call it again

and let's get off the ball

and be excited

about being here.

Thirteen... on one, ready?

Break!

On one, ready?

Let's go, offense.

Hustle up!

A lot to be nervous about.

It's the first game out,

starting off with a loss,

I worry about

the team's psyche.

I want them to rise

above the inner city knock.

The knock on inner city

football teams

if you score on 'em first or

get up on 'em 14-nothin' early,

they'll lay down.

You know, they don't

have the discipline

to keep themselves

together and come back.

That's the knock, I mean.

Whether you like it or not,

that's the knock.

That's what people say.

The sun is setting

in the western sky, right now.

The field lights

are coming up here.

We're just excited about

seeing another great night

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