Coaches are mostly nomadic beings, moving from job to job where the exposure and pay is better than the place they had just left.
They often advance from the lower rungs of high school athletics to the higher classifications and, sometimes, on to the college level. There is also the other side where a coach will find a place that fills his needs and decides to stay.
Game after game, year after year.
Huntsville had more stability in its basketball program than any high school in the state until March 12 when Jim Stafford announced he was retiring as head coach of the Eagles. Stafford spent 51 years as a head coach, including the last quarter century at Huntsville.
“I’ll be here four years, maximum,” Stafford told his athletic director after he accepted the Huntsville job more than 25 years ago. Farmington boys coach Beau Thompson was a junior in high school at Huntsville when Stafford arrived in the spring prior to the start of the 1994-95 season.
“We went from 6-18, I think, my junior year to 21-9 my senior year with basically the same players,” said Thompson. “Tyler Trumbo, my previous coach, taught us the skills you needed as a player and Jim taught us how to win. Jim was the ultimate players’ coach. He could pick out the best five to seven players and assign each one a role that fit them to help the team win.”
Stafford and Huntsville girls coach Charles Berry are among the top-five winningest basketball coaches in Arkansas. Stafford posted a record of 528-228 record at Huntsville and ranks fifth on the coaching list with 1,098 career victories. He led Huntsville to a state championship in 2007 and four of his team’s finished as the runners-up in the state tournament.
Stafford’s last team ended 12-14 after a loss to Berryville in the 4A-1 Conference Tournament at Lincoln.
“I was at that game and, on the drive home, I had to hold myself together,” Thompson said. “That was sad. But one of the happiest times was when I got to watch him in Hot Springs being inducted into the (Arkansas) Coaches Hall of Fame. No one is know is more deserving.”
Stafford, 72, began his coach career at Wonderview. He also coached at Morrilton, Lead Hill, Palestine, Flippin, and Gentry before settling in for the long haul at Huntsville.
Like most successful coaches, Stafford’s influence reached well beyond court side. Six former Stafford players are coaching in Bentonville and Washington County, including Thompson, who has been a head coach for 12 of his 15 years at Farmington.
“If I wasn’t in the gym shooting baskets, I was in the office with coach Stafford,” Thompson said. “He, Tyler Trumbo, and Ken Harriman all had a great influence on me. They’re the reason I’m here as a coach.”
So, what now?
Stafford will ease into retirement while Huntsville athletic director Tommy Tice begins the search for Stafford’s replacement. There’ll be plenty of candidates but Huntsville is unlikely to find another boys coach who meant as much to the community as Stafford, who pledged four years and stayed for 25.
“I’m a country boy and this is a country town,” Stafford said. “I loved it here.”
Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@ nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWARick.