There's a new face among the coaching staff on the football field this year at Blackhawk Stadium.
"Coach A" -- Cody Alexander is the new head junior high football coach.
"Growing up playing football, I fell in love with the game," Alexander, 26, said. "Coaches were huge role models for me."
Alexander is the quarterback coach for senior high and junior high boys track coach. He will teach PE in the middle school.
Alexander credits football with getting him to college.
"I wasn't really planning to go to college, but was recruited," he said. "I realized I could keep playing; it was a way to extend football."
He grew up on a farm and had planned to continue working on the family farm with his dad's 500 head of cattle. When he was in second grade, he started playing football.
"My parents, my little brother -- they were at every game. They came to practice and watched me. Dad was always out there yelling for me. They definitely helped me out. I got to go to a lot of camps because of them," he said.
A native of Gravette, Alexander graduated Gravette High School in 2007 and went on to play football at Arkansas Tech for a year and a half before an injury that resulted in shoulder surgery sidelined him. "That was the end of that," Alexander said. He majored in health and PE, kinesthiology.
Alexander said he has been both the quarterback and safety. He was a quarterback for Tech.
After college graduation, Alexander coached for three years at Berryville, then went to Mena.
He coached during a state championship game. "That was a really awesome experience," he said. "I wanted to come back home and work with Coach Travis. I've heard a lot of good things about him. I think I can learn a lot from him."
"You can teach a lot of life lessons in football," Alexander said. He said he worked with the Boys and Girls Club while he was in high school.
Alexander said young people learn how to be responsible -- to keep up with their gear, to arrange their schedules.
"It's their work. It really is a job to them," he said. "It teaches them perseverance. Not everything is going to go your way. It teaches you how to get back up after you're knocked down. Same as life; keep going."
He said he wants the athletes to have fun.
"First off, if you're not having fun, there's no point doing it. I expect us to get better and better and get these guys ready for senior high. They will get bigger, better, stronger and mature as young men as well.
"You're not their parent, but you get to watch them grow from a junior high kid to a senior high kid," he said, remembering that several of the players he has coached from his first job have asked him for reference letters.
There are 70 athletes on the eighth- and ninth-grade football team roster with about 55 to 60 showing up for workouts.
"I know they've (the Blackhawks) been in the top of the conference the last couple of years. We plan to make that a staple of Pea Ridge
Coaches John King and James Ortiz will be working with the junior high Blackhawks, too. Alexander said he will work with the quarterbacks, running backs and defensive backs, King will work with receivers and linebackers and Ortiz will be the defensive coordinator.
Coach A and his wife, Shelby, have a 9-month old daughter, Addison, and live in Pea Ridge, where they just bought a house.
"I would live here during football season anyway," he laughed.
Head Blackhawk football Coach Tony Travis said: "I'm excited to add a guy who I think has a bright future as a football coach to our team. From everyone I know who's coached him, he's a great coach."
Sports on 07/22/2015