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Monday, October 6, 2008
From the Ground Up
Fort Worth, TX
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Mark Bowles started the Liberty Christian football program from scratch. In a quarter of a century, the team has gone from having nothing to having three state titles – and many predict a fourth is likely this season.
This is the only school I’ve ever coached at. This is my 26th year to be at the school and my 25th year to coach football. We started our football program the second year of school.
It was definitely a challenge. When we first started, we didn’t have anything. We didn’t have a locker room, much less a weight room. We didn’t have a field. We didn’t have a bus. We didn’t have anything. The first year we had football, we played our games at a city park in Lewisville. We would have to drive our kids across Denton to an open field and that is where we practiced. We couldn’t hire any coaches; the salary was so low no one would work here.
Now, we’ve grown so that our athletic department here at Liberty has 45 coaches. Helping me coach football, there are 14 other coaches. Now we’ve got a 2,500-square-foot weight room. We’ve got locker rooms. We’ve got a really nice stadium. We’ve got artificial grass in our stadium. It’s really come a long way from those early days.
I was silly enough to take the job. Twenty-five years ago we couldn’t get anybody to work here. I started off making $800 a month. No one is going to come work for that. They just wouldn’t do it. Now, I’ve got coaches at the college Division I level that are on our coaching staff.
I only played high school football. What I did have, was I had a lot of enthusiasm. I was very eager to build a program, I just didn’t know how to do it. I went and visited G.A. Moore, the head coach at Pilot Point. He was very helpful. I would visit with any coach that would spend the time to talk to me. I would ask them more than just Xs and Os. My questions were what do you do in the offseason? How do you run a program? How do you structure a practice? They were so helpful to me as a coach getting started.
The best way to learn something is to go out and teach it. I learned more teaching science and history in the classroom than I ever did taking those courses in college. Same thing, I learned more trying to coach football than I ever did playing football.
We won a state title in 1994. We won one in ’96 and we won one last year in 2007. All three are special. I can’t say one is better than another. They’re all different and special in their own way.
It definitely puts a big bulls-eye on your back. Everybody is gunning for you. Whenever we go out to play a ball game on Friday night, the other schools, they just have a little extra motivation to play us, so it’s a mountain you have to carry.
It’s fun being the state champion, but you’re only the defending state champion for a season unless you can do it again. After this year, people are going to forget about what happened in 2007. Until we get to the state game [this season], people are still going to look at us that way. It’s easier for other schools to get up for the game.
The traditions around our football program have grown. There are certain things that people look forward to year after year, and those traditions grow and get to be more and more meaningful. I’m really proud of the way our football players conduct themselves and the way they carry themselves around campus. They are good leaders on our campus. Other folks can look up to them.
I think the Lord has blessed our school. I don’t think, I know. We’ve always strived to put the Lord first in all we do. Our coaches view coaching here as a ministry, and we’ve got some great guys that coach. I’m probably the least qualified of anyone on the staff.
The coaches look at coaching as a way to impact young men’s lives. Our lady coaches do the same thing in girls athletics. It’s more than just winning or losing. Nobody is really working here with the idea of, “I want to win a bunch of games and then maybe I’ll get hired at a bigger school, or maybe even go on to the next level.” Winning is secondary to what happens to kids and the impact you can have in their lives.
My plan for the future would be whatever the Lord calls me to do. This is my home, this is my ministry. So, I really don’t see any indication of leaving Liberty Christian. Now, in the future I may not coach football forever. I’m a vice principal so I may be moving into administration. But as for a dream job, I’m doing it. I’m living it. •
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