FARMINGTON -- The legacy of Randy Osnes, blending personal initiative and hard work with laughter, took a flying leap with an endorsement received as a young softball coach bolstering his career.
When Osnes got one of his mentors, Ronnie Davis, who coached Osnes in high school, to join him in a discreet afterhours operation spreading chicken litter across the softball field that spoke to the young coach in a way no pep talk or award could touch.
"I wanted the grass to grow and the grass wasn't growing very good. We've had great grass ever since," Osnes said during a recent interview recounting memories of his 25 years as head softball coach at Farmington.
Davis' willingness to participate in the unauthorized practical application provided something way beyond a solution to improving the ballpark -- as Osnes realized one of his mentors believed in his vision for the program, which a quarter of a century later reached almost 600 wins highlighted by three State Championships and five State Runner-up finishes.
Lingering Evidence
The daring feat accomplished under the cover of darkness left evidence confronting the nostrils and eyes of the Lady Cardinals when they came to practice the next day.
"It smelt real bad for a day or two, but we've had green grass ever since," Osnes said.
He also had to answer questions from the players, who wondered where in the world of Farmington athletics all the feathers came from.
"Coach, what's going on with the field, there's feathers on it?"
Coaching Legends
Osnes, who is set to retire from coaching when his contract expires June 30, recalled that incident while describing a handful of coaches he's held in high regard during a ceremony naming the playing field after him on April 23.
Besides Davis, among those coaches are figures whose accomplishments are legendary in Arkansas: Allen Holland, who coached Osnes in high school; Tommy Tice; Jay Holland; and Danny Abshier, who was four classes ahead of Osnes at Farmington.
Abshier may have unwittingly instilled the persuasive tactical approach within Osnes as an upperclassman.
"Us older guys could get those younger guys to do anything we wanted them to do," Abshier said, laughing while working a Prairie Grove football camp where he has been head coach since 1993. "They were eager to do whatever we asked them to do. Heaven help you if we sent them after you because they would come after you pretty hard."
First-Name Basis
Osnes said he has been very fortunate to be surrounded by quality coaches through his entire career, noting he coached with Jay Holland, while Jay and he were coached by Jay's father, Allen Holland. Osnes' assistant coach, Steve Morgan, worked with Allen Holland on the Cardinal football staff in the 1980s as did Davis, who served as Allen Holland's only assistant in the Cardinal football state championship teams from 1972-1973.
Osnes noted Jay Holland went on to play college ball, came back and coached, saying, "Not only was he a great coach here, but he went on to Lamar and he did great things there."
Osnes praised Jay Holland for taking a team that had never been to the state playoffs, getting there six or seven years in a row, and coming within one game of winning a state championship.
"It's amazing how many coaches came from all that. Danny Abshier played for Allen," Osnes said, then he caught himself.
"I keep saying Allen," he said, then while addressing infielder Drew Clifford, admitted, "I feel weird, just like when you girls call my first name, Drew, when you say, 'Hey, Randy,' that happened one time, didn't it? So I kind of feel the same way about Coach Holland."
The crowd bubbled over with laughter.
Allen Holland Disciples
Osnes described Allen Holland's ongoing influence decades after he retired from coaching in 1992.
"The tree is phenomenal as far as how many different coaches [learned the trade from him]," Osnes said. "Danny Abshier, from Prairie Grove, is a great football coach. He played over here, great linebacker, if you look him up his senior year, had a heckuva an afro."
Abshier, too, paid Osnes a very high tribute during his career by trying to hire him away from his hometown of Farmington and replant him with the Cardinals' No. 1 rival six miles down the road at Prairie Grove, a transition Abshier himself had made after beginning his coaching career on Tice's staff at Harrison in the late 1980s.
"Allen Holland won nine conference championships and two state championships. It would be nice to do as well as Allen Holland," Abshier said.
While Abshier (209-116-2) has equalled the number of conference championships won by Allen Holland as a head football coach, his best postseason finish thus far at Prairie Grove is a Class 4A state runner-up showing in 2015. Abshier has guided the Tigers to multiple appearances in the state semifinals and one of his former players, Dylan Soehner (Class of 2016), recently signed a free agent contract with the New Orleans Saints as a tight end after four seasons at Iowa State.
Osnes (596-158), meanwhile, retires as the most successful coach in Farmington history in terms of the number of state championships won. He guided the Lady Cardinal softball team to a trio of state crowns, winning it all in 2000, 2005 and 2011, with five state runner-up placings in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2018 and 2019.
Different Eras
Osnes recalled a vastly different mode of operations for high school athletic coaches when he was hired on at Farmington in 1996.
"That first year, back in the day, we did things a whole lot differently than we do things now. There's coaches I don't even really know right now here at Farmington. Back then, there was a handful of us, and we all coached together," Osnes said.
Osnes coached seventh grade football and junior high football plus high school football and served as an assistant basketball coach to Davis, then coached softball in the spring.
"When there was a track meet, everything stopped, and we all coached track, and then we'd go back and we'd coach our spring sports. It was a whole lot different than these days," Osnes said.
According to Abshier, who tried on at least two occasions to hire Osnes away from Farmington, Osnes' contract stipulated he was head softball coach and anything else that was needed.
"I don't know what all he coached, but I think he coached about everything they had," Abshier said.
"He was tremendous in football, the kind of competitor you want. He would always give good competition and always in a good nature. What a classy person he is. The commitment he put in at Farmington was unreal."
