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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Paths to Success

First-rate facilities a plus, but people ultimately determine program success.
by: Scott Kraft
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On first glance, the high school football programs at Artesia (N.M.) High School and Carol City (Fla.) Senior High School look considerably different.

Artesia head coach Cooper Henderson’s club works out in state of the art, modern facilities built with the help of bond issues passed by its citizens, while Carol City coach Walt Frazier’s main source of support is the fans and parents of players who bring their friends to games, supporting the team at the gate.

Artesia’s population is about 10,000, and its high school has about 1,000 students in three grade levels. Carol City is one of many high schools in the Miami-Dade County school system, with over 3,000 students enrolled in four grade levels.

Both teams draw well. Artesia often has overflow crowds at its 6,500-seat stadium. Carol City, which sits in the shadow of Miami’s Pro Player Stadium, will draw 10,000 fans for home games against rivals, and over 6,000 for other home games, all played at a nearby community college.

When you compare the facilities available to the two schools, Artesia comes out ahead. Henderson is grateful for the community’s generosity in support of the athletes, for sure. The town passed a $10 million bond a few years back, mainly to support facilities and programs for its students. The main facility built was a $4 million field house for the high school.

They won’t be passing any $10 million bonds to support student sports facilities in Carol City.

A more in-depth look reveals, however, that for these on-the-surface differences, the football programs at these schools have a lot in common. The players work hard and the coaches and communities care deeply about the football team.

And they both win. Artesia has won 21 state championships and Henderson regularly fields one of New Mexico’s top high school football teams. Carol City has three state championships in Florida, a more competitive high school football state, including Frazier’s teams in 1996 and 1997. The team is a regular in the state tournament.

So as we look at these two distinctive programs, we celebrate great coaches, great players, and the supportive communities that have helped both programs grow and thrive.

It’s also a helpful reminder that football games are ultimately won by well-coached, well-practiced football players on the football field.

No one would dispute that it’s great to have the best of facilities and the best conditions for practices, workouts and games. Whether or not those things give a team an advantage on game night can be endlessly debated.

We’d rather just take a look at two great programs with a history of on-the-field success led by two dedicated coaches. Which brings us to the story of the Carol City Senior High School and Artesia High School football teams, and how they show that football games are won, as the cliche says, in the trenches.


Hail to the Chiefs
Rabid support, hard work pay off with wins in South Florida

The two boys were going the wrong way, and Walt Frazier, head football coach at Carol City (Fla.) Senior High School, knew it.

He’s not on the football field with a whistle in hand, he’s in the hallway at lunch hour. He sends the students back to class, calling ahead with a walkie-talkie to make sure they don’t lose their way again.

The message is simple, yet powerful: Frazier cares about the school and its students deeply.

“I could probably just turn my head and go about my business,” Frazier says of his temporary role as hall monitor. “But I’m dedicated to these kids and this school. And that’s important for coaching the football team, because they know it.”

In his 19-year career, Frazier’s teams have won two state championships and he’s sent a number of players off to play college football. One of his players, Samari Walker, currently plays for the Tennessee Titans. He doesn’t measure his success by the number of his players who play in college, however, but by the number of his players who attend college.

“Our objective is to get the kids into college – it doesn’t matter if it’s Division I, II or III,” Frazier says. “As long as they have the chance to go to school, that’s the most important thing.”

While the easiest way to accomplish that is through a football scholarship, Frazier notes, it can also be done through grants, loans, academic scholarships or other federal programs. Whichever path, he’s there to lend an ear and offer suggestions.

“It’s important to allow the kids to choose. I want to be sure their interested in what the school offers,” Frazier says. “You give your opinion to make certain their choice is for the right reasons – what do they want to gain from a college education?”

Frazier’s response underscores his bigger interest in the game of life. He’s not afraid to say that he thinks Florida high school players on championship teams play too many games – as many as 15. He doesn’t mind if they play other sports. His approach challenges his players to understand how they arrive at success.

“It’s basically a simple process – the right things bring the right results – in class, in society, in the weight room and on the practice field,” Frazier says. “We try not to spend all of our focus just on the game. We associate the game with other aspects of life.”

That includes making sure his players understand there’s more to life than football.

“It’s unfortunate that too many of [his players] are not invested in things that are achievable – not to say a professional career is not achievable,” Frazier says. “But the percentages are more in your favor if you achieve your goals in terms of what your strengths are.”

For team rules, Frazier sticks pretty close to the school’s code of conduct.

Players having discipline problems will miss practices, he notes, and players miss practices for other reasons as well. But to get back on the field, he wants the players to seek resolutions themselves.

“We like them to resolve as many of their problems as they can themselves,” Frazier says. “Part of the growing up process is for them to figure it out themselves. They learn to relate to the teachers and other adults, especially as authority figures.”

Distractions part of the game

Like most coaches, Frazier is quick to note that it’s easier to build a winning program with skilled players, but understands team-building is also important.

“Obviously, it helps to have talented kids,” Frazier says. “But in situations where some are more talented than others, we can overcome that by being closer-knit, having more unity.”

He knows that building a program offers “no guarantees of success,” but wants his team to understand more goes into football than the glamour life of professional athletes.

“So many things go into being an athlete. Most people see the glamour and the commercials,” Frazier says. “They don’t see the torturous preparation a professional athlete goes through, in most cases, for a short period of their lives.”

Success goes beyond head coach

Frazier is quick to deflect praise for his team’s success. While the team doesn’t have a booster club, he is quick to praise the parent and community support the team gets. It’s not unusual to find 10,000 paying customers in the stands for a Carol City home game, and gate receipts form 85-95 percent of the team’s budget, Frazier says.

“Parents support us by coming to the games. Each community has its ways and means of supporting a team,” Frazier says. “Rather than pay the costs to do fund-raising and not show up, they come to all of the games and bring friends and spend $25.”

In the same way he hopes departing players “know how to share and care,” and understand that they’re “going to be involved with other people and have to know how to be a team player,” he points out a lot goes into the success of the team from Carol City.

“It starts with the principal and assistant principal, the teachers, the student body and the community,” Frazier says. “The assistant coaches help – especially to get the players to buy into the things we have to do as a program. Sometimes those people contribute so much and it goes unnoticed, or not mentioned.”

Frazier understands that as the head coach, he is often the person most commonly associated with the program under all circumstances – but that doesn’t mean he thinks it should be that way.

“Head coaches are, in many instances, given too much of the credit for winning,” Frazier says, with a pause, “and too much of the credit for losing.

“It has to be a situation where all of the things in place give you the best opportunity to be successful.”

Hometown Proud
Artesia, N.M., makes sure the football team wants for little

It’s every coach’s dream. You ask the community to build a stadium? Sure, no problem. You need a new workout facility? A new field house? A new weight room? Check, check and check.

Regardless of what level football you’re coaching, you surely want your players to have the best. Logic dictates that players who have the best will have advantages in preparation that allow them to play the best. It’s another path to a competitive edge.

But you still have to play the games, and when a group of people invest millions – in this case Artesia, N.M., population 10,000 – then you can imagine they’re going to be studying the finished product closely.

Such is the life of Cooper Henderson, Artesia High School’s head football coach and athletic director. When the town passed a $10 million bond for sports teams, $4 million was spent on a gym to be used by high school athletes. Football players can lift weights at one of two different weight rooms; when a field house without a weight room was built in 1989, the school added one in 1990.

“This community takes a lot of pride in its young people,” Henderson says. “There’s never been a bond issue for the schools that’s been voted down.

The team plays its games in a stadium with 6,500 seats, regularly in front of overflow crowds.

And they win. The school has won 21 state championships, including three consecutive titles in 1996-98 and another in 2001. Henderson says the school’s early successes in the 1950s and 1960s fueled the community’s fervent support.
“In our case, I firmly believe the facilities came after the success,” Henderson says. “We won championships in 1964, ‘66 and ‘67 – then built the stadium.”

Community watches program closely

First-class facilities also don’t guarantee success, Henderson concedes. Coaches everywhere grapple with the best way to motivate players. In Artesia, one thing that helps is the knowledge that the people who paid for the facilities for these players are watching closely. While the facilities may make life easier for the players, not getting the results would be noticed.

“The facilities definitely build interest and better participation,” Henderson says. “There are more people interested in the team performing well in our community. This is a big event in town. It’s a lot different than an urban area. They built it, and they show up and support it.”

Henderson also concedes a potential downside.

“Sometimes we take this stuff for granted. I know it took a lot of pride to build these facilities – this is important to people here,” Henderson says. “People may not understand it, but that makes it more important to them versus those who don’t – they realize who is paying for it.”

The bottom line, however, is the same as it is for most every football program, Henderson believes. The players have to do the work.

“Getting them to work is the key. The nice facilities make things more enjoyable, but the bottom line is the players have to get the work done,” Henderson says.

He does believe one area where the school’s extensive weightlifting room comes in handy is injury prevention.

“It definitely helps, with weightlifting, to prevent injuries,” Henderson says, explaining that the amount of equipment the school has makes it easier for players to properly support and spot one another, and there is enough equipment for players to go through a workout routine or schedule without having to stop to wait for a piece of equipment.

“It makes it more efficient for us to build size and strength,” Henderson says. “We can workout a larger number of athletes in a shorter amount of time. We couldn’t do that with less equipment.”

Henderson recalled when he was at a high school in Texas, where he said the players had to pull the equipment themselves to set it up, then return it. He noted on the one hand, there was a disadvantage in time spent and hassle.

“I’m not so sure it didn’t make us hungrier when we had to lift it in the snow and rain though,” Henderson says.

His larger point is, Artesia does a lot more than build large-scale facilities to help student-athletes be successful. The booster club, he noted, isn’t called on for a lot of financial support – the town’s generosity has covered so many school needs – but the boosters help in other ways.

In the QB club, a school alum will mentor a player on the current team – not just on the field, but off it as well, Henderson says. QB dads will also show up to watch film of the team’s games and many of the relationships formed continue even after the younger player graduates.

Henderson believes those relationships form the core of the program’s tradition and helps ensure continuous support and strength for the program.

The athletes also mentor students at the elementary school, helping them to learn to read in some instances. Henderson paints the picture of a small town extremely devoted to its athletes, but also interested in creating a culture of success that spreads all the way to its youngest students.

The school returned to championship form in 2001. Henderson says the team struggled for a couple of years after being moved up a class in New Mexico’s high school football classifications.

As for advice he would give to other coaches, he understands most won’t have the same facilities he does. But, no matter.

“Someone whose a winner will make his situation good,” Henderson says. “You do what you have to do. If the kids work and are interested in strength training, you can be successful.”






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