Game Journal: Resolving Coaching Records

Friday’s game ended like a Blackhawk Darth Vader standing over a vanquished foe, prodding and poking the bodiless hooded cloak of Obi Wan Kenoboi.

The search for one he considered a worthy opponent, who engaged him moments earlier, was in vain.

Watching the Cardinal meltdown turn into a 42-0 beatdown at Pea Ridge Friday was agonizing for Cardinal fans and coaches. Retired Gravette coach Duke Mobley came out hoping to witness a competitive high school football game between two teams, one of which he coached against for decades, but that never happened.

Farmington trailed 21-0 at halftime and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

“They lost their passion in the first quarter, they need to get their passion back,” Mobley observed.

In the third quarter a Cardinal defensive back had a bead on the ball with nobody between him and the distant end zone, but couldn’t hang on. The ball bounced out of his hands and Pea Ridge receiver Hunter Rains caught it going 31 yards for a touchdown.

Farmington coach Mike Adams, who entered the game with 197 victories (63-33 at Charleston, 42-35 at Fayetteville, and now 92-71 at Farmington), described the contest as “flat out disappointing.”

“It was terrible, we had a bad week of preparation,” Adams said. “I think we kind of felt good about ourselves, winning the first two games. We didn’t prepare, and it played out tonight. We had chances in the passing game and a couple of times we hit receivers, and they just dropped it. Two or three times we had guys wide open for big plays, and we didn’t hit them. We had a chance to make an interception and it turned into a touchdown for them. What I just told the kids right now and at the end of practice Wednesday, ‘if you don’t make plays in practice, you won’t make them on the field.’ There is no more teachable moment than this right now.”

Sticking with the subject of Arkansas’ all-time winningest coaches, former Lincoln coach Brad Harris, who is now in his third season as head coach of the 6A Benton Panthers, watched his team stymie Cabot head coach Mike Malham’s bid for his 300th career victory — tops among active coaches.

Benton broke away from a 21-21 third quarter tie to hand Cabot a 56-41 loss Friday.

Malham, in his 38th and final season at Cabot, entered Friday’s game with 299 victories, second all-time behind Barton’s Frank McClellan (367).

We have been trying to get a handle on Adams’ exact number of victories ever since an article appeared in the state-wide newspaper in the spring of 2017 listing records of Arkansas’ all-time winningest coaches in high school football.

When coaches achieve longevity and coach at different schools there are challenges.

In the 2017 article, Wynne coach Van Paschal was listed along with Adams as two active coaches within range of achieving the 200 career win milestone. Paschal’s record was listed as 195-104-0 with a .652 winning-percentage through the 2016 season. Since the Yellowjackets won their first five games in 2017, Paschal would have reached No. 200 with a 42-17 defeat of Greene County Tech on Sept. 29, 2017; but that wasn’t the case.

Turned out his record had been erroneously reported. Paschal, however, didn’t earn his official 200th victory until a Nov. 9, 2017, first-round Class 5A playoff victory (56-42) by Wynne over Little Rock Christian. Paschal’s career has taken him to Brinkley, Sheridan, De Queen, Monticello, Barton and Wynne — so it’s little wonder that there may have been some mixups identifying his exact number of career wins.

When Frank Vines retired in November of 2006, two sets of numbers were shown for the former Alma coach’s career win total as either 266 or 270. So, it’s not uncommon for that sort of thing to occur.

Forfeits are another animal altogether.

An on-the-field defeat later transformed into a forfeit victory 25 years ago seems irrelevant except when the coach in question nears the 200 career win milestone.

In an effort to keep Danny Abshier, who took over as Prairie Grove head football coach beginning with the 1993 season, from getting shortchanged in the annals of Arkansas high school football, Prairie Grove football historian and Tiger webcast announcer Lynn Gregson contacted the Enterprise-Leader.

Gregson maintains Abshier’s career record stands at 190 wins against 101 losses coming into the 2018 season.

In contrast, many publications, including Hootens 2018 Arkansas Football magazine, Barclay’s Almanac online, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, and Fearless Friday, as of Aug. 13, show Abshier’s career record as 189-102-2. What those publications were not taking into consideration is a forfeit victory Abshier earned in 1994 over Shiloh Christian.

The matter is easily resolved. With a click of the mouse the forfeit can be verified by visiting the Shiloh Christian football website online historical season records at http:// www.shilohchristianfootball.com/through%2Dthe%2 Dyears4.html.

According to Shiloh Christian’s football website, the Saints 1994 record is 0-10, with an unofficial record of 8-3, including a loss in a Class 1A first round playoff game. The website reveals Shiloh Christian forfeited due to ineligible player.