Spotlight finds Lonoke’s Bost

LITTLE ROCK — One of the coaches in Saturday’s Class 4A state championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock needs no introduction.

Josh Floyd led Shiloh Christian to its first state championship as a senior in 1998, graduated as the state’s all-time leading passer, had his high school number retired and has coached his alma mater to two state titles in the past four seasons.

Now meet Lonoke Coach Doug Bost, 38, who, because of his father’s agricultural related occupation, lived in nine states growing up. He spent 13 years at Lonoke Junior High before being promoted in the off-season.

“Going back to all that moving around, I obviously don’t know a lot of people, coaching wise, in the state of Arkansas,” Bost said. “A lot of these people went to UCA [Central Arkansas] or Arkansas and they’re pretty tight. There’s probably not five coaches who know who I am in the state of Arkansas. There’s not a lot.”

Bost’s name recognition will increase dramatically if Class 4A No. 2 Lonoke (11-3) can topple Shiloh Christian (12-1), ranked No. 1 in Class 4A and No. 1 overall.

Bost said he considers Lonoke’s 28-7 victory in last week’s semifinals at Osceola the biggest in his young head coaching career. Osceola is coached by Clinton Gore, 70, who guided the Seminoles to state championships in 1995 and 1997.

Lonoke hasn’t played for a state championship since winning the Class AA title in 1994, two years before Bost arrived at the school.

“Couldn’t be prouder for a guy,” Pulaski Robinson Coach Todd Eskola said. “I’ve known him forever. We used to play when we were both junior high coaches and got to know each other real well. You can’t meet a nicer guy.

“For him to have a really talented group his first year and take them all the way to the final game, I’m just really excited for him.”

Bost hasn’t coached anywhere else, but he still has plenty of stickers on his luggage.

Bost was born in Greenwood, Miss., then over the next 18 years lived in eight other states as his father worked his way up the company ladder at John Deere, the world’s largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery.

Bost spent his freshman year of high school in Moline, Ill., John Deere’s headquarters, but lived in Dublin, Ohio, as a sophomore and junior.

In 1990, Bost graduated from Shaker High School in Latham, N.Y., a suburb of Albany.

“The day after I graduated,I moved down here,” Bost said. “I was ready to get out of there.”

Bost said he attended Arkansas for one semester and Arkansas-Monticello for one semester before transferring to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He graduated from UAPB in 1996 with a degree in health and physical education.

Although he was constantly on the move, Bost said he always called Pine Bluff home because of his family’s strong ties to the city.

Bost said his mother and father are originally from PineBluff and his grandparents farmed 1,600 acres of cotton, rice and soybeans there.

“We came here every Christmas and every summer to see family and always knew that I wanted to come back here and settle down,” Bost said. “This is my 14th year at Lonoke. I had enough of that moving.”

While attending UAPB, Bost said he also worked on the family farm from noon until sundown.

That was enough for Bost to eventually enter coaching.

“Working sunup to sundown on a farm, that wasn’t for me,” Bost said. “You miss too many holidays. My grandparents believe in working seven days a week. You just miss out on too much.

“But growing up in all those schools I went to, what made me fit in was sports - football, basketball and track. That’s how I met my friends, playing sports. I’ve always loved sports and knew I wanted to do something in sports.”

Bost was hired as a junior high football assistant at Lonoke in the summer of 1996.He became the junior high head coach in 2006.

During that period, Bost worked under five head coaches at Lonoke High School - the late Hal Steelman, Billy Dawson, Mark Uhiren, Marcel Vincent and Jeff Jones.

Bost was promoted after Jones, who had coached the Jackrabbits the three previous seasons, left over the winter to become defensive coordinator at Springdale.

Now, Bost is one victory away from really making a name for himself.

“He was a junior high coach for so long that unless you played him in junior high … he really didn’t get around to the high school coaching circles,” Eskola said. “He just plugged away there at Lonoke, and those that know him know what a great guy he is and what a hard worker he is.

“His kids love him and they always have, whether it’s seventh-graders or seniors.”