Steve Roberts

THREE RIVERS AREA — Coach Steve Roberts has a competitive streak.

The new athletic director for the Cabot School District didn’t spend years in the game to just coach his players in football; he believes in coaching the whole person.

Before resigning as head football coach at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Roberts spent nine years of his life making a difference there.

“When I went to ASU, it was rated as the worst football program in America,” Roberts said. “It was a tremendous challenge. We had very few scholarship players and the lowest budget in Division I.”

Roberts led ASU to the 2005 Sun Belt Conference championship, which was the Red Wolves’ (then Indians) first league championship since 1986. That same year, Roberts led the team to the New Orleans Bowl, the team’s first bowl appearance since the 1970 Pecan Bowl.

“We focused on the people,” Roberts said about his team’s turnaround, “by making sure we made a difference in the kids’ lives.”

By focusing on the players’ lives, Roberts was instrumental in the university winning the Academic Award at the Sunbelt Conference for eight of the nine years he was head coach. This gave the ASU team positive national recognition, shedding its label of the worst program in the country, he said.

“We had the highest GPA and were nationally recognized for grade rates of the players,” he said.

His efforts earned Roberts the Sunbelt Conference Coach of the Year title in 2005.

“He teaches them not only to be good football players, but he teaches them to be good men,” said Tony Gilbert, running-back coach at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

Roberts gives the same attention to his coaching staff as he does his players. In fact, Gilbert credits Roberts for a major part of his career.

Roberts and Gilbert first met when they were attempting to recruit the same player. Roberts was coaching at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, and Gilbert was coaching at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

“We were recruiting the same guy - a running back from Magnolia, Tony McDonald - and because I was at the bigger school, I got him,” Gilbert said.

Not long after that, Gilbert found himself seeking another coaching job, and in 1997, Gilbert said Roberts hired him to coach defensive backs at SAU. Gilbert worked with Roberts for 15 years.

“It was my first year to coach defensive backs, and Coach Roberts allowed me to coach those guys,” Gilbert said. “He’s a great man and a great coach.”

In 1997, Roberts led the SAU Muleriders to their first Gulf South Conference Championship, and they made it to the Division II national playoffs for the first time.

Roberts left SAU to coach at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., before going to ASU in 2002. He left ASU in December 2010.

Twelve of Roberts’ former players are now playing in the NFL, and many others have gone on to successful careers in business, teaching, coaching and medicine.

“I’m happy to be in Cabot,” he said. Although Roberts said he misses coaching, he welcomes the change in his career.

“It’s a lot different,” he said about being an athletic director instead of a coach. “The stress level is certainly a lot lower. I still get to work with coaches and have an impact on their lives. … I try to interact with them as much as I can and to try to run a program to maximize time and resources to provide the best possible experience for our students.”

Roberts graduated from Joseph T. Robinson High School in Little Rock and attended Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia on a football scholarship. He graduated cum laude in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in math and physical education. Roberts went on to get a Master of Education degree at SAU in 1989.

Although he had planned on going into a mathematicalrelated field, he said that during his junior year in college he felt a calling to become a coach.

“I learned a lot of valuable lessons throughout the years,” he said. “The vast majority of young people today are tremendous. They are outstanding leaders, they are innovative and creative, and those kids don’t get enough publicity.”

With Roberts in Cabot are his wife, Sherri, and their daughter, Abby. When he’s not running the Cabot athletic department, he said, he enjoys spending time with his family, bass fishing and hunting.

Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.

up close

getting to know Steve Roberts Birth date: Oct. 13, 1964 Occupation: Athletic director for the Cabot School District Hometown: Little Rock Comfort food: White beans, cornbread and fried potatoes Something most people don’t know: I love to read - mostly historical fiction, thrillers and the Bible.

Most influenced by: My family

Three Rivers, Pages 119 on 12/18/2011

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