Volunteer Coach At Home On Gridiron

LINCOLN — An Arkansas Activity Association rule change that took effect beginning with the 2014-2015 school year has opened the door for volunteer coaches.

Volunteer coaches can now take active roles in high school and junior high sports in Arkansas. Lincoln volunteer assistant coach Perry Philpot worked with former Mena head football coach Jeff Weaver in 2010 and 2011. Mena offensive coordinator Don Harrison left Mena to become offensive coordinator at Newport in 2011 and Philpot joined him on the Greyhounds’ staff as a volunteer in 2011. Philpot’s role was limited by the rules.

“When I was at Mena and Newport, I couldn’t coach,” Philpot said. “I couldn’t come to practice, I couldn’t wear a headset.”

He was out of football in 2013 and 2014, before accepting an invitation to join Harrison’s staff after he became head coach at Lincoln in the spring of 2015. Rule changes opened the door for volunteers like Philpot and Prairie Grove volunteer assistant football coach Nik Paroubek, who joined the Tiger staff in 2014, to learn the profession.

When Harrison broke the news to Philpot the opportunity came as a pleasant surprise.

“It was one of those things I wasn’t planning on,” Philpot said. “I thought it would be grunt work, videotape and statistics, that I would help out with that area.”

“He told me the rule changed with the Triple A for volunteer coaches,” Philpot said.

“They can do a lot more now. The rule change allowed for a lot more. You just can’t be a head volunteer football coach.”

Both Paroubek and Philpot are single. They each spend the equivalent of another work week as volunteer assistant football coaches with their respective programs. Both are devoted and clearly enjoying the experience.

“It’s a joy for sure,” Philpot said. “If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t put in all those volunteer hours for free.”

LINCOLN — Footballs can take unexpected bounces and Perry Philpot’s career as a volunteer assistant football coach has bounced from West Fork to Mena to Newport and now at Lincoln.

The volunteer assistant football coach at Lincoln never put on a helmet or shoulder pads. Growing up, he alternated between living at Mena where he was born and West Fork after his parents divorced. Philpot stands 5-feet-7 and weighs 135 pounds on a good day. He was too small to play, but he was around football as a member of the band at West Fork.

In his freshmen year, the Tigers went 11- 3 and advanced to the state semifinals in 3A, narrowly missing playing for the state championship with a tough 19-18 loss to Prescott in December of 2006.

“I fell in love with football,” Philpot remembers.

He started asking coaches and players questions, learning all he could about the sport and bought Hooten’s football magazine every year. His journey to where his life would become centered around football began upon graduation from West Fork in the spring of 2010.

Philpot is grateful to former Mena head football coach Jeff Weaver, who coached at Mena from 20092012 and is now at Little Rock Christian, for granting opportunity for him to help out with the program.

“Coach Weaver gave me that chance,” Philpot said. “I called him a few times. I told him my story and he checked it out for me and gave me a shot.”

In the summer of 2010, Philpot rode the Mena team bus to a camp at Greenwood where he met Don Harrison, who had been head junior high coach at Greenwood from 2006-2009. Harrison had taken a job as Mena’s offensive coordinator but was still living at Greenwood.

“Coach Jeff Weaver told me, ‘you’re going to work with Coach Harrison,” Philpot said.

“You’re going to follow him around and coach wide receivers. You’re going to work with him every day. Be in his hip-pocket. Learn the offense, how we call it.”

Philpot introduced himself to Harrison, whose tonguein- cheek sense of humor caught him off guard.

“He said, ‘ Do you want to work with the offense or defense?’” Philpot said. “Cause if you want to work with the defense, want you.’”

“He was just joking,” Philpot said, describing the friendship, “We kind of took to each other ever since.”

Harrison recognized Philpot’s potential as a coach from the start.

“He wanted to get better,” Harrison said. “He had a good understanding of the game and the intricacies of the game.”

Harrison’s work ethic, ability to communicate effectively and motivate players has stuck with Philpot, who says those are all attributes he’s tried to bring to himself as a coach. Harrison went to Newport as offensive coordinator in 2011 before becoming head coach from 2013-2014.

Philpot served as a volunteer football coach at Mena from 2010- 2011, and at Newport for the 2012 season before moving to Fayetteville and becoming a para-professional or teacher’s aide working with special education students. When Harrison became head coach at Newport, Philpot considered going back.

“I thought about moving back to Newport and supporting the Greyhounds, but I decided against it,” Philpot said, explaining, “My student, I was working with at Fayetteville, was about to go into high school. I didn’t want to leave him without an aide going into high school.”

Philpot was out of football for two years, but stayed around the game. He drove to Lincoln to watch the Wolves scrimmage against West Fork at the old high school football field in 2013 and was surprised when Lincoln announcer Randy Magar proclaimed the opening of Wolfpack Stadium would occur in the second week of the season against Stilwell, Okla.

“I didn’t know Lincoln was going to have a new football field,” Philpot said, adding, “It is beautiful facility.

Less than two years later, Harrison was hired as the Wolves’ head coach in May of 2015. When Harrison was putting together a staff, he contacted Philpot in June. During Philpot’s first season working with Wolves’ football, he drove back and forth while working at Fayetteville. Philpot’s dedication has been rewarded. He is now working at Lincoln Elementary.

The young man, who grew up knowing how to function in dual environments at West Fork and Mena has found another place where he feels at home, on the staff of Don Harrison’s football program at Lincoln. I don’t

Philpot

Paroubek