LITTLE ROCK — Doug Loughridge was a freshman lineman at Charleston in 1988 when the Tigers broke a three-year playoff drought.
Now as the school's nearly flawless coach, Loughridge is trying to guide Charleston to its 22nd consecutive post-season appearance.
It shouldn't be a problem.
Defending state champion Charleston is No. 1 in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Class 3A Super Six rankings.
Since Charleston emerged as a statewide power in 1988, few schools in Arkansas have authored a better resume the past two decades than the Franklin County school 20 miles east of Fort Smith.
The Tigers are 215-42-2 (142-11 in conference games), have won or shared16 league titles and captured 2 state championships during that span.
Charleston has recorded six perfect regular seasons, and no senior has gone through the program without winning at least one conference championship.
The 21 consecutive playoff appearances is the longest active streak in Class 3A.
Success breeds success, Loughridge said.
"That's just what we're accustomed to, getting to the playoffs," said Loughridge, a 1992 Charleston graduate who is 26-1 in two seasons at his alma mater. "Then, it's how far we can get from there."
Loughridge credited former Coach Mike Adams, now at Farmington, for laying the foundation for Charleston's towering accomplishments. Loughridge said Adams committed to a Wing-T offensive set, a 4-3 defensive alignment and placed greater emphasis on junior high development and off-season weight training.
"We always had good summer workouts," Loughridge said. "They kind of lived by a philosophy that if you're stronger than everybody, you can at least compete. And the year you do have some good athletes, you can do real well."
Loughridge said Charleston's base offensive and defensive schemes haven't changed in more than 20 years. Neither has the numbering system for plays.
"What we teach our seventh graders today is what we were doing then," Loughridge said.
Loughridge, 35, was an offensive guard/defensive tackle on Charleston teams that never lost a conference game in 1989-1991. But Charleston had never recorded a perfect season during the playoff streak until 2008, when the Tigers beat previously unbeaten Fountain Lake 47-20 to finish 14-0.
The title game was one of the few times in recent years that Charleston was considered an underdog, a role the Tigers relished, Loughridge said.
Fountain Lake, which was on the doorstep of a single-season state scoring record, was playing for its first state championship.
"We were like star-struck and they were like, 'Ah, it's just another game for us,' " Cobras Coach Tommy Gilleran said. "I think that was the big difference."
Loughridge said Charleston could field a potentially better team this fall with 15 returning starters.
Headliners include senior wingback Michael Meador, who caught 28 passes for 680 yards and 7 touchdowns last season, and junior running back Ryan McDonald, a member of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Super Sophomore Team after rushing 105 times for 944 yards and 11touchdowns.
"People always ask, 'What do you all do?' " Loughridge said. "It's kind of hard to explain. Tradition has a lot to do with it. Our guys just go into a game thinking that it's ours for the taking.
"It's not that they're cocky and don't think they can get beat. They're just really confident in the way that they play."
Sports, Pages 19, 24 on 08/26/2009