Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

12/22/2009 at 4:00pm

Ellis "Scooter" Register made one promise Tuesday to a group of 60 or so made up of former and current football players, the selection committee who hired him to be Little Rock Central's new football coach, and other supporters of the Central program.

"We WILL win a football game next fall," Register, wearing a black suit, white shirt and Central-colored gold and black tie, said to a crowd that greeted his comment with a mix of laughter and cheers.

For a school with as much winning tradition as Little Rock Central has amassed in 105 years, it still seems amazing that such a thought would ever be uttered. But the Tigers' next win on the football field will be their first since late in the 2007 season.

That was legendary coach Bernie Cox' 271st win in his storied career, and it proved to be the last. Cox announced midway through the 2009 season that it would be his final one after 35 years.

Central's search for Cox's replacement ended Monday when Register, after being offered the post Friday afternoon, accepted the job. The veteran coach, who has a history of rebuilding moribund programs, was introduced as the Tigers' new coach Tuesday afternoon at the Jess Matthews Library on the Central campus.

"I've watched Central closely these past two years and it didn't seem like they were far away from winning, but a little something was missing," Register said. "We just have to get that back."

Register said it was important "for a number of reasons" that Central win in football on a regular basis again. It sounded an awful lot like the talk that surrounds Notre Dame football these days on the college level, and how a winning Notre Dame program is good for college football. Central has been like that to Arkansas high school football. Its record of tradition speaks volumes.

Central has won 32 state football championships in its history. Three Tiger coaches - Cox and Earl Quigley, for whom the Tigers' home stadium is now named, and Wilson Matthews - each won at least five state championships in their tenures. Matthews' 1957 team, forced to practice and play amid the distractions of the famed desegregation of the school by the "Little Rock Nine," went undefeated and was named national champion. The 1946 Tigers also won a national championship.

Cox' 2003-2004 teams were the last two to win state championships and won 27 out of 28 games. His first team, the 1975 squad, led by Houston Nutt and Robert Farrell, went unbeaten. His 2006 team went 10-1.

Cox was not on hand for Tuesday's announcement.

Register said he would retain any assistant from Cox's staff who chose to remain. Unless a Central staffer departs, Register said his Rocket assistants will stay at Catholic.

Meanwhile, Little Rock Catholic now has an opening for a football coach. The scuttlebutt since Monday, when speculation was rampant that Register was moving over the Central, was that Mike Malham might be lured from Cabot to lead the Rockets. Malham's father coached at Catholic in the 1960s.

Register, who turns 59 on March 3, was born in Memphis and played high school football in Clarendon. He played for Hall of Fame coach Ralph "Sporty" Carpenter at Henderson State and spent 22 of his coaching years in the Little Rock School District, which LRSD athletic director Johnny Johnson said was a plus in his hiring. Register credits such legends as C.W. Keopple, Little Rock Hall's great coach through the 1960s and 70s, for influencing his career and his coaching methods.

Some of the high school football players in the crowd Tuesday included some of his Rocket players from Catholic. Register said the challenge of rebuilding Central's program ultimately swayed him away from the private school, where he has coached since 2003.

Register said he would begin immediately, when school resumes Jan. 4, combing the Central hallways to find potential players to build the squad numbers back up. Central had 12 or fewer juniors on the most recent team and the total roster number fell well below typical Class 7A levels.

Next, he said, would be pumping up the enthusiasm around campus for the program. Register is known for combining old-school ideas with newer offensive schemes and establishing discipline throughout.

"They've got to come to practice every day, work hard and give great effort," he said. "If you do that, and if we get the enthusiasm back up, the winning will come."

Register's resume - with stops at El Dorado, Little Rock McClellan and Little Rock Catholic, where he took losing programs and made them playoff teams and title contenders - says to expect even more that the one win he guaranteed for 2010.