Hot Springs head football coach Darrell Burnett was proud to announce the night he was officially hired that Courtney Sanders was joining him on the Trojans' staff.
Burnett was hired in June during a meeting of the Hot Springs School Board. The hiring of Sanders was also included in the personnel decisions approved by the board.
Sanders has 14 years of college coaching experience and left a top high school program to join Burnett at Hot Springs. Sanders said he is glad he made the decision.
"I have been at Arkansas, I have been at Missouri State and I have been at Colquitt County," Sanders said. "So, this is something new, but more importantly, I am back in the state of Arkansas. My parents are getting older. My wife's parents are getting older. It was only right for them to enjoy their grandkids. So, it all works in several different ways."
The native of Stamps was a student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville after transferring from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
"It was really an act of God because I ran into Houston Nutt on campus," Sanders said. "We talked back and forth, and he gave me a shot. He gave me a chance to break into the coaching field. I will forever be grateful for that opportunity."
Sanders said his coaching career took off from there. He joined the Razorbacks football staff for seven seasons, including Nutt's final seven seasons with Arkansas and a few months with Bobby Petrino.
"I did not want to be a coach," Sanders said. "Coming out of high school, I did not want to coach football. My head high school coach told me, 'You are going to be a football coach.' I said, 'No, coach. You are up here at the office all of the time, and you barely see your family.' I said, 'I'm not going to live like that.'
"Lo and behold, he was right. It has been great. This is my 18th year coaching. This is what I should be doing with my life."
Sanders said the opportunity in Fayetteville was great for him, even as he coached the first two years without pay. He became a graduate assistant and had to decide each year whether to pursue full coaching opportunities at other schools.
Another opportunity opened with a defensive line position at Missouri State in Jefferson City. Sanders said his wife was pregnant at the time, and they decided to move to Missouri with the pay increase that came with it.
"Once again, it was a blessing from God allowing that door to open up at the right time," Sanders said. "Coach Nutt and coach Petrino are passionate about football. They love the game. I enjoyed working with both of them. They treated me with respect, and I learned football from both of them. It was a great time. I have a lot of great memories with both of those guys."
Terry Allen was head coach at Missouri State for nine years until he and his staff were let go after the 2014 season. Sanders said he had three offers, including two other college jobs.
Sanders was also offered a position at Colquitt County in Moultrie, Ga., but Rush Propst, who gained fame and notoriety in 2006-07 when the MTV show, "Two-A-Days," followed his team in Hoover, Ala. Propst won his 300th career game last month and has a winning percentage of better than .765.
"My wife said, 'There is something about Georgia. Let's go down there,'" Sanders said. "I said, 'Are you sure?' She said, 'Yes.' We prayed about it, and, lo and behold, it worked out well because, in the first year, we won state."
Propst won five state championships in Alabama and won his first Georgia state championship the season before Sanders arrived in Moultrie. The Packers went 15-0 again in 2015 to win a second consecutive state championship with various outlets naming them as the national champions.
"The foundation had been set with the 2014 class because they were some good kids," Sanders said. "There were some good kids in that class as well as the 2015 class.
"When we stepped on the field on Friday, we knew we were the baddest team on the field. We knew that. Coaches and players knew it. We knew we were going to win the ball game. It was not being cocky. It was not being arrogant. You just know you are prepared well, you know you have the players that are focused and talented and coach Propst is one of the best in the game, as far as head coaches."
Burnett established a relationship with Sanders years earlier. Sanders said he initially assumed Burnett was joining when he asked him to coach at Hot Springs.
"As a coach, you embrace opportunities like this," Sanders said. "It's not for yourself. You want what is best for the kid. When I got into coaching, I did not do it for me. I thought about the kid that wanted to have an opportunity to go to the next level but needed that push. They needed somebody to guide them, somebody to show them and somebody to really help them do something they could not do by themselves.
"That is why I decided to be a coach. I wanted to help people do something they could not do by themselves."
Hot Springs is 46-97 since 2003, a winning percentage of .322, with only three winning seasons and no more than seven wins in any season. Sanders said he thought, "We've got a lot of work to do," during the team's first practice.
The Trojans opened the season at home on Thursday with an 18-0 loss to the Fountain Lake Cobras.
"Now after we played that first game, we still have a lot of work to do, but the players see their mistakes," Sanders said. "Us coaches, we see our mistakes. If we can find a way to correct our mistakes as coaches and the players correct their mistakes, we will be fine. The attitudes have gotten better, guys are buying in and that is a recipe for success."
Sanders said he felt the Fountain Lake game was decided by less than a handful of crucial plays, such as an interception return for a touchdown 20 seconds into the game by Fountain Lake and a fumble return for a touchdown by Hot Springs that was called back due to a penalty.
"For us, we made plays up front, but there are always more plays you can make," Sanders said. "We really have to continue to work and really, really learn to play fast. I have to do a better job as a coaching to keep it simple, so they are not thinking out there and allow them to play fast. For me, that is my whole deal. I have to simplify things for them, so they can go play fast. If we do that, we will better than we were last time."
Hot Springs (0-1) is scheduled for a road game at Mena (1-1) on Friday before meeting another Garland County rival, Lake Hamilton (1-0) on Sept. 14. The Trojans' 5A-South schedule is set to kick off on Sept. 21 against Little Rock McClellan (1-0), one of the favorites in the conference.
Sports on 09/05/2018