Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Coaches Recall Perpetual Sports Cycle
SETTING CHANGES, RELATIONSHIPS OF BROTHERHOOD STAY STRONG
NOTE: Tracy Sutton has taken the assistant principal position at Lynch Middle School and will not coach in 2018.
FARMINGTON — Seeing the end from the beginning isn’t always possible, yet coaches do their best to compensate for the unanticipated through practice, game-planning and preparation.
There are few relationships among society equal to that of coach-to-coach or coach-to-player that successfully forge individual character incorporated into a team concept. When the product emerges coaches celebrate as if they had just won a state championship. Working side-by-side coaches frequently develop a unique brotherhood chemistry, especially at a small town where the sports cycle seems perpetual.
Multiplied Duties
Two decades ago Lee Larkan, Joey Sorters and Tracy Sutton found themselves sharing the majority of coaching duties at Des Arc High School, Sutton’s hometown.
Larkan hails from Hazen, a town of less than 1,500, a rival to Des Arc (population 1,600) northeast of Little Rock in Prairie County. Larkan, currently athletic director and head football coach at Greenland, compares the rivalry to that of Greenland versus Elkins or Farmington against Prairie Grove. Sutton served as assistant football coach and head junior high football coach at Farmington from 2011-2017.
“It was a rival of Des Arc, so it was kind of weird coaching for them,” Larkan said.
After 22 years of coaching, Sutton recently took an administrative job as assistant principal for Lynch Middle School at Farmington. That contract begins July 1. Sorters has been out of coaching for awhile and took over as Prairie Grove athletic director in the spring of 2017.
Sorters is from Glenwood, population 2,100, situated in Pike and Montgomery counties along the Caddo River in the Ouachita Mountains. He interviewed with Larkan, who in the days before cell phones, Facebook, and instant messaging, sent word to Sorters’ parents that he was hired while Joey was on his honeymoon with his new bride, Donna.
“I hired Joey out of the fourth grade, he was young,” Larkan jokes. “You could tell he was eager and ready to roll.”
Sorters was fresh out of college and had been working at Henderson State, which gave him a good recommendation.
Larkan also hired Sutton. Larkan played football for Sutton’s uncle. Both attended the University of Central Arkansas.
“I knew where he came from, I knew who his people were,” Larkan said. “He was somebody I could trust. In coaching, the trust factor is a big deal.”
Experienced Mentor
Larkan worked at Des Arc from 1991-2000, coaching every sport except boys basketball. Sorters kept the baseball score book and served as head coach for boys basketball, girls track and field, and junior girls basketball from 1996-1999. Sutton came aboard from 1997-2000 as head coach for baseball and boys track and field plus assistant varsity football coach and head junior high football coach.
They all ran the concession stand and did off-season mowing and painting for the school district to earn summer paychecks. Each learned from the late Jerry Hinson, who was Des Arc High School principal.
“He was an old-school, hard-core guy,” Larkan said.
Sorters remembers Hinson as displaying equal-opportunity when it came to chewing out coaches. Hinson was bald and his face turned red when administering a tongue-lashing.
In spite of this tendency, Sutton said, “He was a good man.”
Larkan now compares his perspective to that of Hinson. Sorters is relatively new to the athletic director position and calls Larkan his “go-to guy.”
“He calls me and we’ll talk about what do you do with this or what to do about that,” Larkan said. “Sometimes it’s a good problem, sometimes it’s a bad problem. We talk in general terms about what’s going on.”
Sorters appreciates getting an honest opinion from Larkan, who is good at seeing the big picture.
“After 28 years I’ve become the negative guy,” Larkan said. “We’ve seen so many things we don’t want you to make the same mistakes we made.”
Small Town
The Des Arc school provided housing as part of staff salaries. Larkan’s house, former residence for a superintendent, was bigger than Sorters’ which was so small the space was no bigger than 8 to 10 tables contained within the Briar Rose dining room on Main Street Farmington. Sutton lived in one of his parents’ rental houses.
“I never made a house payment until I came to northwest Arkansas,” Larkan said.
Recreational activities were limited at Des Arc. Razorback games were too far away to go watch and the community was centered around high school sports. The men and their families gathered in one of their homes to watch college football or any type of sporting event on TV.
In Sutton’s first year coaching at Des Arc, his son, Hayden, was 7 months old while Larkan’s daughter, Kristen, was a month old. Larkan’s oldest son, Jordan, who now coaches on his staff at Greenland, hung out at the Sorter’s house playing ball on Little Tikes goals.
“We had a good time,” Larkan said. “In the summers we mowed and painted. We opened the weight room up and the kids would come in and lift weights. Then we’d open the gym up.”
NWA Jobs
All three eventually found jobs in northwest Arkansas. Larkan was at Prairie Grove from 2000-2001 before going to Greenland. Sutton coached at Greenland from 2000-2010 before coming to Farmington. Sorters coached at Magnet Cove from 20002006 and nearly joined the others at Greenland applying for a coaching position around 2003, but that didn’t work out. He became Prairie Grove High School assistant principal in 2008 after a year at Lincoln Elementary.
Today their collective relationship as well as individual friendships remain strong.
“Since the day I moved to Des Arc going on 22 years now if ever I need something these guys are the first ones I call, they are there,” Sorters said.
During Sorters’ son Jarren’s 14-month battle with childhood cancer before passing Aug. 11, 2016, a month before his 16th birthday, Larkan and Sutton checked on his house while he and Donna were with Jarren at Arkansas Children’s Hospital at Little Rock. They also took the Sorters’ younger son, Jackson, to practice.
Greenland hosted the second Jarren Sorters Memorial Baseball Tournament over spring break while the Prairie Grove High School team, which hosted the inaugural event last year, traveled to Arizona to compete in the Coach Bob Tournament. The Jarren Sorters Memorial serves as a fundraiser for the Play4Jarren Foundation established by Joey and Donna Sorters to raise awareness and fight childhood cancer. This year $3,174 was raised.
Enduring Legacy
Each man is aware they are postured to impact the lives of student/athletes.
“At Greenland, we’re trying to produce respectful men, who respect women,” Larkan said. “Men, who have honor, who do what they’re supposed to do.”
Sorters interjects emphasizing the goal is to transform boys into men, who provide for their families.
“When they become fathers, we want them to become good dads,” Larkan said. “We don’t have enough good dads.”
Looking back is bittersweet for Sorters. Had he foreseen the future things would have been done differently.
“I try to tell kids now, ‘don’t take anything for granted,’” Sorters said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 10 minutes.”
For Sutton, coaching priorities have been expanded over the years.
“We were all so young when we first started out that we were probably more caught up in the wins and losses,” Sutton said. “Now we’re still competitive and we want to win, but it’s like Lee said, we want to leave a legacy.”
The coaches keep in touch with dozens of former players.
“We keep in touch with the kids we’ve taught, our relationships we’ve built,” Sutton said. “We’ve made a good mark and we’re not done yet. We’re still influencers.”