Stratford head coach Matt Lovorn is all smiles after his Elks won the UIL Class 2A Division II state title over Falls City, 39-27, on Thursday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. [Ben Jenkins/ Press Pass Sports]
ARLINGTON— Canyon High football coach Blake Bryant made a phone call to Stratford football head coach Eddie Metcalf before the 2009 season.
Who knew that phone call would add another chapter to the storied Stratford football history.
Bryant told Metcalf he had a former player of his who had just graduated from high school and needed a job.
“I told him he’s hired, come on,” Metcalf said.
That young coach was Matt Lovorn.
Thursday afternoon Lovorn and his Stratford Elks claimed the UIL Class 2A Division II state football championship storming back from an eight-point halftime deficit to beat Falls City, 39-27, in AT&T Stadium.
This was Lovorn’s 13th year coaching in Stratford, the seventh as the head coach. The state title for was the first since 2008 for the Elks when Metcalf was the head coach.
“Watching Matt win the state championship for me felt as good as any of the ones we won,” said Metcalf, who was in the AT&T Stadium stands Thursday and guided the Elks to state titles in 2005 and 2008. “I think what he has done is take the traditions that were there and built on it. Like I tried to do when Brad left.”
Brad Thiessen had guided the Elks to their first-ever state football championship in 2000.
So Thursday’s state title linked the Thiessen-Metcalf-Lovorn Elks coaching tree together forever and places Stratford in elite football status in the Texas Panhandle.
Thursday’s win ties Stratford with Amarillo High for second place on the all-time state football titles won list at four. Only Canadian has won more at five.
“My name doesn’t belong next to those two,” Lovorn said. “What they accomplished for this great community of Stratford is so impressive. I don’t see Brad near enough because obviously he doesn’t live there. But I can tell you this. Eddie lives right across the street from me. Me and the coaches are still involved with a weekly Bible study with that man and we learn so much for him. I’m so looking forward to seeing him is a little bit.”
Lovorn didn’t grow up wanting to be a coach, he was like every kid who admires their dad. Matt’s dad, Neil, was in law enforcement and “I think Matt wanted to be in the CIA,” said Neil, a proud dad standing on the AT&T field watching his son celebrate the win. “So, I had nothing to do with this.”
Stratford head coach Matt Lovorn celebrates with his family following the Elks state championship win over Falls City. [Ben Jenkins/ Press Pass Sports]
Well, maybe he does.
Lovorn’s coaching style is more calm cop than wild man flapping arms on the sidelines guy. He has guts on the biggest stage proven against Falls City by going for it on six fourth downs and being successful on five of them.
Lovorn also has the rare knack of making everybody feel important from the water boy to his top assistants.
“The thing with Matt that’s makes him such a good coach is he includes everybody,” said David Lantelme, a 14-year assistant at Stratford, 13 of those as defensive coordinator. “And I mean everybody. That’s not easy to do, but it’s just him. I’m so happy for him.”
Former Stratford coach Metcalf said Lovorn was the guy he groomed to succeed him to when he decided to step away from coaching in 2013.
“I just think he gets his players to play so hard,” Metcalf said. “I’m not sure we had the most talent in the Falls City game. But our kids just refused to quit and continued to play hard. You know what I saw? I saw kids wanting to play for their coach.”
Stratford seniors Cody Rinne and Anastacio Ibarra echoed the happiness for their coach in a press conference after the game.
“He deserves a state championship,” Ibarra said. “He definitely deserves it. It’s not just the relationship we have with our teammates among each. It’s the relationship we have with our coaches. I feel like I can go to (Coach Lovorn) and ask him for advice on anything. He deserves this.”
Rinne, the star Stratford quarterback and offensive MVP of the game, is a player of few words. But powerful words.
“Coach Lovorn definitely deserves it,” Rinne said. “He’s never given up on any of us. We dang sure weren’t going to give up on him.”
Lovorn’s seven-year coaching record at Stratford improved to an impressive 78-21 with Thursday’s state championship win and indeed put his name the hat of great Stratford coaches.
Not bad for a gunslinging Canyon High quarterback who was hired over a phone call.
“Whenever I got to Stratford I was by far the youngest guy on the staff,” Lorvorn said of 2009. “I was surrounded by so many years of experience. I made a promise to myself I would sit and listen for a few years and just learn a lot. That’s where so of my coaching came from is those dudes around me. I continued to stick with it (at Stratford) and continued to improve myself and reach the goals I had in mind. But then you’ve got a town and kids and coaches around that do what they do, it’s hard not buy in what we do in Stratford.”
What Lovorn did as a coach Thursday was bring a state football championship back home to Stratford for the first time since 2008.
What a Christmas gift for that town.