And so Belton head football coach and athletic director Rodney Southern - just four months into the job - is in the midst of what he hopes will be a successful albeit long leap in regards to his staff, the school district’s facilities and the programs’ results on the field.
“We’re going to have to do some things that may be a little uncomfortable for some people sometimes, because you’ve basically won two district games in three years,” said Southern, who led Marshall to a pair of Class 4A state title games. “Well, you have to do something different. I had a coach a long time ago tell me, ‘If you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, that’s the definition of insanity.’”
Changing of the guard
While most of Belton’s head coaches will be back next year, the same can’t be said of the majority of the football staff. Only a few of the 15 men listed as assistants on former head coach Jay Warrick’s staff have been retained.
The new faces are numerous as are the titles that follow their names.
“We still have one more guy from Marshall coming,” Southern said. “And we’ve got a few more freshman positions we’re going to have to fill.”
As of now, only three of Belton’s head coaches will be new. But all in all, the changes were numerous and swift, and they came with the usual amount of ruffled feathers.
“Coach Warrick had been here 10 years. Any time that’s the situation and there’s a change, people know what’s going to happen,” Southern said. “But change sometimes is hard for some people to swallow, regardless of the situation.
“But you also have to look at it as there is a need for change. Whether everybody agreed or disagreed, I don’t think as a head coach you can concern yourself too much with that side of it. We have to make decisions that are best for the kids. Sometimes that decision might be good for an adult and sometimes it may not be.”
Upgrade
It wasn’t just the football staff that got a facelift. Changes were made about four doors down from the coaches’ office, where a new state-of-the-art weight room sits.
“One of the first things I saw when I walked in the doors here, you had a weight facility that was inadequate for any level,” Southern said. “Speaking specifically in football, if you’re not strong and fast, you’re not going to be able to compete. And we were neither.”
The new weight room, which according to Southern cost in the $140,000 range, can handle 150 to 180 athletes at one time.
“Sure it cost money, but you buy computers every three or four years,” he explained. “That weight equipment, 10 years from now, will be just as good as it is now. This is what a 5A facility is supposed to look like.”
Putting it to work
With a staff in place and a new weight room ready for use, Southern’s next change was more of a difference of philosophy.
After spending the first couple of weeks on his new job primarily observing, Southern said he realized the focus of Belton’s junior high programs needed to shift to strength and conditioning.
“There was too much time spent on specific skills,” he said. “The glaring problem with that is you’re not building the athlete.”
The push to produce stronger, faster players also will be made at the high school, where members of the Tigers football team - with 18 spring practices under their belts - received a crash-course in what it means to build an athlete.
“In the spring, we worked these kids differently than they’ve been worked in the spring before,” Southern said. “And I told them, ‘If you’re not going home sore and hurting the next day, then I’m not doing my job.’”
The strength-first plan was a product of Southern’s evaluation that “athletically, from grades 7 through 12, our strength levels are not where they need to be in any sport - none, football, baseball, basketball, it doesn’t matter. In a very short period of time, we have to play catch-up.”
And it all plays into Southern’s master philosophy.
“If my team is prepared, and I’m physically as strong and fast as you, then I’m going to have a chance to win,” he said. “And if I’m prepared and physically as strong but maybe not as fast, I still have a chance to win.”
Among other things
Other than the tangible differences of new coaches and weights, Southern hopes to affect change in other ways.
“I want Belton kids to be competitive year-round,” he said. “A lot of times you have football kids, and that’s all they play. But I’m going to do some things to get them to be competitive in other sports and other avenues.
“The better you are and the more competitive you are, then those games that you’re losing 28-21 or 27-26, you steal one or two of those.”
There will also be a push to increase participation, particularly at the junior high level. For example, Southern wants a minimum of three seventh-grade football teams on each campus.
“Too many times, you lose a kid in the seventh grade because they have a bad experience athletically, in whatever sport,” he said. “Some of them, you never get back.
“There are little-bitty guys at the end of the bench getting to play three snaps at the end of the game. If you had another team, he could play the whole game. And you never know what a kid may be five years from now. If they’re put in the right environment and strength program, that little guy might be a great athlete five years from now.”
Rushing to judgement
At the helm of a football program that’s coming off its second winless season in a span of three years, Southern knows the pressure is on to improve things immediately.
While he believes drastic changes will help in the short-term, it’s the long haul that Southern is building for.
“If our kids respond in the summer, then we’re going to have a chance to be a lot more successful than they were last year,” he said.
“But I’ve always believed, and this goes for any coach anywhere in any sport, look at the program now and then in three years judge where it is.
“When my time is over in Belton, whenever that is, I hope it’s the same situation as Marshall, because I know that program is in a whole lot better shape than it was when I went in there. In the meantime, when you’re changing things to do what you think will make the program better, you’re going to excite some people and you’re going to make some people mad.”
