Father of Mine
Alma grid coaches reflect on dads
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
On that late August afternoon, with everyone anticipating the scorching sun dipping beyond the western horizon, Payton Morris will peer into the bleachers at Citizen’s Bank Field at Airedale Stadium minutes before Alma and Van Burn re-new their storied football rivalry and lock eyes with his parents, Jim and Tracy Morris.
They never miss a game.
For Morris, who is embarking on his third year as one of Rusty Bush’s assistant coaches, seeing his parents at sporting events isn’t anything new.
Alma football coach Rusty Bush fondly recalls scouring three local newspapers for football scores with his dad when he was a kid.
“Since I started coaching, in college and high school, he has not missed a game,” Morris said. “He traveled to games when I was in college and he hasn’t missed a game since I’ve been here. That’s important, and it’s left a good impact on me.”
The recently married Morris, who tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Carly earlier this year, isn’t the only Alma football coach who will take the field this season with his parents looking on. It’s the same for assistant coach Derek Haney.
“He’s always been the hardest one on me, but he’s always been my biggest supporter,” Haney said.
Now that he’s a dad, Haney sees the world differently.
“If anything, it’s made me more patient,” Haney said. “As a coach, it makes you realize, ‘How would I treat my son in this situation.’
“That’s been the biggest thing for me.”
Father’s Day wasn’t a once-a-year celebration for Bush and his dad, Jerry. The southern Arkansas native cherished those Saturday mornings in the 1990s when they’d spread three sports pages over the kitchen table, scouring all the big games from the night before.
“My dad was an educator for over 35 years,” Bush said. “He started in coaching and then went into administration. As a kid, my father, being in education and loving high school sports, and both were high school (sports) nerds, it was tradition for us on Saturday morning to get three newspapers — the Arkansas Democrat, the Araksansas Gteazette, and the Pine Bluff Commercial — and pour over all the scores across the state.
“Little Rock Central did what? Who did Alma play? What did Texarkansa do?’ Growing up in south Arkansas, my dad was a hunter and fisherman, too, so we did a lot of that also Like most people, my dad was my hero.”
“My dad is an extremely hard worker. He grew up in sales,” Morris explained. “He’s larger than life; he’s a big-character guy. My dad and I bonded over sports. He was not a coach, but he found the importance of my brother (Garin) and me playing sports, and we bonded over that. He’s a season ticket holder to the Razorbcks (football), so I grew up going to every tailgate. We played golf, too, and that’s how we bonded.”
Father’s Day is a big deal with Zach Jones, too. The Airedales’ defensive coordinator celebrates that every day with his wife Kathy and the couple’s kids. Jones grew up running rampant in the DeQuen Leopards’ football fieldhouse.
His dad, Jeff, even coached for one year with Alma coach Frank Vines (2005).
“That’s all I knew,” Zach Jones said. “I was always in the fieldhouse and the weight room with my dad. To best honest, I don’t think I ever thought about doing anything different than coaching. The relationships with his players, and the way they treated him, they would come over to his house four and five years after they had graduated. He would see them at Walmart and Braum’s.
“When I think back on it, I think that pushed me into coaching.”
A star football player at Charleston, Haney’s family dynamics dates to small-town basketball in the late 1950s.
“I was the first person to ever play something other than basketball in my family,” Haney said. “My dad (Jason) grew up in northeast Arkansas and went to high school at Buffalo Island in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. My grandfather (Roger) was from County Line; he went to Arkansas Tech and played basketball there in the late 1950s.”
Jerry Bush’s coaching influence led Rusty into the coaching profession as well.
“I just stuck with the coaching part,” kids Bush... “We were big St.. Louis Cardinals fans, and he took me to Cardinals’ games. He took me to my first indoor track meet at Arkansas State.”
“My two sisters, Tammy and Lori, are also teachers,” Bush added.
Marlene Bush is a former high school counselor and assistant superintendent.
“Our Thanksgiving was pretty boring,” Bush joked. “All we talked about was education.”