Karl Koonce didn’t want to become one of those coaches who should have retired a year or two ago and got to the point where he couldn’t do his job.
“I have been thinking about retirement since last year,” Koonce said. “I still love the kids, but I think I want to do some retirement things while I am still able.
“I think I can still do my job pretty well. … I can still make a lap around the track. It is hard to explain exactly why I was ready to retire, but I am looking forward to spending more time with my wife and family.”
Koonce has been the Lake Hamilton High School boys and girls cross-country and track-and-field coach since 1981. His teams have won 29 state championships and 45 state runner-up titles. He was inducted into the Lake Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame in February, and on April 12, the school honored Koonce during the Lake Hamilton Invitational by having alumni join Koonce for a final bell lap around the track.
“Right now, I am overwhelmed with emotion,” Koonce said. “There were a lot more people than I thought, including some people from pretty far back.
“It was overwhelming and pretty nice. It makes me appreciate my time here even more. Seeing so many of my former athletes, it is hard to put into words. It is pretty emotional. It reminds me of my appreciation of the opportunity to coach here.”
Koonce has coached 12 All Americans in Track and Field, and he started the Arkansas All Star Cross Country team, along with coach John McDonnel of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, in 1994 with the Arkansas-Oklahoma All Star Competition.
Koonce graduated from Genoa Central High School in Texarkana in 1969 and earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia in 1973. He earned a master’s degree from Henderson while serving as a graduate assistant. He later coached at Dumas High School for four years and spent three years at Southwest Junior High School in Hot Springs. He started coaching at Lake Hamilton after receiving a call from Charles Payne, former Lake Hamilton superintendent and athletic director.
“Things have grown here at Lake Hamilton and have gotten better and better,” Koonce said. “It was a good decision coming to Lake Hamilton. I enjoyed my years [at Dumas and Southwest], and I appreciate them.”
He said that after the birth of his oldest daughter, Jamie, he became more ingrained into the community of Pearcy.
“It was a nice place to live and a wonderful place to raise a family. The more I stayed here, the more I wanted to continue to stay,” Koonce said.
“I have had a couple of people talk to me about coming to their school after I retire, but I am going to be a Wolf and a Wolf fan,” he said. “I plan to be involved in the sport of track as a referee as well.
“I’ll do retirement things, things that retired people do. I’m going to do something other than just sit around and do nothing — I don’t want to do that.”
Koonce said he does plan on going fishing more often and also traveling more with his wife, Susan. He said a couple of summers ago, they visited the northwestern part of the United States but didn’t get enough of it.
“So I’d like to go back,” Koonce said. “I also want to travel more in Arkansas and see areas of the state I haven’t seen.
“I know I am going to miss coaching.”
He said he is also going to spend more time volunteering at Center Fork Baptist Church in Hot Springs, where he is a member.
“I enjoy trying to coach my kids and give them the wonderful experience I had, and I know they may not have had the same feelings about it that I had, but I’m sure many of them have,” he said.
Koonce held the Class B state record in the mile for 38 years and was the Class B state champion in the mile and 880-yard events in 1968 and 1969 while at Genoa Central. Koonce said he recently visited his high school for an alumni dinner and will go back for his 50th-year class reunion in about a month.
“I’m looking forward to that, seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time,” said Koonce, 67. “We are all products of our environment, and [my coaches, teachers and parents] helped make me what I am.
“One of the great things about being a teacher and a coach has been the opportunity to influence so many lives. You hope to do more good than harm. On a night like tonight, it makes me feel like I did more good than harm.”
Brandon Smith has been Koonce’s assistant coach for cross country since 2009 and is one of his former runners, having graduated from Lake Hamilton High School in 1997.
“It was such an honor for him to ask me to come back and work alongside him,” Smith said. “When I was in school here, we were state runner-up every year, so to have the opportunity to bring my knowledge of the sport and combine it with his and build what we had hoped to be a powerhouse program — it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
“We were talking about this the other day, and over the past 10 years, if you combine the boys and girls, we have the winningest program in the state for cross country.”
Smith said that Lake Hamilton being so successful is based on multiple factors.
“We have kids who have really bought into what we are trying to do, and success breeds success. Our younger kids look up to our older students, and our older kids do a great job of really mentoring and being role models,” Smith said.
“They take the time to talk to them and to run with them. The way our campus is built, it’s not spread out,” he said. “Everyone is kind of right here, and we have a family atmosphere.
“As coaches, our emphasis has been that we are our own best fans. We train together each day, and we do stuff together. It creates a winning environment. And over the years, it has grown like wildfire.”
Smith said everybody is on board, working together, and wants the program to be successful.
“We have had great common support and administrator support,” he said. “The parental support from the community is just phenomenal. We have great parents who care about their kids and the program.”
Koonce credited his start in coaching to his former high school coach Byron Bryant. During his junior and senior year, Koonce had study hall during his sixth period, and Bryant would allow Koonce to come out and work with some of the younger athletes from the junior high.
“I was tutoring them, and it just felt right: ‘I like this. I’d like to do this,’” Koonce said. “I appreciate my high school coach for allowing me to do this. I tell people I was torn between that and going to college to major in agriculture. I grew up on a farm and did some of that and had some success showing cattle, believe it or not.
“But I decided to go into coaching and teaching, and when I made that decision, I knew it was the right one.”
Brandon Starr is one of Koonce’s assistant coaches, joining the program in 2013. He is also one of Koonce’s former students and athletes, having graduated from Lake Hamilton in 2006.
“One of the main reasons I wanted to come back to Lake Hamilton is due to the impact the coaches had on me,” Starr said. “My goal was to always get back to Lake Hamilton and, hopefully, have the impact on athletes that my coaches had on me.”
Starr said Koonce will be remembered as an Arkansas coaching legend.
“I would say he is very genuine. He is very passionate about everything he does, whether it is running or his family. … He is very passionate about the kids at the school. He is just very passionate, hardworking and genuine,” Starr said.
“I wouldn’t change my career,” Koonce said. “I think I made the right choice. It has been an enjoyment for me. It is good to be able to come to work and feel like it is not work.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.