Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

7/12/2010 at 12:00am

Ellis “Scooter” Register was on hand the night Little Rock Central last won a football game. He was on the opposite sideline, coaching Little Rock Catholic. He saw his Rockets roar out to a 27-7 lead, only to see the Tigers muster up one of their biggest comebacks in decades and pull out a 28-27 win.

Nobody thought much about Central’s win that night being significant. It was the Tigers sixth of the year, on the second-to-last playing date of the 2007 season, and while a six -win season was below expectations for a Bernie Cox-coached program, which was a year removed from a 10-1 year and not far away from back-to-back state championships, it didn’t make any observers of Arkansas high school football take pause. Prognosticators thought the Tigers would finish no lower than No. 2 in their conference the next season.

It marked Bernie Cox’s 271st win in a state sports Hall of Fame coaching career. But it would be his and Central’s last win. Two seasons went by without the state’s most tradition-rich football program sniffing a victory.

Then Cox retired, though most around the Tigers’ program say he was told by school administrators before it was over that the season would be his last. His retirement from coaching didn’t last long, as he signed on as defensive coordinator at Arkansas Baptist.

Meanwhile, the Central and the Little Rock School District looked for the right coach to restore the Tigers’ glory.

They didn’t have to look far. Ellis “Scooter” Register has been in this role before.

Register, leaning in his disciplinarian ways, built Little Rock McClellan into a state finalist in 1994. He left the Crimson Lion program in good shape to bring life to an El Dorado program that hadn’t won a championship since 1959. Though he left the Wildcats for Little Rock Catholic in 2003 after reaching the 2001 state title game, he again had the table set at El Dorado, which has been winning regularly ever since and finally broke through with a state championship under Scott Reed last fall.

Catholic, a two-time state champion in the 1980s under Roy Davis when Pulaski County didn’t have the large number of private schools it has now, wasn’t seeing the same numbers coming out for senior high football and in general needed recharging. Register did just that with motivation, hard-nosed play and an innovative offense. His 2005 team reached the state semifinals, was 11-2 overall, and the Rockets again became regular contenders in what is now the 7A-Central conference. His teams were 42-36 in seven years.

The Tigers, meanwhile, were the dominant team in 7A-Central and atop the state’s polls in 2003-2004 and No. 1 going into the state playoffs in 2006, before the bottom fell out for Cox and his staff.

Central seldom lacked for defense even during the 21-game losing streak, but Cox’s penchant for conservative offense seemed to become no offensive plan, and the kicking game became abysmal. Roster numbers fell dramatically in recent seasons, and players quit by the handful during the season. Many around the program felt that after 35 seasons at the helm, Cox as well has his longtime assistant Norman Callaway became burned out and their “old school” ways didn’t work with today’s high school athletes.

In his only interview about giving up the job, Cox said he realized “it was time” to step down.

Time to call in “Scooter.”

“Coach Register is going to be tough wherever he’s at,” Bryant coach Paul Calley said. “Being at Central, the history of the program, and being a football powerhouse, I think he’s going to be able to get it back where it once was.”

Register believes the pieces are in place to win at Central, and admits surprise that the Tigers didn’t break through in the past two years the way they did against his Rockets in 2007. Central’s best chance to win came last season, leading Van Buren at the half 24-14 and displaying a wide-open offense in the process. Van Buren came back with 14 second-half points to win 28-24.

“The last two years when we played them, I was worried because they hadn’t won a game and you felt like the odds were against you, that they would rise up and win it,” Register said. “They did play good defense during that stretch. We didn’t take them lightly.”

Register welcomed around 90 players to the 10 days for spring practice in May. And since then the Tigers have been mandated to spend two early morning hours in the weight room four days a week, along with fielding teams for 7-on-7 tournaments and Central Arkansas’ team camp in June. Register has a good idea of what he’s got and how they might match up with some opponents. Central went 2-2 in one 7-on-7 event at Pulaski Robinson.

“We’ve got players that will help us,” he said. “There are some players who played last year who are back, and Central won two or three junior varsity games, so some of these young guys got a taste of what it takes to win. We’ve got some skill people who aren’t bad. I think we’ll have a chance to compete.”

‘Scooter’

Register did not earn his nickname because he was a speedster on his Clarendon High team. Rather, he had it when he was barely 3 days old.

His father, Register says, was a New York Yankees fan from way back and was especially fond of former Yankees shortstop and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, known as “Scooter.”

Register had the name before his eyes were barely open.

He didn’t play collegiately while attending Henderson State in the early 1970s, but worked his way through the assistant coaching ranks mostly in the Little Rock School District, displaying a hard-nosed knack for getting things done for no-nonsense coaches and helping build winners.

Little Rock McClellan was going nowhere when he arrived in the early 1990s. Quickly, the Crimson Lions were at the top of the polls, upsetting Pine Bluff in the regular season, and were a play or two away from beating the Zebras in the state finals in 1994.

Some may see Register moves as those of a vagabond who perhaps quickly tires of the challenge or will jump at a bigger opportunity financially.

But, he says, “Money has never been a factor.” And, leaving McClellan just as it was becoming a power for woebegone El Dorado was a professional boost that also allowed his wife to enter school administration as a building principal. Timing, and returning home, had most to do with taking the job at Catholic, with two daughters then in college (one at UCA, one at UA-Fayetteville) and Register and his wife wanting to be closer to them.

Register says, “When I went to El Dorado, I just needed a change. Really, with that job, I called down there about it for a couple of my assistants who were maybe needing to get a head coaching job, before we started talking to them. El Dorado was a great opportunity to grow professional. It was a football town, but they hadn’t been successful for a few years before I got there. They made some changes, put some money in the program, built the indoor facility, and wanted to upgrade all that.”

Catholic High for Boys proved to be “a great place to teach and coach,” he says.

But Central, as many might say, is Central — two national titles, 32 state championships, 44 conference crowns and a legacy of Hall of Fame coaches. Most longtime prep observers insist that when Central is winning, the overall view of high school football in Arkansas is up. Central’s success raises all boats.

Of late, winning high school football in Arkansas has mostly had a northwest flavor. The Little Rock School District overall has suffered the ignominy of several down programs. Only Little Rock Parkview and Little Rock Mills managed winning seasons among the LRSD teams last fall. Central, McClellan, Little Rock Hall and Little Rock Fair combined for three wins in 2009.

‘A Good Fit’

“The Central job was kind of a thing that evolved over a period of two or three months, after Bernie stepped down,” Register said. “I talked to [LRSD athletic director] Johnny Johnson a little bit about it. It just seemed like it would be a good fit.”

The challenge, as Register sees it, is restoring the respect that others, including those within Central High, have for the program, and to win again.

“I’ve always been about rolling up my sleeves and going to work, doing the best with what you’ve got,” he said. “The kids have responded; the coaches have responded. Everybody has done what I’ve asked them to do. I look for good things to happen.”

Just as Register was part of a coaching tree that traces back to the legendary C.W. Keopple at Hall when the Warriors were a dominant program in the state, Register has established a legacy though his assistants. His assistant, Jeff Williams, took over at El Dorado and won before moving to Fort Smith Southside, where he’s guided the Rebels to back-to-back state finals.

“Jeff and four of his staff members at Southside were on my staff at El Dorado,” he said. “I knew he’d be a great head coach … We’re all close; we’re good friends. They have a bright future.”

Southside was a Catholic High opponent, and the Rockets upset the Rebels last year. Central and Southside meet Sept. 10 in Fort Smith this year.

John Fogleman, another Register assistant at El Dorado, has turned Malvern around as head coach.

At Catholic High, the school administration wasted little time after sorting through 60-plus applications to promote Register’s assistant, David Estes, to the head coaching position.

“David Estes is a bright young mind who will be very successful coaching,” his mentor says. “The reason being is he works at it. He’s going to work to get it right. He did that for me. His preparation is as good as anybody I’ve seen. He’s exactly what they need at Catholic. They won’t miss a beat.”

Most believe Register is exactly what Central needs, and then the Tigers will be back to beating folks like the old days.

“I think with our nonconference schedule, opening with Texarkana, then Southside and then playing Pine Bluff here, those will be three schools that we will learn from, learn how to compete, and see some things that they haven’t seen,” he said. “All I want is that they play hard and compete.”

Tagged: Ellis Register, Scooter Register, Bernie Cox, Little Rock McClellan, El Dorado High, Class 7a, Norman Callaway, Paul Calley, Clarendon High School, Johnny Johnson, John Fogleman, David Estes, Little Rock Central High, Little Rock Catholic High School, Bryant High School