VAN BUREN (KFSM) – Things have been rough over the past decade or so for Van Buren football but the Pointers hope their next head coach can turn things around for good.
Greg Werner is set to become the next Pointers head coach pending approval of the school board on Tuesday (April 14).
“I’ve always wanted to be in this area so that’s a big deal to get the opportunity to do something drastically different in my career and that’s coach at a school of this size,” Werner said.
Werner will take over after spending the past three seasons at Poteau, where he led the Pirates to the 4A state championship game in 2013.
“We interviewed four all together and he wowed us,” Van Buren activities director Drew Cone said. He had the wow factor. His philosophies, past history as a head coach in those programs, it seemed like exactly what we needed. He has taken over struggling programs and built them back up. A perfect example is what he did at Broken Bow. They have a lot of tradition but they were down for six or seven years and then for 10 years, he never had a losing record and left as the winningest coach in Broken Bow history.”
During his three seasons at Poteau, Werner was 24-11 while averaging 32 points a game and was highlighted by the 2013 team that went 12-2 and reached the 4A title game for the first time in more than 50 years.
Werner and the Pirates faced one another in each of the past three non-conference seasons. Poteau won the first two meetings before got the win last season. The two teams are set to square off in week two this fall as well.
“I definitely saw too much of what they had last year,” Werner said of the Pointers. “It’s going to be horrible (in week two). It’s going to be really tough, going to be really emotional but I’ll just have to fight through it for 48 minutes and it’s just a one time thing.”
The Pointers are coming off a 4-6 season under Brooks Coatney, who left to take the passing game coordinator position at Fayetteville. Van Buren is 30-104 over the past 13 seasons and have reached the playoffs just three times. During that stretch, the Pointers have won two or fewer games nine times.
“It’s not new news that Van Buren has struggled for a long time,” Cone said. “I like his philosophy of adjusting to the talent that he has…. You look at his resume and see he’s been to seven different schools and we don’t need that again but we feel that he’s working his way back to his rooks and feel strongly that he’s going to finish his career at Van Buren.”
Southside defensive coordinator Steven Thessing, Waldron assistant Chad Mitchell and Victory Christian (Tulsa, Okla.) head coach Brent Marley were also finalist for the position.
