Stafford announces retirement

HUNTSVILLE -- Jim Stafford, one of the state's most successful high school basketball coaches, is hanging up his whistle.

Stafford, who won almost 1,100 games over a 51-year coaching career, announced his retirement Monday as the boys' basketball coach at Huntsville. The Huntsville school board accepted his resignation letter at Monday night's meeting.

Huntsville athletic director Tommy Tice said there is no timetable for hiring a successor.

"There will not be anybody to replace Jim Stafford," Tice added. "Someone will come after him, but nobody will replace him."

Stafford started his coaching career in the late 1960s at Wonderview where he coached junior girls and boys in addition to the senior girls and boys teams. He later made coaching stops at Palestine, Flippin, Morrilton, Lead Hill and Gentry before landing in Huntsville.

Stafford said when he was hired in Huntsville, he told the athletic director, "I'll be here four years maximum."

That four years stretched into 25 as Stafford found the Madison County school to be his ideal place.

"I fit Huntsville pretty good. I'm a country boy, and this is a country town, and I loved it here," Stafford said. "The kids here, we've had some great kids. They are hard-working kids because they have hard-working parents. The parents wanted their kids to be worked hard. This was the best place for me to be, and I never looked to go anyplace else."

Stafford posted a 528-228 record as the Eagles' coach, winning a state championship in 2007 and coaching four state runner-up teams. He leaves the sideline with 1,098 career wins, which ranks fifth all-time in the state according to the Arkansas Activities Association record book.

Tice said the only reason he accepted the position as athletic director at Huntsville four years ago was the chance to work alongside Stafford and longtime girls basketball coach Charles Berry.

"I didn't want the (athletic director's) job," Tice said. "I was content just to be the football coach. I'd done all that at Harrison. But Charlie and Jim came to me and talked me into taking it, and I said I'd only do it if they would be my sounding board. Between all of us, there's not much we haven't seen in this business."

Stafford, 72, not only has an impressive coaching record with 23 conference championships and a three-time Arkansas High School Coaches Association all-star coach, but his coaching tree extends well beyond the gym floor that's named in his honor. Six former Stafford players are currently coaching in Benton and Washington counties, including Farmington boys basketball coach Beau Thompson and Gentry girls basketball coach Toby Tevebaugh.

Stafford coached girls basketball until his daughter became old enough to play. He moved into only coaching boy's teams at that point and never returned to coach girls basketball, although he is the answer to a trivia question as the last head coach of an Arkansas 6-on-6 girls basketball game. Stafford was the head coach in the 1979 all-star game, the last 6-on-6 girls game played in the state before all teams moved to the current 5-on-5 style. Ironically, Berry was an assistant coach on the opposing girls' team.

He said among the things he's most proud of at Huntsville is the program averaged 21 wins per season over his 25 years, a feat that is rare at a school that also plays football, which limits the number of basketball games per season because of the overlap. Smaller schools that do not have football programs often play more than 40 basketball games in a season.

"If you don't win 21 games at a non-football school, you haven't had a very good season," he joked.

Stafford, who graduated from Green Forest High School, said he was influenced to enter the coaching profession by his coaches in high school.

"I had two great coaches," Stafford said. "They are both in the Arkansas Coaches Hall of Fame, Johnny Widner and Fred Grim. They were great coaches and role models for me."

Stafford, Berry and Tice are all Hall of Fame members with Tice and Stafford getting in last year and Berry in 2016.

He also thanked his former assistant coaches at Huntsville, including Thompson, Ronnie Keith, Mitch Myrick, T.W. Dotson and Tyler Trumbo who he credits for the success the Eagles have enjoyed in his tenure.

Stafford said he will still be a fixture at basketball games in Northwest Arkansas next season as he will get a chance to see his former players in action coaching their teams. Thompson's team will be back in the same basketball conference with Huntsville next season, although the teams have played each other in the past.

"Yeah, he beat me twice this season," Stafford laughed. "Me and Beau have always played."

Sports on 03/13/2018