Former Hornets Butler, Queck helping as volunteer coaches

By Rob Patrick

When former Hornets head football coach Daryl Patton made his return to Bryant with his Fayetteville Bulldogs in the first round of the playoffs a few years ago, he was joined by 14 assistant coaches of one kind or another on the sideline or in the press box.

Last year, Springdale brought 10 or 12 for the first-round playoff game against the Hornets.

Admittedly, a few of them were graduate assistants but it was a sideline that was a lot more crowded with non-uniformed personnel than on the Bryant side.The fact that the Hornets have had such success in recent years with just six coaches including head coach Paul Calley speaks volumes about the work they put in.

If you happened by a Bryant practice this fall, however, you might’ve noticed a couple of extra instructors and, Calley said, it’s helped to keep more players engaged for more of the practices.

And it hasn’t cost the school district anything as former Hornets stars Brandon Butler and Travis Queck joined in as volunteers.

“I don’t think we’d be where we’re at right now without those two guys, for sure,” Calley stated as he team completed an 8-2 regular season.[more]

“They were very heady players,” he recalled. “They were passionate players. They care about it. They’ve done everything they can to learn. They’re here every time we’re here. I can’t say enough about them.”

Queck has served as a substitute teacher, earning money from that while Butler has been completing his internship. Both have designs on gaining their teaching certification by the non-traditional method then make a career of coaching. Both graduated in 2004 and were members of that season’s 10-2 conference champioship Hornets team. Butler was the team’s leading rusher and Queck was a ball-hawking safety who returned two interceptions for touchdowns that year.

Coaching wasn’t the path Queck was originally on. He graduated in four years from the University of Arkansas with a degree in Finance, minoring in Accounting.

“I started interviewing (for jobs) and it wasn’t it,” he said. “It wasn’t it. This is definitely what I want to do. I enjoy every day I’m down here. I’m not getting paid to do this. I just enjoy it. I’m loving it. I don’t look at the clock to see what time we get out. It’s just whenever.”

Butler said his was a winding road after high school.

“If I went through every thing, it’d take all day,” he noted. “I went to a couple of different places and I ended up at UCA. I played ball there for two years and was part of the team that won the conference championship. Right now, I’m doing my internship at the high school under Coach Griff (defensive cooardinator Steve Griffith). I’m kind of doing this as something that would look good on a resume. I’m not really getting anything out of it except for the experience.

“When I started college — I think everybody comes out of high school wanting to make a lot of money,” he continued. “I thought I wanted to do Physical Therapy. I went through and saw what you had to do to do that and, it’s not that I didn’t want to put forth all the effort, I just kind of wanted to, as a Physical Therapist, I wanted to do something with sports and you had to get into certain fields. I figured I’d just rather be a coach and be a part of it every day. After I got over not making a lot of money, I said, ‘Hey, I’m just going to be a coach. That’s what I love.’

“Over the summer, Coach Calley called me and asked me if I wanted to come down here and help out along with doing my internship and I said, ‘Heck, yeah,’” Butler added. “He just kind of gave me the running backs. We never really had a true running backs coach so while they’re working on other things, I just make sure the guys are working on their footwork and things like that, make sure they know where they’re going, make sure they’re not standing around for the most part, I guess.”

“I started to get into subbing,” related Queck who took over the classes of departed head basketball coach Mark Smith, “and I’d talked to Coach Griffith and he said, ‘Yeah, come down and help.’ I started the second day of two-a-days, helping Coach (John) Wells, Coach Griff and Coach (Brad) Stroud on defense. It’s a learning experience, to see what it takes to be a competitive coach.

“I’m competitive,” he stated. “I missed beating people. I hate losing. I wanted to get out there and help my alma mater do something special. These (coaches) are great allowing me to come down here and work with them and work with these kids. It’s been fun. It’s been a good deal. I’m learning so much from these guys. It’s something new everyday, every week.”

“I like it a lot, especially with my old coaches,” Butler agreed. “Coming here every day, it’s just like going into the locker room back in high school and college, hanging out with a bunch of guys and playing a game, trying to contribute to some of the younger kids, making sure they have as much fun as I did when I was here.

“I try to just go out there and have fun with them,” he explained. “Why do it if you’re not having fun? On the other hand, who likes to lose? So, I try to make sure that anything that I know that I can help them out on, if I see something, I make sure I tell them, make sure they’re doing it right and make sure they know how to do it right. I don’t know everything but having a little bit of experience at a little bit higher level, I can help out a little bit.

“It’s really spoiled us as coaches,” Calley mentioned. “Because now, we’ve got really a full staff with these two guys. I sure hate that next year they’re not going to be here. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find some people in the same situation they’re in that will step up and help us next year.

“We have a lot of help from the junior high coaches on Friday nights but not being here during the week of practice really puts them at a disadvantage,” added the head coach, “and having these two guys here all the time, they know the game plan, they know what we’re trying to do, it’s been very advantageous having them around.”

“I’ll have a health education degree,” Butler noted. “I’ll have to do the non-traditional style (of certification) like Queck. Hopefully, he and I’ll get on that together and it’ll be a little easier for both us. We can help each other out studying.

“I’m going to start studying for my test pretty soon and get those underway so I can get certified to be a teacher and work on my certification to be a coach,” Queck added. “I’m waiting for football to get over. My mom just got through doing it so if she can do it, I can do it, right?”

Concluded Calley, “They’re going to be very good coaches. Hopefully, we can get them on here full-time. They’re good, fine young men. They care about the program, they care about the kids and they want to win just as bad as we do.”