Side Straddle Hop

From: Glen McCadams
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:38 AM
Subject: RE: Coach Ward

It’s now time to catch up on some things I have neglected since July. The foremost thought on my mind being the passing of Coach Ward, and that I didn’t even make his funeral. I should have been there, but we were getting ready for the semi-final game, and I believed Coach Ward would have expected me to do that.

Coach Ward is still my coach everyday. It began fifty years ago. In the summers, he carried us to McKenzie in the old school bus and taught us how to swim. All those hot summer days in the old gym playing cork ball, tumbling, etc. He loved tumbling – laying on his back and flipping us over the top of him. In our high school years it was those summer night workouts on all of those door frames in the new gym foyer, where we pushed on immovable bars for 12 seconds – isometrics. He took many of us to our first college football game @ Vandy vs. West Virginia. He also got our attention when Cat Bennett had to run the length of the football field with one of our best players hitting him every 5 yards. He was also my junior high basketball coach and my summer time baseball coach at the old fairgrounds.

During junior high football I broke my left leg and ankle. Coach Ward carried me to school and got me home every day. During the spring practice of my junior season, I broke several bones in my left foot, and again Coach Ward carried me to school. Also during my high school days, it was discovered that I had a birth defect in my spine, which ended my football playing days forever and my dream of being a high school football coach. I was crushed, now only hoping that maybe I could be a high school basketball coach someday.

When I graduated from college, it looked as though I was headed to Camden to coach basketball. Then one day, out of the blue, I got a phone call from the principal of Milan High School. Mr. Wheeler offered me an assistant football coaching position with their new coach – John Tucker. It turns out that Coach Ward had recommended me to Mr. Wheeler [who also just passed away about 3 weeks ago].

I still remember that night, at old Rothrock Stadium, when I was able to thank Coach Ward for restarting my dream, which I have now lived for 39 years.

I’m glad I was at the last game he coached during the playoffs @ Memphis. I still savor my last time out at the coffee table with my dad and Coach Ward. I remember talking with Coach Ward during Huntingdon’s last state championship game. He told me that he wasn’t able to make the 2003 game, to which I replied that I was glad he didn’t get to see my team that night because we weren’t very well coached – I still remember that laugh, don’t you?

To this very day, I try to handle my kids just as he did all of us. He was tough, fair, consistent, and cared about us. We simply respected him and relished his approval. Who can forget that smile when somebody got whammed, or bounced off the trampoline, or how excited he was on the first day of practice, or the Lord’s Prayer on our knees at the 50 yard line right before kickoff.

To this very day – after our strength coach gets finished with his static stretching routine, we are going to do the old SIDE STRADDLE HOP – COUNT THE FIRST 8 & GO TO 32, slapping those thigh pads hard & loud. You remember – READY 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,30,1,2. It puts a little smile on my face, memories in my heart, is a reminder of how I am suppose to coach today, and in a small way honors my COACH!

From: Scotty Portis

Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 8:01 PM

Subject: Re: Coach Ward

Coach McCadams (Glen, it is hard for me to call you anything else after such a long and illustrious football career teaching young men in the fashion of Paul Ward). Your three state championships speak for themselves. So many of us owe so much to Coach Paul Ward and none more than you, as he guided you toward your first coaching job and under none other than another legend, Coach John Tucker of Milan.

Thanks so much for taking the time to send in your remembrance of Coach. I have taken the liberty to share yours with Paul Jr. and Bobby and the many others who either played for him or were taught by him. Each story told reveals more and more about a man that was multiple dimensional-a stern disciplinarian but with a heart as big as Texas.

Glen, you continue to carry the torch for Coach Ward. And as Ned Priest was quoted, speaking about you, "He also teaches his kids to act right and insists they do so. He is a good coach and a good man. Coach Ward would be proud". Indeed he would.

Scott Portis

"Comptonian Physics"

Ned, great story (and with a moral) for us all. I'll bet old Johnny and Coach are up there now looking down on us and discussing one of their great games. You and I have talked many times about your desire to have been a Mustang. Well you were. Junior high, senior high who cares, you wore the Blue and Gold and undefeated and with a paltry lone touchdown-what a season. I too wish you could have been here during your high school days. You would have been a great center and defensive end. If you played football like you catch fish, Huntingdon would have been better off.

Coach Ward loved his "hitters". I think we were so successful because we were first taught the fundamentals-blocking and tackling. At defense he was great but he shinned on the offensive side of the ball also. He was the best at taking the talent he had each year and molding the right offensive scheme around it-sometimes changing the offense mid season when the current plan was not working.

Also, least we forget Coach Welch. Coach Ward and Coach Welch were great alone but the two of them together were awesome. During pass defense practice one day when I thought I had been on the field and excessive amount of time (running down one fresh back or end after another), I asked Coach Welch, " What do you think I am, a race horse?". Well, when the combined practice was over at the end of the day and sprints had been run, Coach Welch called 5 or 6 backs over and he said "Race Horse Portis" line up out there at defensive halfback and we preceded to run pass defense for another 15 to 20 minutes. On the way to the dressing room he padded me on the butt and said "If I had a saddle, I'd ride you up the hill 'Race Horse'". I intercepted two pass the next game. He has never let me forget it either.

Ned, thanks again. Very strong story from a former Mustang who was almost coached by Coach Ward.

Scotty

PS: Ned if you can get me Coach McAdams email or phone #, I will be sure that we get him in on these "blogs". We here are all well aware of Glen's accomplishments. I'm sure he would appreciate hearing from us. Also, if anyone out there has Larry Stewart and Warren Blankenship's emails send them to me and I will include them. Blankenship was probably one of the best all round blockers and tacklers that Huntingdon ever produced. Also, does anyone know where Bendell "Freight Train" Wilkes is now. He graduated with Warren and was a heck of a defensive end.

From: Ned Priest

To: Scotty Portis
Subject: Re: Coach Ward
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:42:43 -0600

I never played for Paul Ward. But I did play with Johnny Compton for three years on the Huntingdon Junior High School Mustang football team. For one glorious week, Big John, myself and several other invited junior high players (Joe Hall Morris, Jimmy Smith, Will Crellin, Thomas Ray Townsend, Tommy Portis and several others) practiced with the varsity, and therefore for Coach Ward, before the start of junior high practice. That's where I learned about "Comptonian Physics".

We were doing the two-man lineman tackling drill. You know - two linemen, lying on their backs, heads pointing toward each other about ten yards apart on either side of a hole defined by two blocking dummies, with the coach standing by the dummies with a ball. The coach calls "Hike" as he tosses the ball to one of the linemen. They have to roll over, charge toward the hole and one carries the ball while the other tackles.

As freshmen, we had been the recipients of some serious disrespect from the upperclassmen during the first part of the week. By about Wednesday, I had had enough, so I resolved to "sell out" every chance. Johnny and I were up, so here was my chance. Coach Ward (holding that clipboard!) tossed the ball to me. I got low and drove hard into the hole, meeting JC's shoulder pad level with mine. There was a terrific "Whack!" and Johnny stumbled backwards with me falling on him. Success!!! - and immediately a whoop went up from the upperclass linemen surrounding us.

Now it was Johnny's turn. I resolved not to be a "one hit wonder" and tigered up as I lay on the ground. Coach Ward tossed the ball to Big 'Un and Professor Compton began his lessons in "Comptonian Physics":

1. Leverage - That means when Johnny's pads were below yours, you ain't got a chance!!! He stood me straight up!

2. Force - Einstein discovered that Force=(Mass x Velocity)Squared. He forgot the "CMF" - that's "Compton Meanness Factor". The REAL formula, solved for F, is F=(MxV)2xCMF= me suddenly flying backwards through the air!

3. Gravity - That's where I crash down to earth on Pudor Field.

4. Astronomy - That's where I see stars for about 5 minutes!!

But the pain of those few seconds was quickly washed away by the roar of yelling upperclassmen - including the backs and Coach Euell Bolden, who had come over to check out all the noise. Coach Ward was clapping one hand against that clipboard and telling to the team that "These freshmen are showing you guys how to hit!" And two of my idols - Jackie Brown and Dale Strickland - were hollering, laughing and slapping me and Johnny on the helmet!

JC and I were transfixed by being noticed by Coach Ward and resolved to hit each other as hard as possible for the rest of the week. We were never paired again, but that event was the start of a wonderful year. The Junior High Mustangs were undefeated, untied and un-scored-on except for a meaningless TD by Paris at the end of a 28-7 should-have-been-worse rout.

My family moved to Memphis at Christmas of that year and I never saw Johnny Compton again. I considered attending a Mustang game but even thinking about it was so painful that I never went. It's one of the greatest and most enduring disappointments of my life that I never played high school football with my cousin Tim and for Paul Ward, but my shining memory of that day still brings a smile to my face.

By the way, Coach Ward's legacy lives on in Mustang alum Glen McAdams. Glen has coached the (Nashville) David Lipscomb High School football team for 26 years, winning several state championships in their class, the last about 2 weeks ago. His program has produced a number of Div IA players in the process. He also teaches his kids how to act right and insists that they do so. He's a good coach and a good man. Coach Ward would be proud.

Respectfully, Ned Priest, #54.