The  football team recently got a new head coach, Coach Poole

“I came to Searcy from Newport, seeing it as a great opportunity for my career and it has a lot of potential” said Poole. “It is also a great place for my family.”

Poole said he coached at Newport, as head coach; Greenwood and Fordyce, as defensive coordinators; and Clinton, as assistant coach.

“Compared to my past coaching positions, the differences are nothing more than mindset and expectations,” he said.

Many students are not very happy with the way he came into the classes and the practices.

“On his first day, he was fine; on the second, he got really strict. I compared him to Coach Harper, so I think that’s why I didn’t like him,” said sophomore Madison Bradberry. “Now that I know he is just trying to do his job, and do it right, I understand why he came into class acting the way he acted.”

Poole said he doesn’t care what students are saying about him, whether it’s about players quitting or the how he acts in study hall, he believes in doing things right and to the best of his ability.

“As far as players quitting, to my knowledge, no one has quit yet,” he said. “Study hall is pretty simple, it’s for studying and it’s hard to do that if you’re talking.”

He said his coaching staff will be very demanding, but it’s just like every other thing in life: You get out of it what you put in to it.

“We will be the first class in everything that we do; never getting outworked, executed, or hit. I want the team to develop a mentality of championship work ethic, and that is what it boils down to: work-ethic and willingness to do what others teams aren’t willing to do in order to be successful,” said Poole. “We will compete for championships and never give up.”

As a coach, he said he wants to lead by example.

“I want to teach these guys that you deserve nothing in life and you get what you work for,” he explained.