Tim Horton, former Wampus Cat star and University of Arkansas assistant coach, and Mike Malham Jr., the legendary coach at Cabot High School, each forge a special relationship with Conway's Kenny Smith, who announced his resignation Monday as Wampus Cat football coach.
Horton, one of the leading rushers in CHS history, played for the Wampus Cats when Smith was the offensive line coach. As he went into coaching, he saw another aspect of Smith as a college recruiter. Malham, whose 9-1 Cabot team is preparing for a playoff game against Springdale Har-Ber on Friday, is one of Smith's closest friends in coaching and one of his biggest rivals on the field.
"Your legacy in coaching eventually comes down to the difference you make in kids' lives," said Horton, a son of former University of Central Arkansas coach Harold Horton and running backs coach and recruiting coordinator for the Razorbacks. "Kenny Smith made a difference in a lot of kids' lives. I don't want to get into the whys and wherefores of why Kenny resigned or if he should or shouldn't be the coach at Conway. I prefer to look at the positive things in how much Kenny cared for those kids, cared for Conway High and helped make Conway a better town. I've always had so much respect for him, both on and off the field. He was offensive line coach when I played for Conway and he was a great offensive line coach."
"It kind of scares me a little bit because we were 1-9 last year and it makes me wonder if I have a couple of down seasons, if I would be let go," said Malham, who has coached 28 seasons at Cabot. "This was a shock to me because he was playing a lot of young kids this year. I was 1-8-1 and 4-6 two straight years. We all know in high school football, these cycles are gonna come. If you stay in it long enough, there are gonna be down years ... If he had a senior team this year, you might look at things differently. But he was awfully young and these kind of cycles come.
"Look at Bernie Cox at Little Rock Central, Not that long ago, he won back-to-back state championships. He was 0-10 this year. What did he do differently? Probably nothing."
Smith and Malham had built up quite a rivalry through the years and Conway-Cabot games were almost always hotly contested.
"I think he was actually ahead of me (in head-to-head competition). I regret that I won't have a chance now to get even with him," Malham said with a chuckle.
But neither he nor Horton questioned how much Smith put into his program.
"I know how much Kenny loved Wampus Cat football, lived and breathed it," Malham said. "It's a shame it comes down to wins and losses. Kenny ran a great program, a clean program. All the players I ever talked to from Conway loved Kenny. He was a good example and role model. Nobody cared for his players or loved Conway more than Kenny Smith, I assure you that. And nobody won more games at Conway than he did.
"I never got the impression he was ready to quit coaching. If he was forced out, something is wrong with high school athletics when it comes to that (looking at things primarily from the won-loss record). Kenny ran a wing-T. We run a dead-T, which is a first-cousin. We throw the ball less than he did. It makes me less secure about my job."
"I remember when I was an assistant at Air Force, and I was recruiting James King at Conway High, who is now very successful as an officer in the military," Horton said. "Kenny went with me on a home visit and the way he related to that family was something I'll always remember. I talked to Peyton Hills (Denver Broncos) yesterday, and I can tell you Peyton Hillis thinks Kenny Smith hung the moon."
Horton, who has recruited by Arkansas as an assistant with Appalachian State, Air Force, Kansas State and the University of Arkansas, said he always respected Smith's honesty in recruiting.
"Kenny would always tell it to you like was," Horton said. "In recruiting, some high school coaches make a player out to be better than he is and some will low-ball you and give you stuff that he's not very good when he really is. Kenny would give you his honest assessment. And if he thought a kid could play in college, he really went to bat for him. And when Kenny went to bat for a player, you learned to listen.
"I know, with a different staff, Kenny really went to bat a few years ago for a player (Steve Stone) who is now starting at Vanderbilt, Maybe we should have listened to him more at the time."
Horton's praise did not stop with Kenny Smith.
"His wife (Diane) is a real strength," he said. "I think Diane is the best English teacher in Conway High history. She's an icon in that building as well."
