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Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Over One-Half Century
Central Kansas, KS
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By: Tom Witherspoon, VYPE Central Kansas
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Photo(s) By: Steve Adelson
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Bill Means decided long ago that coaching would be his life’s work; 54 years later, he’s still at it
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I love what I’m doing. I love to teach and coach, to see kids develop and go on and be successful. To look back and see them do well, that’s the greatest joy I have.
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VYPE: What keeps you going after 54 years as a coach at the high school level?
Bill Means: I loved wjat I’m doing. I love to teach and coach, to see kids develop and go on and be successful. To look back and see them do well, that’s the greatest joy I have.
I’ve been very fortunate to have been around great people. I had very good mentors who took an interest in me.
The calling I had was in the high schools. When I was at Ark City, I had the opportunity to become the defensive coordinator at Fort Hays State, but I didn’t want to deal with all the traveling and recruiting. You have a gut feeling that you are where you belong. Kids keep you young. They’re very good. People bad-mouth them a lot, but 99 percent of the young men and women are very good people and will go on to be successful.
VYPE: What are some memories which come to mind when looking back on your coaching career?
Bill Means: When I went to Ark City, I got to work under a very fine football caoch, Carl Jackson. He took an interest in me and took me to clinics and worked with me. I listened and learned so many things that would help later in life.
Carl passed away the seventh year I was down there on the third day of practice. He was the one who really took me under his wing, and I learned and learned and learned. He never excluded me every place we ever went.
Then, when I went to Southeast, I coached under Jim Davie. When I was at Ark City and he was at Derby, we used to go to clinics at the University of Arkansas. We got to know each other down there and he was always after me to work with him. Finally, I made the move in ’77 [to Southeast]. He was another very influential person in my life.
Jim and I argued like crazy, and a lot of people feared him. A lot of coaches were afraid to challenge him – you know, bring up things – but he and I got along very well. I argued and argued with him, and never had a problem. Once we decided, that’s where we went.
VYPE: As an assistant, you coached the Arkansas City from 1960 to 1977 and Wichita Southeast from 1977 to 1995. Who were the great players and coaches of those programs?
Bill Means: In ’77 at Wichita Southeast, we had nine young men receive Division I scholarships – not all in football, like Jimmy Thomas, baseball player and coach at Wichita State. He was a great football player. We had Jeff Smith, wh o played at Nebraska; Reuben Eckels, now a minister in Wichita; a young man at Ark City, Russ Gilmore – now at Hobbs, N.M. – played football and basketball for us. He’s won four state championships at Hobbs. (Gilmore won his fifth state basketball title at Hobbs in 2008.) I think Weston Schartz (a football player at Southeast under Means) has been very successful. He does an excellent job with different types of kids. John Bryant, a captain at KU and played in pros – there’s just so many.
VYPE: Was being a head coach ever of interest?
Bill Means: I was head coach of basketball at Ark City and head football coach at Southeast for two years (1981-82). I’ve mostly stayed as an assistant.
There are a lot of things that you can help kids with as an assistant – in terms of building relationships with them and not having to deal with other things.
Jim Davie thrived on (talking to reporters). We have one here, Tom Audley, who is excellent at working with the parents and managing all that, probably as good at it as anyone I’ve been around.
VYPE:For someone who played 6-man football at Goddard High (now 6A), can you believe the suburban expansion which has occurred in the Wichita area?
Bill Means: I had 14 in my graduating class, but it was a good place. All the schools outside of Wichita are growing like crazy. I never envisioned back then that it would be something like this.
The greatest reaction is that they (Goddard) always do well – in athletics and academically, as well. I still have a lot of relation there. My cousin’s boy is the wrestling coach out there, so you still got connections that you keep track of.
Who knows where it’s going now.
It’s nice to see the facilities they’re using and the academics that are being taught in the schools.
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A collection of this month's best action photos.
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