ECA OfB Hooten's Football Magazine 8-14-26

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in a positive life. How big is the operation to put the magazine together each other? It is a big magazine. I mean, I've got it at my house right now. 600 pages. Yeah, I mean, it's gigantic. I love it. So how many people work at Hootons to get this, you know, this publication ready to go each season? Well, you know, my mom has started helping us. Nice. And then we just moved into downtown. My dad's law firm is on the left side of our building, and Houten's on the right. Perfect. So it's kind of crazy. And I just hired my brother, who's been the offensive coordinator at Plasky Academy. So this is his first year. And then Barry Grooms, who everybody knows, he's been here for 30 years. He's kind of the backbone of Houtens. You know, he knows everything about football. I mean, it just, he's a... Encyclopedia. Yeah. And then we've got Graham Shear, another local guy that's been here for two years. Mm-hmm. And then we have a bunch of independent contractors, you know, that'll help write, like the 2A or 3A. Sure. Yeah. So there's 15 of us, you know, maybe five full-time. Yeah. And then, but, you know, we have photographers and writers from all over the state. So it's, it's a... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, Thomas. Oh, no, you're good. Is the business somewhat split into two aspects with the magazine on one side and then the website at hootins.com on the other? You know, but they should support each other, you know, then follow, you know, flow off each other. But, you know, the magazine is our bread and butter, you know, 90%. Yeah. And then we do the Farm Bureau Award. So we go out and film every Friday night looking for these 56 finalists. So we have a big banquet at the end of the year honoring the best offensive, defensive players for each classification and then the best coaches. So we have a huge banquet. And this year we're doing North of the Rock. But it's the Farm Bureau finalist, and that's kind of what we do all year during the season, as we're looking for those guys. As far as the magazine this year, which, by the way, folks, we're talking with Thomas Thrash. She's the owner of Hootin's football. Magazine is out, so we'll talk about where you can go get that in just a minute. But as far as the magazine, nice and thick this year, this year, this year, some pages of wonderful football. Can you tell people how the magazine is laid out? And what are you proud of in this year's, this year particularly in this publication? Well, this year, I'm most proud about the photos we got, the action shots of high school kids. Yeah. Because when I took over, we were 432 pages, and we had 40 action shots of high school kids in the book. So then we upped it to 190. And then we had, now we have over 500. Yeah. And that's we, I mean, it was, it was a very painful to do. But just, you know, just getting, I mean, just finding those photos. It was awesome. I mean, but that's what I'm most proud of getting the action shots of high school kids. Yeah. Because, you know, the Razorbacks, we cover the Razorbacks, A-Stade, UAPB, UCA, and all the Division 2, Harding's watched off.

And, but, you know, our focus really is high school. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, I think that's great, Thomas, because, I mean, you know, it's hard, sometimes it's hard to find. good information and especially in-depth information about rosters, about coaches, about schedules. And so that's why Hootens is so great to me. I mean, I just, you know, I know I can just flip it open and find all that information. I don't have to go digging around the web. I don't want to get on the search engines and all that. Because most of them aren't right. Right. Not updated. It kills me because we look for rosters and it's just, you know, dealing with the coaches. I mean, sometimes you can't get a score on Friday night. Right. You know, for some teams. I'm like, you know, we've even looked at putting game cameras, hunting cameras, near the scoreboard, just to look at the scoreboard. That's how bad we've looked at it. And so it's hard to get some of the information. It wouldn't work. Yeah, no. It's not very innovative. It's not off the table yet. Yeah, I think that's a great way to go about it if you're not getting the score from somewhere. You just put it on a game camera. Put it on a poll. Put it at the scoreboard. So on Friday, we know. Oh, go ahead, Thomas. You know, so the Razorbacks, you know, they have the SEC network and they have, you know, Adriano Espaillat, and everyone covers them. But nobody covers the smaller town, you know, teams. And I had a guy last year asked me, he said, Athlon, sports. It was $14, and we're 20. And I was in Green Forest, Arkansas. And he's like, why is that? And I was like, well, what do they say about Green Forest? They're not in there. I was like, exactly. Right. That's what we're 20 bucks. You know? Where can people go and get the magazine this year? Where are some of the places that we can pick this up? Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger's, down here. You've got Harps, the Double Bs down at Cantrell Hill. Arkansas Children's Hospital has them. You know, most of the Walgreens, Walmarts and Kroger's. Okay. Lots of places. Big sellers. Yes. Yeah, no, it's like 400, 400 locations around the state. Yeah. If you're looking for it, folks, you're going to find it. So that's the best part. Just hit, you know, any of these stores. And you can also. You can also go to the website and then go to our store. And we've got like 10 alternate covers. So like we did a champions cover with, we had a photo shoot with every champion. So like Robinson, Bryant, you know, Salo. So they're all in the same cover. And then we actually did a Robinson cover. So you can go to the Walmart and West Little Rock for just a Robinson cover, just seven Robinson guys. Yeah. No, I saw that. And actually, I'd already purchased mine at that point. I have the Silverfield cover. But I saw that I was in, I live in West Little Rock. And so I saw this at the Walmart. And I was like, oh, look at that. There's a Robinson cover right here. And it was actually one of my questions, how many different covers this year? And so you just told us that. As far as once the high school season starts.

Do you rotate some of that coverage over to the website throughout the season? Is that a place we can go? I know you were talking about getting updated scores and things like that at the end of the night. But as far as catching links to maybe watch live feeds of games, things like that. Oh, yes. Is that something we can do at hootins.com? So our scoreboards, the first security bank scoreboard is the best in the state. What we did last year, we started doing it last year, is we have all the schedules. and then you have a watch now button. So it'll take you directly to their live stream. So if you look and it's 9.30 at night and it's a... you know, tied ballgame, you know, in the fourth quarter, you can click on and watch it from your phone. Yeah. You know, so that was the huge part because, you know, there's so many live streams, but they're all on different places. Some on YouTube, some on the website, some on this. So we were like, it takes us forever to get the length ready to go. Yeah. But, you know, it'll take you directly, you know, to see the close games. And that's what I do on Friday nights. When I get done filming, I'll be in the car looking at close games, just clicking over. Yeah, no, it's a great website. So, folks, the website is hootins.com. Where you can go? You can go there now. You can go there throughout the season, get all sorts of great information. Thomas, I appreciate you coming on the show this morning. I appreciate the publication. Glad that you took it over and kept it going here in the state. It's one of the best things that comes out every year, in my opinion. But I appreciate the time this morning, and we'll catch up again soon. Thank you so much for having me. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake C. Toll. See, now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing, I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show, and it's about whatever I want it to be. It's listening live as it happened, when it happened, with the instant reaction. You're home for talking sports. We go back, the Drake Toll Show, Westwood One Sports Network, and there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One Sports Talk. Your home for Drake C. Toll. Follow and listen. on your favorite platform.