PREP RALLY | 8.18.2024
7 sive plans before Farmington took part in a team camp, and Tice marveled at how fast and how well the players adapted and learned the new system.
Tice has no problems with today’ s offensive schemes and the focus on a run-pass option system, saying it plays right in his wheelhouse. What he doesn’ t like about today’ s game is something that happens away from the sidelines.
“ I was always an option coach,” Tice said.“ I believed in running the option, but it was more of a triple option and I believed in throwing the football. Now it’ s run-pass option, which fits me to a T. I always thought you had to run some form of option, and you had to throw the ball some against teams that maybe are a little better and stronger than you are.
“ There’ s no doubt what the biggest change is, and that is being able to switch schools any time you want to switch schools. Up until July 1, you don’ t know what your team is going to be. We’ ve had some come in and some go out, and I hope we get some legislation on that. I think transfers are fine, but they have to sit out 365 days to be eligible.”
Now Farmington’ s players have the challenge of keeping up with an older coach, and Tice said he didn’ t know where his energy would lie at the moment. He feels like he’ s never left the game, and said it’ s going to be a great feeling when he leads the Cardinals on the field at Shiloh Christian. And he plans on doing it for quite a while and not be simply a one-and-done coach, defying the rumors that circled since the day Farmington chose him as head coach.
“ Am I under a one-year contract? So is everybody else,” Tice said.“ But not in my mind. They asked me about how long I could give them, and I said‘ Hey, I’ ll work a one-year contract. But as long as my health holds up— and I think it’ s in good shape right now— I’ m looking at 4 to 7 years realistically, that kind of timetable.’
“ It was never put to me to be an interim coach. I would never be an interim coach. Tommy Tice would never accept that kind of situation.”
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Fighting the urge Loughridge, meanwhile, hasn’ t been away from being a football coach as long as Tice. His last game as a coach was on Nov. 22, 2019— when his Alma team suffered a 24-17 loss to White Hall in the Class 5A state playoffs— before he became the school’ s athletic director.
But there was always that feeling he would be back on the sidelines, and he’ ll do just that when he leads Siloam Springs in its season opener Aug. 30 at Rogers Heritage.
“ I wouldn’ t say never, but I’ m saying right now,” Loughridge said.“ I didn’ t know it would be down the road whenever Hunter got out of school, or if I would have a chance to coach him again.
“ Really didn’ t know what was going to happen, but that’ s what I needed to do. It was the best move for me and the best move for my family, so we went with it.”
Loughridge assumed his AD position in January 2020, just before the pandemic hit. He admits he’ s thankful he didn’ t have to deal with the situations Alma’ s coaches faced during the 2020 season because of all the extra protocols, even though he dealt with it from the administration’ s side.
While he tried his best to distance himself from the sideline and be a good athletic director, the urge to return to coaching football was there and getting stronger day by day.
“ In the back of my mind, every time I went to a football game or watched football on TV, I knew that was selfishly my happy place,” Loughridge said.“ I was always talking to football coaches and still learning, still doing what I needed to do.
“ As we went on and everything got better, everything got back more to normal, I saw there was an itch. If there was an opportunity to do that with a job that was local, and one that I could get it and take my son and let him mix well in that community, I would be interested.”
Interestingly, Loughridge was in person when Alma played at Siloam Springs last season. Months later, Siloam Springs had an opening after Brandon Craig resigned, and it piqued Loughridge’ s interest.
That’ s when he reached out to some former Panther coaches— Billy Dawson and Clint Ashcraft— before he accepted the job.
“ We have family land in Northwest Arkansas, and we knew that’ s where we were going to end up eventually,” Loughridge said.“ We didn’ t know it would be this soon. With the job like Siloam being open, it was an opportunity for us to go ahead to make that move— just a little earlier than we expected. Let Hudson finish out his career and me coach him.”
“ If you look at Siloam in the past, Billy and Clint came up here and had some success. Now I’ m not comparing myself to Billy Dawson or Clint Ashcraft, but I’ m fortunate to have good relationships with them. I felt them out about the job to see what it’ s was like, the town and the community, and they both said the same thing. They loved it and loved the kids.”
Loughridge has made it clear: this will probably be his last coaching job. That job will be taking over a team that opens the season with a current 27-game losing skid, hasn’ t won a conference game since 2020 and hasn’ t enjoyed a winning record since it went 6-4 in 2011.
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“ When I saw Siloam play Alma, I saw some good-looking kids and they play hard,” Loughridge said.“ I just thought these are the type of kids I’ ve been coaching since I’ ve been a head coach and it would be an easy transition.
“ We’ re starting from the ground up. It’ s going to start with what we do in the seventh and eighth grades. We have to build that and get the skill development up the way I want it. I’ m going into this doing the things I know how to do them, and I’ m not going to break from those.”
Loughridge wants his new team to enjoy practice as much as young kids enjoy recess and have fun. There will be music going, and the workouts will be high-energy and give players reasons to have fun out there. He hopes that same feeling will carry over on Friday nights, and he can’ t wait to see the results.
“ When that ball is snapped and the adrenaline is running and you’ re on the clock, everything falls into place,” Loughridge said.“ I can’ t wait to walk out and see our crowd, see our band and spirit squads and see our team come out for the first time. It’ s going to be fun.”
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