Coaching is a calling

A football coach never really leaves the game.

He shifts his priorities sometimes, into the principal's office, the administration building, into something out of the education profession entirely.

But he doesn't lose his calling.

Earlier this week, when Ector County Independent School District trustees hired Gary Gaines to coach Permian a second time, Panther fans reacted in shock.

The move should have surprised them.

Gaines' desire to get back into coaching shouldn't.

"I've been an athletic director for four years," Gaines said last week. "The urge to coach never did leave. I miss teaching the game, working with young people and having those relationships a coach can have."

Plenty of coaches get their administrative degree, thinking that it's the next step after they get out of their first love.

But a principal's office or an administration building is a lonely place.

For men like Steve Taylor, who became the principal at Ozona so he could have more time to watch his son play college football, the game came calling right away.

Taylor ran back to it. Less than a year later, he took the head coaching job at Greenwood.

"That first Friday night, I sat up in the stands and watched everybody else," Taylor said. "I couldn't stand being out of it."

Randy Doege was the head coach at Crane, an assistant at Wolfforth Frenship, but he's currently the junior high principal at Iraan.

His son, Seth, is a quarterback at Texas Tech. Doege became an administrator so he could watch his son play.

The game is already tugging at him.

"I miss almost everything," Doege said. "The one thing I miss the most is the relationships with the kids, the coaches. I miss the practices, I miss the games, I dearly miss the preparation."

Some coaches don't get the opportunity to get back into the game.

When a coach stays away from the game for a couple of years, his profile drops. It gets harder and harder to find a coaching job.

Unless, of course, a coach has the kind of credibility that Gaines carries.

Gaines has already coached at Permian. Won a state championship. He's coming to a place he already knows.

"When I came to Greenwood, I didn't understand the traditions they have here," Taylor said. "Gaines was at Permian. He knows the tradition-rich school it is. He was a part of it."

For the coach who comes back, though, the pressure is still there.

And the first priority for a head coach coming back to the game is the same as any other head coach.

Find the right help.

"Getting the staff is the most critical thing," said John Wilkins, who spent two years at Midland Trinity more than a decade after he moved into administration. "It's not going to happen overnight."

Hiring assistant coaches doesn't mean a coaching staff is complete.

Those coaches need to get on the same page, get to know each other and start teaching the system.

Not that the system matters all that much. The kids simply need to believe in it.

And that's why Gaines is sticking with the system Permian has been running the last four years.

"X's and O's are important," Doege said. "But to get kids to do what they need to is more important."

Gaines shouldn't have any problems getting Permian's kids to buy in.

When he takes the sidelines this spring, he'll be back in his natural habitat.

Right where he was always meant to be.

THE BASICS

>> Who: Gary Gaines.

>> What: Head coach/athletic coordinator.

>> Where: Permian High School.

>> Hired guns: Mike Ballew, Jeff Howard, Jarrett Lambert and Joe Flores.