An educator, motivator, mentor, executive and Pastor, Nathanial Hearne shared his personal story and offered encouragement to students at Bowie Middle School Thursday.
The morning session in the library had 80 students hand-chosen by Dean of Students and Culture Brandon Bass, Coach Tony Hughes and ISS teacher/coach Colton Watkins, Principal Amy Russell said. Students at the afternoon presentation were all athletes and mostly in seventh grade.
“I wanted to pick a group that will be here next year,” Russell said.
When Russell was a student in band at Permian, Hearne was one of the famous “Friday Night Lights” coaches. His wife, Callie, who accompanied him to Bowie, was her counselor at PHS.
When she was instructional services director at Ector, Russell was looking for some professional development. She heard from retired Carver Early Education Center Principal Sherry Palmer that the Hearnes had a great motivational program for schools.
“… I brought them in the first year I was at Ector back in 2015. Tomorrow, they will be with teachers. They’ll be with us working on our personal mission and vision statements,” Russell added.
She had the Hearnes in at the beginning of the year to lay the foundation at Bowie, and with extra funding from the district, she was able to bring them back.
Hearne told students about the importance of relationships, having dreams and goals and a plan for making them happen and never giving up. He grew up one of eight children in a three-room house in Andrews. Too small to play football, Hearne decided on basketball, but he injured his thumb badly. The coach put his son, who was a freshman, in Hearne’s place. The coach called him in and dismissed him from the team.
Heartbroken, he concentrated on his academics and decided to go to college. His parents could not afford college. His father got him a job at Piggly Wiggly and made enough money for a semester at Odessa College. He found out they gave a limited number of walk-on basketball scholarships there, so he took the bus to OC and made the team.
The coach gave him a room to stay in.
As assistant high school football coach, Hearne “instilled a love of honor and sportsmanship in every team member as he led them in strength and stamina conditioning. The Permian High School team became National Football Champions in 1989 and State Champs in 1991,” according to the International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention.
When he was in elementary school, Hearne said he was ready to drop out. But when he got into middle school, a couple of his teachers believed in him and he was motivated to hit the books. His dream became to become a coach and teacher.
Hearne earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education at North Texas State University in 1974. He returned to the University of Texas in 1979, obtaining a master of arts. In 1998, he received a master of divinity at SMU while working full time at the Clarksville ISD as the football defensive coordinator and conditioning coach. The next year he became an Ordained Minister and served as such in several churches. In 2009 he was back at SMU obtaining a Doctor of Ministry, the International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention website.
Some students at the presentation want to do a variety of things from becoming pro athletes and going to Division I schools to taking in foster dogs.
Gabriella Gomez, a 14-year-old eighth-grader, said she enjoyed Hearne’s presentation.
“I actually really like it,” Gomez said.
She added that she was not familiar with the PHS football legend. Her takeaway is to work hard and never give up.
“I want to be a veterinarian and sell my art online. I want to stop animal abuse,” Gomez said.
Callie Hearne, a longtime educator who now works with her husband, met Hearne at Permian. She said their business, Made Up Minds, is their purpose. Hearne gets invitations from across the country to speak.
He also is the author of “Friday Night Lights: The Untold Story Behind the Lights” and a pastor.
