Bracken’s Head Coach Lloyd Fields Announces his Retirement

Bracken Christian will bid farewell to a Coach who has roamed the sidelines for the past seven years.

Head Coach Lloyd Fields

BCS had just finished their first winning season with a 9-3 campaign and it was a quick turnaround from that first one win season the year before.

Giving up 500 points that first year was sure an eye opener, but those eyes would be opened wider when this Warrior team started winning at a regular clip.

Coach Lloyd Fields was entering in the front door for a school that would reach the highest of rarefied air when their 2010 season found themselves on top of the heap in 6-man football.

Fields had started his coaching career in 1969 when he was student teacher at Texarkana, Arkansas.

After a brief stint in the Marine Corp, he once again would come back to coaching in Lufkin as a junior high coach.

His first head coaching job would be in Waco at Richfield High School that is now known as Waco High.

Coach Fields first year at Bracken, fell one game short, of their previous season’s record and with a 1-1 playoff slate.

Meeting the eventual runner-up for State in that season, Rockwall Heritage, to start those playoffs was not a good way to make your mark in your first year.

But that next year, the ascension would start as Bracken Christian once again finished by playing State Champion Greenville Christian.

BCS would win two playoff games that next season, as they reached the final four. This would be their residence the next two years.

That game to Greenville Christian would be the Warriors last loss for the next 26 games as this team would leave the football field a winner.

Contrast Fields start with Bracken with all his other coaching jobs and a hard hat would be needed since all of those jobs needed some heavy construction.

“Every school I went to had bad records the year before arriving, they (the teams) had a combined 3-37 record the year before I came,” Fields said. “I was told that if I could not turn the programs around, then that team would be dead in the water….all the schools are still playing to this day.”

With Bracken getting to 26 wins in a row, in his third year, was a stark contrast to previous coaching gigs for Fields.

On that 26 game streak, 16 wins would end early based on the mercy rule.

Bracken’s record after the Greenville game (game before the streak started) was a respectable, 29-17. When the streak ended to Abilene Christian a, 55-18 record would give the Warriors a good winning percentage.

Bracken scored over 800 points while giving up 301 which averaged a, 57-21 score for each game during that championship season.

Coach Fields fielded (The ReSporter wanted to use that line one last time) a team with a staple of running first and throwing a pass play every once in a while, just to keep opposing defenses honest.

Bracken was not just noted for offense as their defense was just as lethal during Fields tenure. How about 21 teams being goose egged during those last seven years.

“I liked offense but I would spend more time on defense each week,” Fields said. “With your offense you would just need to tweak it, but your defense will face different types of offensive units and that is why a majority of your time would be on that side of the ball.”

Bracken has yet to be shut out during any of their games since the first 6-man football game that started in 2006.

Coach Fields would tell The ReSporter on many occasions that Bracken had already won their game before they would get off a bus to arrive at a game.

Persona and just knowing that you would win was usually all it took. There were a lot of mind games going on during a week leading up to a contest and that would always play into the psyche of their opponent.

Bracken has had a good run and will now be saying good-bye to their second Head Coach. (sounds like what was being said when the Cowboys’ Tom Landry left)

 Bracken Coaches    W   L    Pct
 Russ Wilson       10  12   .455
 Lloyd Fields      70  16   .814

Fields had an overall 100-38 record as a 6-Man coach.

“I coached 6-man for 12 years and my last 11-man game was at Savoy High School in 2000 when I retired for the first time,” Fields said.

When asked what was his favorite games, “The semi final game with OLH, we were behind 14 points with two minutes left and we did not have the ball….we won that one in overtime and then our best game, or perfect game, was when we faced Marble Falls Faith.”

“Marble Falls was ranked in the top three with us and we 45ed them by halftime,” Coach said with amazement. “This game was our ‘perfect game’.”

“In our Championship game with Covenant…we fell behind, but the team said they could win because they had faced a better defense in Rockwall Heritage and a better offense when they played OLH,” Fields said remembered the teams played in the playoffs for that year.

“Our best team was our 2011 team because of all the pressure they were under to win each week,” Fields said.

“All the teams were good, but this past year’s team will also go into my all time favorite teams….not based on their won/loss record, but we did not have a lot of players and injuries also played a part with this year’s team,” Fields said. “This team had overcome many obstacles.”

Coach Fields would have two homes during the past seven years with the winter through summer time in the piney woods of East Texas and then as August would approach his address would change to the Hill Country.

To make this schedule work, Coach Fields would need an understanding wife.

“She (Judy) has been flexible and she retired early so she could be with me when I came South,” Fields said lovingly. “She has always been supportive.”

This past year, Judy Fields could not make it to the Hill Country which had to be tough for Coach and Judy.

“It worked ok,” Mrs. Fields said. “I stayed busy and this was the first time in years we had been separated this long. We really enjoyed the times we were at Bracken and I just know this is his favorite time being in football and I have just really enjoyed being his partner.”

Coach Fields has had many great times and has made lasting impressions on students throughout his coaching career.

“I learned how to trust and I know that you don’t have to do everything on your own,” Former player and Coach apprentice John Colby said. “I had a lot of coaches through my time playing and he (Fields) was my favorite because he helped me to get the most out of my abilities in a short period of time.”

“Every time we had team meetings, Coach would get off on a tangent and would always say, ‘I digress’, and he did that so much it was the funniest thing I remember,” Colby said chuckling.

Coach Fields summed up how he always taught his players when a season started, “I would say that I will treat you like an adult and that his how I want you to conduct yourself during the season.”

We are all playing a game of football in life and that always takes a game plan.

Will you plan on being defensive or offensive on how you make decisions each day?

How you go through life is filled with decisions and The ReSporter can safely say that we are happy, Coach Lloyd Fields, made the decision to spend his last seven years in the Hill Country.

Thanks Coach!!