COACHES

Coaches are a strange and special breed of people. I have been around some great and some lousy coaches in my short career and life, and each place I coach I learn more about how I should act and how I should not.

To make sure I don't leave anyone out, I would like to give a short thank you to the many coaches over my 9 year career that have been influential to me, both as a coach and as a person. Not all of these men are saints, but each had special qualities that helped me grow as a person and coach.

At Mann Middle School and Abilene High there was Steve Warren who gave me my first job. Del Van Cox and Henry Willis were very kind to a young college kid begging for knowledge. Jasper Wilson, Foy Pinson, and Ricky Paris were good instructors to a young coach a Mann M.S. They put up with me for a whole year. Steve Cunningham was my first coaching parter. We had the 7th grade b team together. I remember the first game we won, we gave eachother a hug and the kids attacked us.

At Deerpark in Round Rock I was introduced to Jim McDermott who was from Milwaukee and had a Northern attitude that the kids and coaches loved.

When I came to Belton in 2000 I spent one year at the Junior High with legends in Bell County like Gene Bartz, Donny Brown, Terry Hood, James York and Danny Spradley. All in their 50's and truly amazing at working with the younger kids in the last years of their own careers. David Simmons ended up being the closest friend from that staff, and Jeff Hammond taught me how to pitch quarters.

When I went to the High School in 2001 Gene told me not to; that the hours were to many and that it would be bad for my family. He was wrong, but I really did appreciate him caring enough about me to say something. At Belton High there were so many good men to learn from. David Tidwell, although he was hard on me, taught me a lot about working in the coaching field. Joe Brown, the D.C. took care of me for the first few years and taught me what I know today about defense. Paul Williams, Zane Bode, David Warehime, Don Hasley, Casey Winters, Mark Kruger, and T. Woods. All great guys to work with.

I am looking forward to working with the staff here at Keller High. It is a primarily young staff and that creates a lot of energy and fun around the field house and football practice time. One thing that we do here at Keller is that the coaching staff maintains the football practice fields and the grass, trees and bushes around the coaches office and locker room. The grass, field and office, is mowed every day with a reel mower. This sounds odd, as it did to me when I came, but the entire staff takes part in the work and the players take care of the field. I say all of this to tell you about Jack Gibson.

Jack began coaching his first season of high school football in 1964. He eventually became the Defensive Coordinator at L.D. Bell and held that position for 22 years and was the Head Coach for 3 years before retiring. He took 3 years off for knee replacement surgeries and sold various sporting goods equipment before coming back to football. This year he is beginning his 40th season. He coaches the inside linebackers here at Keller and is so very wise in football and in life. But what impresses me the most about Coach Gibson is that the other day he cleaned 45 feet of flower beds in front of the field house. He did it because it needed to be done. Others would have ignored it, or used their seniority to put the job on someone else, but Coach Gibson brought his tools from home and spent 3 hours pulling weeds and raking dirt. The rest of the defensive staff was also working, but on assigned jobs. Jack did what needed to be done.

I have worked with a lot of great guys, and I admit that I have only known Coach Gibson for a few weeks, but the impression he has made on me so far will impact me for many years to come. You should have seen the care and detail he gave the freshman today as he was fitting them for shoulder pads and teaching them how to tighten the new web strapping he had put on. The guy is something special.