The recruitment to fill Farmington's athletic director vacancy created by the retirement of Brad Blew Jan. 31 featured an extensive, specific job description and duties.
Among the qualities Farmington seeks is exercising leadership by articulating a clear direction for all students and staff while projecting a positive image of the school district and school district personnel.
A principal duty of the athletic director is to foster relationships and connections between colleagues among the coaching staff emphasizing four core values: mutual respect, shared commitment, connectedness and cooperation.
The highly-publicized and controversial firing of Brad Bolding as North Little Rock head football coach by former North Little Rock superintendent Kelly Rodgers in 2015 provided a blatant example of what can happen when breakdowns occur or gaps are permitted.
A post on Facebook got Bolding into hot water and was listed among four issues in his undated termination letter marked "Via Hand Delivery" by Rodgers, who knocked on the door of Bolding's classroom on Jan. 30, 2015, and presented the letter which Bolding declined to sign at 11:55 a.m. according to notes written by Rodgers on the document.
In the termination letter Rodgers wrote, "On December 14, 2014, you were reprimanded for unprofessionally posting inappropriate information about the District on Facebook which resulted in extensive harm to the District and its board, staff and community."
In his Facebook post, Bolding compared the Charging Wildcats with programs at Fayetteville and Bentonville noting the two northwest Arkansas schools had 9-to-10 assistant coaches compared to six for North Little Rock. He stated the NWA schools had a football budget while North Little Rock didn't and that his program raised four times more than what the district allotted for football each year.
Bolding also revealed a disconnect with North Little Rock junior high teams doing their own thing and not required to run his program in direct contrast to the aforementioned NWA schools, both of which he stated ran the varsity offense and defense at the junior high level and whose junior high coaches worked varsity games on Friday nights.
"Only help we get from 9th grade coaches is Hudl video. Nothing on Friday night," Bolding wrote in his Facebook post. "I have 4 classes and two lunch duties. No one else in all of 7A teaches. With that said I'm not throwing anyone under the bus, but these are the major problems that can be fixed if they want to fix them."
Results on the field confirmed Boldings' observations. From 2005-2016, the 7A West Conference won every Class 7A football state championship. Bentonville and Fayetteville combined to win eight of those titles.
Bolding's firing occurred during the midst of a construction project that began after the 2013 season in which he guided the Charging Wildcats to a 10-3 record and appearance in the 7A semifinals where they suffered a one-point overtime (43-42) loss to Cabot.
Demolition began at North Little Rock's old stadium Dec. 10, 2013.
Two factors drove the need for the new stadium, according to Bobby Gosser, Central Arkansas President of Baldwin & Shell, which served as construction manager for the new North Little Rock High School Project. Gosser, a 1979 graduate of NLR Ole Main, noted the old stadium ran east to west causing problems during sundown at football and soccer games, and had to be moved to maximize property usage.
The next year, North Little Rock traveled 8 miles one-way to War Memorial Stadium for home games with Bolding going 10-2 in 2014, his last season with the Charging Wildcats.
North Little Rock's new stadium, built to run north and south, was officially completed July 6, 2015, five months after Bolding's termination.
Both Bolding and the school have since gone on to new and better things. North Little Rock's school board bought out Rodgers' contract sending him into retirement a year early in 2019.
Little Rock Parkview hired Bolding as its head football coach in December 2016. North Little Rock won a 7A championship in 2017, but once again had to find a new coach in 2020 bringing in J.R. Eldridge from Arkadelphia.
The ugly parts of the story are not the kind of scenario peace-loving, devoted Farmington Cardinal fans want anything to do with. No one wants to imagine what damage those kind of rifts could have done to the wonderful expansion of the new high school campus including Farmington Sports Complex and Cardinal Arena.
Strife isn't welcome in the community and good leadership starts with those in positions to act as advocates or go-betweens from coaches to administrators.
An athletic director should be available and willing to engage challenges.
MARK HUMPHREY IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER. THE OPINIONS ARE HIS OWN.