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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A Voluntary Turnaround
Fort Worth, TX
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By: Shawn Smajstrla
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Photo(s) By: Tonya Goodman Photography
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Arlington Bowie achieved historic success under second-year coach Kenny Perry in 2007. Now, with raised expectations and a returning, highly recruited quarterback, Volunteer fans are hoping their time has come.
This place has always had a lot of athletes, but in its 26-year history they had never gone to the playoffs. We had to change the mindset as far as being more team-oriented and not being so self-driven. As far as wins and losses, it wasn’t in good shape, but as far as athletes, we had a bunch of athletes.
I think you build it in the offseason. I’m a big offseason guy. My offseason motto is “kill them in the offseason so they don’t kill you in-season.” It forces kids to make decisions when they’re tired and when they’re hurting. It just forms a closer bond. That’s the first thing we did. Fortunately, I got here in the offseason and we really put them through a grueling offseason to try to bring them together as a team.
I’m big on 7-on-7. When you haven’t won you’ve got to find something. I tell people if you’ve never won, learn to win at checkers. Well, we learned to win in 7-on-7 and just kind of build them up and get their esteem going a little bit.
Everyone always asks me, “What was the key to turning this place around?” It was getting the school onboard with what we were about as coaches. The faculty is unbelievable. They work with us and our kids to make football important here. I think that’s been the biggest thing. You can say you’ve got to have kids and you’ve got to have schemes, but if your faculty is not onboard, you’re not going to have a successful program. Our faculty has really got behind our coaches to give us that chance. To me that’s been the biggest thing.
I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself and my coaches. People want to associate with a winner, and high school football in Texas is about getting to the playoffs and trying to win a state championship. So, I put a lot of pressure that if we’re going to have to play the best teams to win a state championship, then that’s what I’ve always done.
Our schedule is going to be grueling. We play Trotwood-Madison High School out of Ohio in the Texas Classic at Texas Stadium. They’re one of the top teams in Ohio year after year. And then we’re playing South Garland and Dallas Skyline, which are obviously in the top in this area. So, we’re playing a very hard schedule the first four weeks. We have a bunch of kids that haven’t played, so we’re getting them ready to play. And to do that I think you have to play a grueling schedule.
I think we’ll probably be state-ranked this next year. I don’t know that we’re deserving of that ranking because we lost some great kids. I think though, as a coach, you want that respect because it shows that your coaches and kids have worked hard to get to that level. I like to think of us one of the teams on the rise.
You’ve got to have a quarterback to run our system, and obviously having one of the best around (Christian Matthews) helps because he’s been through the battles for two years. I think he’s got the patience and the character to lead our program to where we’re trying to get to. It’s good for the younger kids. He sets a good example for them to follow.
My life has always been about challenges. I’ve taken three programs that have struggled and tried to turn them around. You never know what lies ahead of you. If there is a program that I think I can fit into that is looking for a coach that wants to turn it around, I may take that jump. But, right now I love it here. I’m from Arlington and I’ve got a son coming up. That’s my next big challenge is to get the chance to coach him in a couple of years. So right now, I can’t see me going anywhere.
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