At first glance, it appeared that the current coaching carousel that has taken place in the Blytheville area started in May with David Hixson stepping down as Blytheville head basketball coach after over 20 years.
Over the course of the next two months, Blytheville, Gosnell and Armorel made five major coaching changes concluding last week with the hiring of Vince McCrosky as head football coach at Blytheville on the same day that Armorel hired Justin Ward to replace longtime head basketball coach, Charlie Brown.
To use a phrase from the NFL, "after further review," the momentum of the past two months actually began about four years ago.
If you recall, just before the 2008 basketball season began, Hixson stepped down to take a medical leave and former Blytheville junior high coach, Kirk Glintborg, filled in for a year.
It was the first major coaching move in the area since Brian Sims took over the head coaching duties at Gosnell in 2004. Hixson returned at the end of the year, but the move gave folks a glimpse of what the near future was going to be like.
A year later, near the end of the 2009-10 basketball season, Len Whitehead resigned as head basketball coach at Gosnell after more than a decade of leading the Pirates. However, after an inspirational run through the state playoffs, Whitehead decided he wanted to keep coaching. A few months later, Doug Quinn resigned after a long run as head football coach and athletic director at Blytheville. Quinn's departure opened the door for the two-year run of Maurice Moody.
In 2011, Glintborg left Blytheville after 13 years to assist Sims at Gosnell, who at one time was an assistant for Quinn at Blytheville. Then, this past spring, Glintborg took over the head coaching duties of the basketball team after Whitehead stepped down -- this time for good -- to be high school principal after Brian Carter left for Nettleton.
That's when this storm really picked up speed.
From there, Hixson stepped down and replaced himself with Jeff Flanigan. Bret Kirk resigned as head baseball coach and was replaced with Randy Smith from Senath, Mo.
Then, we had the back-to-back football resignations of Sims and Moody from Gosnell and Blytheville. Sims was replaced within a week and a half by another Moody -- Gary Moody from McCrory -- and Maurice was replaced with Vince McCrosky, who, ironically coached under Quinn and along side Hixson at Blytheville in the early 90's.
Anyone familiar with the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?" I guess we could call this the "Six Degrees of Doug Quinn."
The one change that doesn't seem to make any sense is Coach Brown stepping down at Armorel.
However, try this on for size. Brown was an assistant for Bill Tyer back at MCCC. Tyer was Hixson's assistant since 2005 and will be Flanigan's assistant.
I need an aspirin.
afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com