F.A.M.I.L.Y.

Have FAITH in the guy next to you.

Maintain a competitive ATTITUDE.

Face adversity with MENTAL TOUGHNESS.

Maintain INTEGRITY on, and off, the field.

LOVE for the team is bigger than the game.

Success requires YOU to do your part.

Great athletes often delight in the thought of expectations; that coaches, fans and peers believe they will do well in their sport because they’ve proven themselves capable. Those athletes and their coaches understand that commitment, discipline, and attention to every detail are necessary if they are to reach the top.

Benton Head Football Coach Scott Neathery is no stranger to preparing, coaching and living with the expectations of success. He’s been preparing his Panther squad every year since taking over as head coach in 2010 and likens the team’s growth to a passage from Jim Collins’ book on leadership, “Good To Great.”

“You think about the chicken and the egg,” Neathery said. “We see the chicken as end result, but never give much thought to the egg. Inside that egg is where all the work is being done, but the egg doesn’t change. Then one day, the chicken breaks out, and everyone’s surprised to see it,” he added. “He’d been building and developing long before he hatched.”

It’s the same principle Neathery and his coaching staff applied when taking over the head coaching reigns. The Panthers were coming off a 2009 season where they had won only one game. Neathery knew he had his work cut out for him.

“All the work was done in our program in those first three or four years,” he said. “We were working our tails off trying to develop a culture of success. It just wasn’t showing up in wins on the scoreboard. Sometimes it takes a while.”

In the seasons before the 2014 campaign, Neathery saw signs of improvement along the way, with a playoff game win during the 2012
and 2013 seasons. Then came the 2014 season, and Neathery’s decision to emphasize a sense of “family” within the Panther locker room. To drive home his point, he took his men on a road trip.

“When fall camp started, we went out to the Family Farm near Malvern, and we stayed there for two days,” he said. “We would come to the facility for practice and then go out there to stay overnight. It was just coaches and players. No parents, no cell phones, no TV,” he added. “That was where we really preached the value of ‘family’ and team-building.”

And F.A.M.I.L.Y. is exactly what came from that trip. Neathery says the acronym isn’t original, but it proved to be exactly what his team needed as a touchstone. “You’re always trying to find something for the kids to hold on to, and it doesn’t always work when you don’t have a good year,” he said. “This wasn’t about the teams, the players, coaches or the parents. It was about everyone involved in the student body and in the community.”

F.A.M.I.L.Y. breaks down like this: Faith. Attitude. Mental toughness. Integrity. Love. You.

While each of the words is a key building block to the success of F.A.M.I.L.Y., Neathery says the two that stand out most are Mental toughness and You.

“One thing I always tell my guys is that tough times don’t last but tough men do. I’m not talking about the physical toughness, but the mental toughness to deal with adversity, both in football and in life. None of this is going to happen unless you do your part,” he added. “That was something I tried to get them to understand that they all had to do their work if this was going to succeed.”

And succeed the Benton Panthers did. Following an opening season 14-14 tie with the rival Bryant Hornets in the Salt Bowl, the team had six successive wins. “Coming out of that tie with Bryant, I knew I had a group that would play hard,” he said. “You can’t coach that, but I knew they would play hard all year.”

Neathery recalls the point he knew his team could be special while on the road against Lake Hamilton. “My quarterback got knocked out in second series, and we really didn’t do much offensively,” he said. “My defense took over and won the game. That’s when I knew it didn’t matter if my offense was on or if my defense was on, we were going to step up.”

Benton went on to complete their undefeated season (with one tie) and win the 6A South title. They then rolled through the 6A playoffs, setting up a state championship meeting and conference rematch with the Pine Bluff Zebras. It was Benton’s first Championship appearance since 1977.

“We knew we were going to have to play well against Pine Bluff, and the opposite happened,” he said. The Zebras won the game 51-10, and while the loss was disappointing, the team still held their heads high.

“I try to teach the guys that in life they’re going to face a lot tougher things than a football game, and hopefully you’ll use something you learned on the football field.”

For the incredible season, KATV recognized Scott Neathery as the Simmons Bank 6A Coach of the Year.

“When you get something like that, it’s more of a ‘coaches of the year award’ to me,” he said. “A lot of times, I’m just the one walking around being grumpy. My assistant coaches are the ones to come in every day and grind. It’s never just one person.”

So with a successful 2014 season in the books and the squad prepping for kickoff in less than two months, do Neathery, his coaches and his players think they’ll perform well in defense of  the Panther’s 6A South title? The truth is, they expect it.