Conway’s Fimple talks success at Noon Rotary Club

Conway’s new football coach Keith Fimple had a busy first day on the job at his new school. Fimple said he met with Conway’s search committee at 1 p.m. and by 4 p.m., he was meeting with the team. “I drove home that night and told my wife that I had to tell the team at Springdale Har-Ber that I was leaving,” Fimple said during the weekly Noon Rotary Club meeting Thursday. “I came back the next day and sat down and asked myself what I could do to get this team going. My staff did a good job getting things going.” “We have 141 kids out for football,” Fimple said. “We have 36 seniors, 45 juniors and 58 sophomores. As soon as they left after spring ball, we gave them three or four days off before summer workouts. Today, our kids lift from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. They come in and lift weights, drills, run and then go to positioning drills. On Wednesday’s, they have team camps. We finished our last workout this morning.” Fimple said he established a family atmosphere around the team. “All these kids are committed,” he said. “That was the first thing I told them when I met with them. On that first day with the team, I talked about being part of the family. In this day and age, x’s and o’s are being done by everyone. Everyone is doing the same thing. The schemes are not what is getting it done. What’s getting it done is the people who are committed to the scheme and people committed to each other. “When I told the team they needed to be a family, I wasn’t talking about just the football team itself, I talked about people in the community being a part of the family, teachers being a part of the family. I sent them out on assignment by telling them to use Instagram to take a picture with anyone in the community and sell them on being a Wampus Cat. I have been in some great programs and have been blessed. I seen why those teams succeed and those teams succeed because they are not only a family, but its being a family outside of these walls.” Fimple continued to talk about how to be successful. “Being around the programs I have, I created these six things and if we can be these six things, we will be successful,” he said. “Those six things are family, integrity, intensity, compete, toughness and finish. I’ve learned many life lessons through football and the sooner these guys understand these things, the more successful they will be and the harder they will play. If you do those six things, it creates payday. Winning happens when guys buy in.” Simple said every team he has coached has been successful because the players are committed to each other and to the community. Conway will play their first scrimmage in 12 days and will get the season started Aug. 24 against El Dorado at home. “That is a good game to get started because that team will be competitive and are well-coached,” he said. “I know this because I have coached there.”

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CONWAY’S FIMPLE TALKS SUCCESS AT NOON ROTARY CLUB

ANDY ROBERTSON

Log Cabin Democrat | 7/26/2018