DECATUR: Decatur football gets new head coach

DECATUR -- With area schools in Northwest Arkansas opening their doors for the start of the 2021-22 school year comes the beginning of the high school football season. Many area teams are hitting the practice fields in anticipation of a new and exciting season of football which, for many, starts near the end of August or first part of September. One area team is gearing up with a new coach, a new conference and a new look for the team's stadium.

The Decatur Bulldogs start their fourth season in the eight-man football league which, as of June 9, is a sanctioned sport by the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA).

Early in May of 2018, both the Bulldogs and the Hermitage Hermits petitioned the AAA to restart the eight-man football league, which organically started in 1956 and ran for 10 years before the organization shifted all the teams back to 11 man. Both teams suffered from the same affliction, not enough players to fill out a 11-man football roster.

With six teams in place, the AAA formed a unsanctioned league. Each year more and more teams jumped on the eight-man band wagon until, in 2020, 17 team fill out the league and the AAA finally agreed to sanction the league.

The eight-man league is now split into two conferences, the eight-man east and the eight-man west. Decatur is now in the eastern conference along with Hermitage, Woodlawn and Augusta, some of the original six teams from the first year. What does the new conference hold for Decatur and the other teams? A football playoff at the end of the season between the conference leaders.

Bulldog fans will look forward to a new look at Bulldog Stadium this season. Last May, the Decatur School Board voted to purchase a set of aluminum bleachers from the Farmington School District. In early June, the old blue wood and steel bleachers, which had been in place since 1991, were torn down and replaced with the new stands. These stands will allow for easy access and more comfort for the fans.

This season the Bulldogs will have a new head coach, replacing Grant Hutson who went to Berryville as an assistant coach for his father Bryan Hutson, who once coached for Decatur in 1998-99. But this story does not end here.

Jake Denzer takes over the Decatur Bulldogs in his first head coaching job of his career. He comes to Decatur from the Elkins Elks 4A Region 1 team, which was coached by the elder Hutson. When Grant Hutson came to the Decatur program in 2020, he too was an assistant coach for his father at Elkins. History does repeat itself.

"My previous eight years I have been an assistant coach at Elkins and I have done everything but be a (varsity) head coach," Denzer said. "I have been head seventh grade coach, junior high coach, offensive coordinator for high school, defensive coordinator, off-season conditioning coordinator for all grade levels and also the interim head coach multiple times. There was one game that I was the head coach for a high school game. It was our first 4A football game and we won."

When Denzer decided to look for another position, possibly as a head coach, he looked very carefully at the schools that had openings in their football program.

"I picked Decatur because it was a fine opportunity for growth and improvement with the combination of the building of new bleachers and all the updates the school is making, especially with the growth that is happening in Northwest Arkansas," said Denzer. " I recognized that Decatur is an incredible place to be and I wanted to make sure I had a hand in helping it grow in a way that it could be successful."

Denzer has played and coached in traditional 11-man football for many years and sees very little differences between the two.

"Transitioning from 11 man to eight-man there are going to be some rule changes and other differences but still football is football," Denzer stated. "You are still trying to get the ball across the goal line. You still have to run faster and tackle and a lot of other stuff in order to win football games. A lot of the same principles are going to apply. The strategies are going to be slightly different because of less kids."

Denzer took over the Decatur program in late June. His first contact with a few of his players came during basketball practice when Coach Dayton Shaw was working with his 2021-22 players in the off-season in order to keep them in shape.

"I've seen the kids a little bit from the basketball players. They show up for practices and Coach Shaw has taken them to some of the basketball camps," said Denzer. "This has allowed be to see some of the bodies and their athletic abilities. They are just typical high school kids and I know that with the right direction and the right coaching they can be very successful."

Once the basketball off-season practices were over Denzer began to hold volunteer practices throughout much of July and early August. He wanted to ease into his style of practices to make the transition easier for both his junior high and high school players.

"I will get into mandatory practice once school starts Aug. 18. In the future I hope that we can get into mandatory practice a little earlier but we are just not there yet," Denzer explains. " We got to take some buy-in from the community and the players. Once they get here and have a chance to meet me and work with me and improve with me the buy-in will happen naturally. This will be a place where kids will want to be and we won't have to be convincing any more. Kids will come out in big numbers."

Denzer will have a full coaching staff this season, which included four-year Bulldog offensive coordinator Danial Meyers, two-year Bulldog defensive coordinator J.C. Dorsey, Shaw and Donald Thomas.

During the Aug. 9 and 11 practices, Denzer began to pick up more than the eight junior and senior high players he coached during July. Fifteen players, mainly high school, took part in practice at Bulldog Stadium. But as in years past, the first day of classes will bring in his remaining players which will set the team for the 2021 season.

Jake Denzer looks forward to the season and challenges ahead of him. One of those challenges is trying to revive the Bulldog Booster Club which shut down in 2018 for lack of interest and leadership. Another challenge is getting the fans and the community into the football program. It takes a lot of support to keep a football program like Decatur going. Having the community behind the team plus the right look gives the players the right motivation to play hard towards a positive outcome.

"We are only as strong as our weakest link and we will need money for things the team might need from matching gear to meals for the home and away games," Denzer continues. "In order to buy into the program we want to look the part and that starts with matching gear. If we have blue shirts, gold shorts and individual numbers on each uniform it is easy to keep up and it is easier to hold the kids accountable"

Holding the kids accountable teaches them responsibility which contributes to a good work ethic, on and off the grid iron.

"If you teach them to do the work and put that shirt on they are going to work. We are all wearing the same shirt because we are all part of the same team, one heartbeat."