Matt DeWalt
sports@weatherforddemocrat.com
Tue, May 13 2008
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First-year Weatherford Kangaroos head coach is no stranger to the game of football.
In his 28 years as a coach, he has coached in multiple states at multiple levels and now, he has made his way to Weatherford to lead the Roos’ football program.
“It’s a special place and I know when I started talking to Coach [Philip] O’Neal about it, initially, he said, ‘Kenny, our biggest asset here is our kids’ and he was right,” Wheaton said about his attraction to the position. “It sounds corny, but that’s the truth. We have great kids here. They work, they care about what we’re doing, they’re easy to love. Everywhere we’ve been, our kids have worked hard because we demand it, but these kids, I don’t know, there’s something different about them. They look forward to practice just like we do. That’s what you want as a coach.”
Wheaton has logged countless hours on the practice field, in the classroom and watching film, but he said he still enjoys stepping on the field just as much now as he did when his career began.
“I’ve been coaching a long time, this will be 28 years,” Wheaton said. “I love being around the kids. I tell my wife all the time, I’ll continue to do it until it’s not fun for me to go out on the practice field. I love it. I love two-a-days, I love the heat and it sounds crazy, but I can’t wait to get out there and get better.
“As coaches, you take great pride in the position that you coach and that’s what I tell the coaches, I’m a position coach out there at practice. I’m the head coach, but I’ve got those quarterbacks and fullbacks and I want them to get better every day and I coach them as hard as I can. I just limp a little more than I used to, that’s what I tell everybody. I still like to chase them around.”
Wheaton has taken over as the leader of the Roos and has combined some of his coaches with some of the coaches who held over from the previous regime to create his staff.
“We have a great staff,” he said. “They’re a good bunch of guys and they love the kids and push them hard and have high expectations. That’s what we talk about in the coaches meetings, we’ve got to set the bar high and make sure they understand, there are some things that aren’t acceptable.
I’ll tell you what, this is the best two-a-day camp I have ever been to, college or high school because the kids’ attitude No. 1 and their work ethic No. 2.
“Again, back to the assistant coaches, they hold the guys to that standard. It starts with us as coaches, attitude and work ethic and those are the two things we can control attitude and work ethic, coming out there and learning and wanting to get better every day.
Even on that third day of two-a-days when you hit that supposed wall, the kids didn’t hit the wall we had a great day. It was unbelievable. Coach [Reid] Waller has been around all those state championship teams at Plano and he’ll tell you the same thing, the kids are just unbelievable here.”
Wheaton said Waller, the 2007 defensive coordinator, is a great asset to the program. He said Waller and the other coaches on the Weatherford staff have quickly become family and their interaction and respect for one another sets a great example for the players.
“He’s a guy that has been an athletic director and a head coach and he coached a little bit in college,” Wheaton said. “You just love to have that kind of guy. He’s like having two of me and I need about four of me right now.
Then you’ve got the young guys who bring enthusiasm to the table. They love it. They love the kids and they’re up here early and they stay late and it’s not work, it’s fun. Even though you get worn out and tired, we’re in the grind, so-to-speak, and they don’t get to see their families much, they all bring something to the table.
“We talk to the kids, too, about the staff unity, and how important it is that we love each other and we get along with each other. The kids see that.”
Wheaton has been a coach for long enough to know it’s not all about X’s and O’s when it comes to the game of football. One of his coaching philosophies, and probably the most important, is that he and the rest of the coaches care about each athlete as a person, not just as a football player. He demonstrates that by coordinating events that allow the players to get to know each other and the coaches.
“We do a lot of stuff like a talent show Thursday night, which is just the staff and the kids,” Wheaton said. “Our underclassmen have to get up on stage and do a talent and the seniors judge it and it’s all about, ‘Hey, we’re going to laugh and poke fun at each other and have a good time,’ the seniors judge them and it’s a tradition that we’ve done. It will be new here, but that’s how you get a bunch together.
We talk to them about playing for the guy next to you and not playing for yourself, and getting to know each other.
“We do a circle of truth thing on Thursday nights, too where each player and each coach stand up and talk about what it means to be a Roo.
“All those intangibles, things we can control, we can’t control our athleticism and size and speed, we can enhance those things, but we can’t control them and we certainly can’t control our opponents, but we can control the other things,” he said.
Now, with the season opener against Abilene Cooper just a day away, Wheaton is feeling good about his team and his program because he knows his players are all on board.
“It is a good feeling and we have been able to do that everywhere we go, but I think they just see that we have a passion for the game and we care about them as people, not just football players,” Wheaton said about players buying into the system. “We have a lot of fun. We poke fun at each other, kids and coaches, but they know when we get out there, it’s time to work and we get after it.
“You have to have that family atmosphere. I keep going back to the intangibles, playing together, caring about each other, playing for the guy next to you, those are all things we work very hard on building. Of course, it’s all after practice stuff and it wears me out as a coach, but it’s very important that we do that and have all that fun stuff. That’s the thing that the kids remember 20, 30 years from now is all that kind of stuff.
“I couldn’t be happier with how they have bought into what we do. Again, I think they just see that, ‘Hey, we enjoy what we’re doing and we believe in what we’re doing.’ I think that’s a big part of it.”
Weatherford hosts the Abilene Cooper Cougars at Kangaroo Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Friday
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