Second-year head coach at Arkansas Baptist College Richard Wilson was the featured speaker at the Arkadelphia Football Club meeting on Tuesday.

Wilson played football for the University of Central Arkansas and then transferred to play at the University of Arkansas under Lou Holtz. While he was there, he met current Henderson State Athletic Director Sam Goodwin. He said that Goodwin helped him get his first full-time coaching job in El Dorado.

From El Dorado, he went to the University of Missouri where Larry Bechtel was the head coach. He said that he learned quickly that college coaching was different from high school because after four months of being there the head coach was fired.

He called Coach Frank Broyles and told him that he was interested in coming back to Arkansas. He said that Broyles encouraged him to stay at Missouri and meet people and network.

Woody Widenhofer came in as head coach, and Wilson was one of only ones left on staff with recruiting experience. After seven weeks, Wilson was offered the top graduate assistant position.

A day later new Arkansas coach Ken Hatfield called Wilson. “He said that he had heard that I was interested in coming back home. I told him I would love to come back but that I had just told them that I would stay at Missouri one year,” Wilson said. “He told me that he liked a person with integrity and that I should stay in contact with him.”

He did come back to Arkansas eventually and worked with Hatfield in his last year as head coach of the Razorbacks. While at Arkansas, he met Fitz Hill who was a graduate assistant for the Razorbacks. He then went to Clemson with Hatfield and then to East Michigan with him.

In 1995, he became an assistant at Oklahoma State. He stayed there until 2000 where he then went to the University of Minnesota. He stayed in Minnesota for a few years and decided to volunteer as the head coach of an inner city school’s football team.

Fitz Hill offered him the head coaching job at Arkansas Baptist and he came back to Arkansas.

Wilson has developed a coaching philosophy over the years. “This is not original. It’s things I’ve picked up from other coaches. There are two things people want: a sense of achievement and a sense of recognition,” he said. “They want to know that they did something important. We want to recognize the kids for what they’ve done.”

Wilson had three questions that any type of organization can ask its participants that everyone has to be willing to say “yes” to. “Can I trust you? I have found that trust is a two-edge sword,” he said.

He also asks if they are committed to excellence. “Some people give a lot and it takes nothing out of them. They’ve got a lot and give a lot,” he said. He wants people who will “get in the trenches with you” and who are committed.

“Do you care about people? The longer I have been in the coaching profession, this one has meant more to me,” he said.

Wilson said that Hatfield was one of the coaches that impacted him the most. “What you saw is what you got. He was the same today, the same tomorrow, and will be the same in the future.”

Wilson started last year as head coach at Arkansas Baptist. He said that he had 175 kids, but not players. He said that he only had the kids for 31 days last year before they had to play their first game. “After spring practice, we only had about 45 that stuck it through. And we had about 20 kids transfer in in January.”

This year, the team won four games. Wilson said for eight out of the 10 games, they led or were tied at the end of the third.

Wilson explained the uniqueness of Arkansas Baptist in that every kid who registers for classes can play football. Since it is a junior college program, the students then have a chance to move up to a higher division school to play football.

The Arkadelphia Football Club will not meet next Tuesday, but will have its last meeting of the year on Dec. 2 with Rhett Lashlee as the speaker.