CardinalHog

When Coach Morris retired last year, there was always the chance the guy they hired would have a few growing pains. I think that's what it is.

On December 9th, the day before the tornado and our only home basketball game so far, I was sitting next to Coach Morris. After we had discussed and solved most of the worlds' problems, I asked him if he was going to be back next year. He paused for a good while and then successfully deflected by asking me what I thought about the job Sam Pittman was doing for the Razorbacks. That was a tangent I could get into and off we went into Arkansas football. Interpreting silence is pretty tricky, but at the time I felt like there was going to be change. Not sure what it was going to be, but with the posting of the job it's now a certainty that something is going to be different. Until he says different it is my hope that he'll be coach of the Cardinals next year. If he is the coach next year, I'll be ecstatic, but surprisingly-even to myself, it's not all about football. He means a lot to this community. It's in the countless hours spent at the gym (shelter) after the tornado and it's in the way that teenage boys stand taller when Coach Joe is around.

Not yet. Planning to start back the 10th. My opinion: The next coach will be named Morris. Might be Joe, Jack, Abram. Only thing I'm sure of is if we get a Morris named Chad it's time to move.

Nothing definitive, but the rumor mill for the last several months has been that Joe would retire from teaching and apply for the head coaching position. The only way he isn't a lock to get it would be if he changes his mind-a possibility, or more interestingly, if his dad decides to come out of retirement to try to even up his state title deficit. < ok -admittedly I'm the only one with that scenario, but it would be fun.

I never thought my first post here would mention a tornado unless Paducah Tilghman was involved. Our lives changed dramatically Friday night and Saturday morning I started getting calls from all over the country checking on us. In most cases they knew a lot more about what happened than we did. We knew it was bad, but not how bad. No electricity, no water, no internet, and sketchy to non-existent cell phone left all of us feeling pretty isolated. I saw the best and worst of what life has to offer Saturday morning and the response of this community and then quickly others will be what I want to remember. I wanted to share a few things I saw; 1) at the high school I saw coaches, administrators, and teachers that had been up all night giving shelter and first aid to those who needed it. Arranging transportation for those that needed more serious medical attention and handing out what supplies they had to offer, 2) I saw police cars, firetrucks, & ambulances from places that I didn't recognize, 3) I saw a board member of the local bank running a skid steer removing debris, 4) I saw teenagers pitching in to help, not because they were told to, but because it needed to be done, 5) I saw more and more help rush in as the day went on 5) most importantly I saw that what made this community historic was never the buildings. Volunteers from all over the country have poured in. Yesterday my wife volunteered with Samaritans Purse. She worked with folks from Nevada who had been on the way to vacation in their motorhome, but when they heard what happened they doubled back from Nashville to help here. There were people from Tennessee and Missouri. There was a football coaches wife from Louisville. She knew all their names and she loved them for being here to help. I asked her what the football coaches wife's name was and she said it was Beth Satterfield. I asked her if she knew her husband was the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals. She didn't. Told her he was kind of a big deal. She felt like maybe she should be embarrassed for not knowing, but in her world Joe Morris is only head coach of the Cardinals. We are going to be fine.