Entering the sixth year of Blackhawk football, head coach Tony Travis said he enjoys football as much now as he ever has.
Selected Coach of the Year for the conference, by the media and by KURM, Travis said that honor is a reflection of the successful season which he attributes to the entire team, explaining that the coach of the conference winning team is usually named coach of the year.
"The head coach gets a lot of pats on the back, but it's never done alone," Travis said. "It's the assistant coaches, the players, the managers -- there's a lot that goes into it."
"There's a lot of pressure in trying to win," he said. "You're trying to win when you're not or trying to keep winning when you are."
"It doesn't seem like it's been six years. These guys that just graduated were in the seventh grade when I got here. They were the first group that I've gone seventh through 12th with. There are always special players that you'll never forget," he said. "It's a special strength of mine; I try to form those bonds with everybody on the team.
"It's important to me that every body on the team feels a value -- where they're a starter, the guy that rolls with someone else."
The size of the team has increased, Travis said. Whereas two to three years ago many players had to play both offense and defense, now, Travis has the advantage of "rolling that fresh guy in there."
"That's an advantage for us; that's the biggest thing for us," he said, explaining that when the team was smaller, he didn't have the ability to rest his players, a fact that hurt them when they got into the playoffs. "We wore down physically. Now, with this year's team, we have the ability to rest anybody at anytime.
"With 11 on offense and a different 11 players on defense playing against those teams that have to play five, six, seven guys both ways, it becomes an advantage."
"I enjoy the sport of football. I did as a player. I played football as long as i could play it -- seventh grade through five years of college," Travis said. "The lessons I learned in athletics, more specifically football as I got older, I felt were important. I want stay involved with it.
"I enjoy the competition amongst coaches and players."
The best games are the closest, whether win or loose, Travis said. "The butterflies you get, the big crowds -- that's something I wanted to stay involved with."
"I enjoy being involved with our athletes -- every part of it, practice, weight room, being around the guys, seeing the team develop and come together, especially when it culminates like last year -- a 10-0 season," Travis said smiling. "A lot of coaches can coach their whole life and not have a season like that.
"You reflect when it's all over; you can't trade that for anything. That that week-10 win over Shiloh, the looks on the faces of those guys, the knowledge they'll never forget ... the things that happened to them their senior year will help them be successful employees, husbands, dads. That's a satisfying feeling -- being part of that process for those guys."
Travis said responsibility, discipline, team work are all important.
"I think number one would be that hard work pays off. You can't replace hard work. You can be lucky, get by with it for a while," he said, "but,if you work hard at what you do, you can experience success."
Travis said that what he teaches the students about football is important, but what he teaches about character is far more important and will stay with them the rest of their lives.
"It's got to come down to the importance of good character," Travis said, recalling that in 15 years of coaching football, he's only had seen one athlete go to the National Football League.
"What you teach about football is not nearly as important as what you teach them about being a good person," he said. "I'll never try to crush anybody's dreams, but very few will get to play in college."
"There's a lot of pressure in trying to win; sometimes an athlete will get down on himself and that will affect next several plays," Travis said, adding that teaching the athletes how to handle disappointment and failures is important. "In football, the next play is coming in 25 seconds. You can't let what just happened affect the nest play.
"I get over something bad happening. I'm done and on to next thing. I want our players to see that from me," he said. "I've had multiple guys come to me telling me they're sorry about a mistake. I cut them off. It's over."
Travis said he tries to read his players and know what motivates each one.
He credits football for keeping him in college. He says he had a great home life, but had his priorities wrong.
"Football was a motivational factor for me... a lot of our guys fall into that boat," he said. "Our team chemistry was outstanding last year. Every year I've been here, the team chemistry, the sense of brotherhood, was there."
Travis, 43, a native of Booneville, played college for two years at Arkansas Tech then three years at the University of Arkansas.
"I was recruited to Arkansas Tech as a tight end. When I transferred, while I was at Arkansas Tech, became a nose guard. I went through one year then they moved me to center at Arkansas."
He coached at Fayetteville Jr. and Sr. High for eight years and volunteered for two years.
Travis and his wife, Shannan, have been married 11 years and have one son, Jake, 9, who is in third grade.
The Blackhawks will be in Blackhawk Stadium Friday, Aug. 28, for Pride Night.
Sports on 08/12/2015