Cedarville High School Principal Randal Betts was watching the school’s football team play Lavaca last fall when he bumped into an old friend.
It was Lavaca assistant coach Kevin Lea, whom Betts got to know when both were at Berryville.
“We almost ran into each other behind the stands at the game,” Betts said. “He knew I had left Berryville, but he didn’t know where I had landed. I didn’t know he was at Lavaca.”
That chance meeting turned out to be important after the season when Cedarville Coach Mark Shelton turned in his resignation. Betts thought of Lea, and the two had more lengthy discussions than their chance meeting during the season.
It all culminated with Lea landing his first head coaching job.
“I’ve always wanted to be a head coach,” Lea said. “I was pretty happy at Lavaca, but I knew Randal from Berryville and I was impressed with the meeting I had with Terry Parks, the athletic director at Cedarville. As a football coach, you always want to have a a good working relationship with your administration and that’s what we have here.
“It’s a great opportunity for me, and I’m ready to see what I can do as a head coach.”
Lea, 35, was hired in February, which gave him time to go through offseason workouts and spring drills with the Pirates players. Cedarville will move to the 1-3A Conference after competing in the 4-3A Conference the past two years with Charleston, the defending Class 3A state champions.
Now, instead of preparing to face Charleston quarterback Ty Storey or Booneville, which won the Class 4A state title last season but dropped down to the 4-3A Conference this season, Lea will game plan for 1-3A teams like West Fork, Greenland, Elkins, and Green Forest.
Lea will make his head coaching debut Sept. 5 at Mountainburg.
“I got to see Kevin develop as a coach in the four years I was at Berryville,” Betts said. “He’s one of the best students of the game, he has a good personality, and the kids relate to him. I think he’s going to do a great job as a head coach.”
Cedarville started 5-0 last season but finished 5-5 and missed the playoffs. The Pirates were picked to finish sixth out of eight teams in a preseason poll of 1-3A coaches. West Fork, which went 5-6 last season, is the favorite to win the conference title.
“I appreciate the coaches voting us to finish sixth,” said Lea, who was an assistant at Atkins in 2003-2006. “That just means they don’t know us very well. Kids are easily motivated when there’s not a lot of tradition and people don’t expect much from you.”
Lea said he has high hopes for a team with only six seniors, which is considerably fewer than the 22 seniors Cedarville fielded last season. He is particularly excited about four players, brothers Andrew Hernandez and Abe Hernandez, Cruz Rhea, and Damian King. Rhea and King are juniors, while Abe Hernandez is a senior and Andrew Hernandez is a sophomore.
“I think these four kids can match up with anyone,” Lea said. “Cruz is going to be our quarterback after being our third-leading receiver last year. Abe is very smart and athletic, and Andrew is a very strong kid who was a quarterback in junior high.”
Cedarville will line up this year in a Spread Option on offense and a 3-4 alignment on defense.
“I believe in putting our best players on the defensive side of the ball and keeping the offense simple,” Lea said. “We want to run a few plays effectively and do it well, because a confused kid is a slow kid.”