AFCA clinic continues to grow
The Arkansas Football Coaches Association Ronnie Roach Coaching Clinic has grown from a modest gathering of slightly over 100 high school coaches to more than 1,100 coaches in 15 years.
This year’s clinic will be held in its usual location, the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, on Feb. 9-11.
The association was formed in 2010 by then-North Little Rock coach Brad Bolding, who is now coach at Little Rock Parkview, his brother and Little Rock Parkview defensive coordinator Bobby Bolding, who was the coach at Pine Bluff at the time.
Former Stuttgart coach and current West Memphis Athletic Director Billy Elmore, former Springdale coach and current Siloam Springs superintendent Shane Patrick, and former Jacksonville coach Mark Whatley, who recently retired, along with director of the clinic Danny McCuin ,were also involved in the meeting to form the association.
“This is our 15th anniversary for not only our Ronnie Roach Football Clinic but also for the founding of the Arkansas Football Coaches Association,” McCuin said. “We had 127 guys show up [for the clinic] and we thought we had hit a home run. It’s grown to be something that we never anticipated it being.”
Then-University of Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino and his staff were the first Razorback coaching staff to attend the clinic in 2011. It’s since been a tradition for the Arkansas coaches to attend in order to develop relationships with in-state high school coaches.
“It’s crazy when we look back and see guys who have spoken at the clinic,” McCuin said. “When Coach Petrino was the head coach he said, ‘We’ll be there every year as long as you include us.’ That carried forward with Coach [Bret] Bielema and Chad Morris, and Coach [Sam] Pittman has really enhanced that with us. He’s all in and helps us get speakers and brings his entire staff.”
Central Florida Coach Gus Malzahn will speak at 10 a.m. on the opening day of this year’s event after Brad Bolding. Fayetteville Coach Casey Dick, Greenwood Coach Chris Young and Harding Academy Coach Neil Evans will follow Malzahn.
Pittman will be the headline speaker that evening at 8:10 p.m. Paul Simmons — who coached Harding University to this season’s NCAA Division II national championship — and SMU Coach Rhett Lashlee will speak at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.
In the past, Arkansas assistants have done a chalk-talk session for the high school coaches, but this year they will do skills and drills after Pittman speaks.
“All of his assistant coaches are going to do skills and drills for the coaches,” McCuin said of Pittman’s staff. “Break it down per position and show what they do with their position groups. It’s really cool to get that commitment from the Razorback football program.”
Arkansas State Coach Butch Jones will be headline speaker at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and will be followed by his coaching staff also doing skills and drills sessions.
McCuin reminisced about past speakers who have gone on to be successful.
“The seventh clinic we had a young man named Mike Norvell, who [had just taken] the head job at the University of Memphis. Look where he is today,” McCuin said of the Florida State coach. “We had the offensive coordinator from Boise State — Eliah Drinkwitz [now at Missouri] — and look what he’s turned into. Guys like Gene Stallings, Danny Ford, Ken Hatfield.”
Elmore lined up one of the nation’s top coordinators to speak to the clinic in 2020 prior to the covid-19 pandemic.
“He said, ‘I have the defensive coordinator from Oklahoma State,’ ” McCuin said. “‘He was by recruiting our kid. His name is Jim Knowles.’ ”
Knowles is now Ohio State’s defensive coordinator.
The clinic isn’t the only thing growing. Several attendees have seen their families grow while making them grandfathers, including Elmore, Whatley, Bobby Bolding, Conway Coach Buck James, former UCA softball assistant Shane Lamb. Former Conway coach Buzz Bolding is a great-grandfather.
Numerous retired coaches will also attend the clinic and will get to hear Pittman address the group during the retired coaches social afternoon on the opening day of the clinic.
“Coach Pittman always takes time to go in there and sit and visit with those guys and talk Razorback football,” McCuin said.