Hutson: ‘We wanna be 4A state champs’

Winning, whether in the football stadium or in the corporate arena, is most assuredly everyone‚s goal. Maximum effort, working as one, keeping your eye on the prize — those principles are interchangeable for sports as for business.

And when things aren‚t going well in the pursuit of those commonly held success tenets, a new leader, a new vision, new blood can oftentimes rejuvenate the collective effort.

So having first-year head coach Mark Hutson speak at the monthly Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce luncheon was a natural, especially just days before the Black Diamonds kick off the 2022 football season under new leadership with a new vision and new blood.

And Hutson gave business leaders a sneak peak into the expectations of his team, and a road map for those competing on the corporate landscape.

After Sallisaw slogged through a 1-9 season last year, which was why the decision to change coaches was made, Hutson told his audience, “A lot of people say, ’What kinda pressure you under?‚ “When we went over our goals as a team, obviously we wanna win, we wanna go to the playoffs, and if we don‚t profess it, it won‚t happen.”

So he professed it: “We wanna be 4A state champs.”

Then he revealed the formula he shared with his team. “I tell ‚em, you spell fun, W-I-N.”

And he‚s hoping for a lot of fun this season.

But turning the Black Diamond program around will not be without its challenges.

“We have a lot of room for improvement. We feel like we‚ve made that,” Hutson said. “We wanna do well. It‚s challenging, but that‚s the way it is. As a coaching staff, we ask of our players, ’Give the most effort you can give, play as hard as you can play and be physical.‚” And Hutson is feeling pretty good at this point in the season. “It‚s great to still be undefeated.”

The Black Diamonds head into the new season not only with a new coach, but with a new mindset. Hutson told the chamber members that the motto for the team is “One Mind, One Heartbeat,” along with the defining slogan, “Living up to the Black Diamonds‚ standard of performance.”

But that standard may have gotten lost in recent times. “I had to define that for some of the players. They wanted to know, ’Well, what is that?‚ It really means, be the best you can be at whatever you‚re doin‚. For them, it‚s on the football field. For them and us, it‚s in the classroom. For them and us, it‚s in the community. It just encompasses everything, and the guys really like that slogan. That‚s the standard we‚re tryin‚ to live up to,” Hutson said.

That standard includes memories of the glory years when Sallisaw won backto- back state championships in 1980 and ‚81, long before his current players were born, and even predating some of his players‚ parents.

“How are the youngsters responding? What is the culture? How are you changin‚ that?” Hutson said he‚s been asked. “Well, the culture‚s always been here. The tradition‚s always been here. The love for football. I can remember the ‚80-‚81 championship teams. I can remember coaches. So that‚s been there. I‚m just tryin‚ to build on that.”

While much of it is intangible, there are tangible examples.

“We‚re makin‚ changes. You may or may not have seen our locker room. Outstanding. Our locker room has become a showpiece, it really has,” Hutson said, sharing his excitement with those assembled. “When you talk about changin‚ the culture, we don‚t have a lot of seniors — we have about 11 seniors. But to watch ‚em clean the locker room, to see ‚em take pride in that locker room, it‚s really rewarding.”

And for a moment, Hutson‚s enthusiasm harkened back to his playing days at Fort Smith Northside and the University of Oklahoma as he recounted his football journey, which he said began 50 years ago when he was a 6-year-old first grader.

But when his playing career was cut short by injury after being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, coaching provided him an opportunity to further his love of the game. His coaching career has included college stops at OU, Arkansas, Tulsa, LSU, Boise State, Tulane, Tennessee State, Eastern Illinois and Murray State, and stints on the professional level with the Oakland Raiders and the Cleveland Browns.

But in his introduction of Hutson at the luncheon, Chamber president Treye Girdner claimed the highlight of Hutson‚s career was when he was named coach at Sallisaw.

“Why I got into coaching was to make a difference in a young man‚s life. I‚ve been that way everywhere I‚ve been,” he said, explaining his approach to coaching. “Another thing, to see ‚em in the locker room after putting a plan together, just to see their faces after a win, the excitement there.

“And now, over the years, to see some life-changing events for ‚em on Facebook, or [via telephone] calls, with the marriage, the firstborn, and to just get that back from ‚em. It‚s so touching, it‚s so rewarding,” Hutson said.

“That‚s my ’why,‚ that‚s why I‚m in this. It‚s not to teach ‚em how to pass protect, it‚s not to teach ‚em how to run a zone play or coverage. It‚s to teach ‚em to be an extension of their parents or their guardians, and to go out in life. Whether it‚s high school, college or pros, the players have to understand, there‚s the players and there‚s the person. The ’person‚ we‚ll go to lunch with, we‚ll go to dinner with, we‚ll go to Senior Night with and we‚ll meet all the parents there. Then there‚s the ’player‚ that we‚re tryin‚ to make better on the field. You have to differentiate between the two.”

Hutson‚s fervor has also translated into an influx of players and community support.

“We have a little over 70 young men out for football, and the numbers are up probably 15 or 20 youngsters. It‚s been great. The thing that‚s been overwhelming for me is the community. It‚s unbelievable — the parents, the community, the people.”

At a recent fundraising event for the Sallisaw football program, Hutson reported that $60,000 was contributed.

“When I say thank you to everyone that was involved, who contributed, it‚s overwhelming. A great response, so proud to be here.”

Although Hutson was the highlight of the luncheon as the keynote speaker, there was some chamber business to conduct.

Rhonda Nicholson, past president for the chamber, announced that the two main chamber events for the year — the chamber banquet that is usually held in February, and the Evviva fundraising event in October or November — are being combined into a one-night extravaganza.

“We have gleaned some ideas from Poteau and other area chambers of commerce, and decided to combine both of those events into one annual event, and we have changed the name to Members Night Out,” Nicholson said.

The new night will include fundraisers and all the usual banquet awards, she said. Members were asked at the luncheon to express their preferences for a Thursday or Saturday date in February.

Girdner also reported on the first Black Diamond Club Youth Football Jamboree, which was held last weekend at the high school. “It was, to say the least, awesome.” He said as many as 2,000 people attended, but Mayor Ernie Martens said it was closer to 3,000.

Girdner explained that the Black Diamond Club is not a booster club, and that proceeds from fundraisers benefit a wide range of extracurricular activities.

“We support all children, ninth through 12th grade, and all entities at Sallisaw High School, and we also support booster clubs,” he said, which benefits speech, debate, FFA, soccer, football, basketball, track, baseball and others.

Then Girdner donned his pro-business chamber president hat, pointing out that those who attended the football jamboree also ate at local restaurants, “so that is awesome, bringing all that to the town and what we‚re trying to support here and to promote Sallisaw, Sallisaw Public Schools and Sallisaw football and the city of Sallisaw.”