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Monday, October 1, 2007
Peacock Preaches About Pittsburg, Prock
Western Arkansas, AR
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Rogers coach Ronnie Peacock, who turned 57 on Sept. 5, has the Mounties in the mix for another run at the state playoffs despite many believing his team would be “down” after an appearance in the state championship a year ago.
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You can just imagine coming into a big stadium and running out with people like “Mean” Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris, I looked at the roster from that preseason and there was maybe 10 people in the Hall of Fame now. I look at the roster and Peacock is in there with all those unbelievable guys
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HSSTM: I understand you are very strong in your faith, what role does that play in your daily life and as a high school football coach?
Peacock: Obviously being a Christian coach in a public setting, you try to be a good mentor to the coaches and good example to the kids. I leave very little doubt where I stand. I don’t profess my faith openly, but people know where I stand and what I stand for. That’s a constant thing, especially when you struggle. Your faith is the only thing keeps you going.
HSSTM: How tough was it to leave Greenwood, a place where you had enjoyed a ton of success, for a place that hadn’t experienced much success at all?
Peacock: I was there 7 years. I built something I was very proud to be a part of, proud of my staff. We went to the semifinals five times and made it to the finals twice. We won a lot of conference championships and had some tremendous games with Alma. Back then, my wife was the cheer coach and we kind of worked together and it was a neat deal. It was tough to leave there. It was tough coming here, but I liked the athletic director here and the money here was good, although the money I was making in Greenwood was really good. Sometimes you coach at a place to where you feel like you take a program to a point where I knew it was going to be good for years to come. Greenwood, they get it, in the administration and the community as far as the importance of football. But I’m proud to be here and accepted the challenge. I feel very fortunate to take this program to a level they’ve never gone before and be part of something that has been an impact on the community and school. It’s something that gives me peace … A real, real joy.
HSSTM: You’ve mentored a lot of young coaches in your career, but who has been your biggest mentor?
Peacock: Coach John Prock, the head coach at Harding University who’s also my father in law. He’s impacted me and been a real mentor in my life from a coaching standpoint. I can’t think of anybody who has impacted my life more than him. He gave a little skinny kid a chance and signed me at the all-star game and gave me a scholarship to a Christian school. It was a big change in my life and I ended up marrying his daughter, Martina, so you hope he believes he got a good exchange in that. We got married after my sophomore year. I always tell people I started as a freshman before I started dating his daughter.
HSSTM: You spent time with the Pittsburg Steelers in 1972, what was it like playing professionally?
Peacock: It was just something that was a real treasure to be with the Steelers, to be with them through six to eight weeks. You can just imagine coming into a big stadium and running out with people like “Mean” Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris, I looked at the roster from that preseason and there was maybe 10 people in the Hall of Fame now. I look at the roster and Peacock is in there with all those unbelievable guys who played in Super Bowls and it really a neat experience. I was a kid that probably didn’t have much of a chance to make it and I almost made it, so that was a really accomplishment.
HSSTM: At what moment did you realize you wanted to coach?
Peacock: I feel like I’m really fortunate in that because I was just kind of guided there. Athletics is such a big part of my life and when I got to college, I thought about electronics, but athletics had impacted my life so much that it was really just common sense. I told my wife this the other day, I feel really blessed because I feel like I’m a person who has found a place in this life where God wants me to be. There’s people who are in business who would love to coach. They make a lot of money, but there’s an emptiness. It really makes me value the opportunities we have as coaches to make a real difference in people’s life.
HSSTM: If you weren’t coaching, what would you be doing?
Peacock: I’ve often talked with my wife about that. I’ve got a coaches who are real handy and can build a house or whatever, and I can’t do any of that. If I wasn’t coaching, I’m not sure what I could do. Maybe I could sell something if I had to sell something, because coaching kind of involves some selling. The bottom line is I don’t have a skill I could fall back on. Not an electrician or a plumber. I guess I could sell insurance, but I never thought about doing something other than coaching. I feel like I’m going to coach forever.
HSSTM: How do you unwind after a football game?
Peacock: After a game, we watch game film. But the way I unwind and I really value this time, is sitting with my wife at home watching a football game or watching a movie. That’s a special time. All our kids are gone and we’ll go eat or go home. She watches football and we talk about it, or we’ll just sit and watch a game. That’s pretty special.
HSSTM: Do you have any hobbies? If so, what are they?
Peacock: I golf a little, but I don’t consider myself a golfer. I don’t get real mad if I miss a shot. I don’t care if I play good or bad. I don’t fish. I don’t camp. I don’t hunt. I don’t have a gun. I don’t collect anything. I really don’t have any hobbies. My wife has told me we need to get a hobby and I was going to get some jet skis because we live close to the lake, just take both of us out and get one for both of us. That could be our hobby. Then we could go jet ski together.
HSSTM: When you do get a vacation, what is your favorite place to go or favorite thing to do?
Peacock: My wife loves New York City. I love going to New York City with my wife. That’s one place I like to go. She likes it, so that makes it a neat place for us. We have been to Disney World in Florida, I liked that. When we get a weekend, we go to Eureka Springs and get a bed and breakfast there. Otherwise, just spending it with family, my kids and grandkids and sometime we’ll go someplace together. In fact, we all went to New York City this summer. That was a lot fun.
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