LUKE REEDER
Sports Reporter
LITTLE ROCK – This past Thursday Nashville High School head football coach Mike Volarvich got his offseason started off with a new trophy for his mantle. Coach Volarvich traveled to Little Rock to receive the 4A coach of the year award from the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
The Little Rock Touchdown Club is an organization that started in 2004 and since then has grown to have more than 500 members. The club recognizes collegiate and high school coaches and players at their annual awards banquet.
For Coach Volarvich this was not the first visit he had made to the annual awards banquet but it was the first time he had been there to receive an award for himself, “I had been to the touchdown club several times in the past. I had taken a few quarterbacks from Henderson up there before to receive awards,” explained Volarvich.
But for this year’s awards banquet Coach Volarvich was receiving an award that highlighted the excellence of not only his team but his coaching. In his first year at Nashville he was able to win the 4A state title. But not only was he able to lead the Scrappers to their first title in eight years, but Volarvich helped the Scrappers go a perfect 15-0 on the season making them the only team in the entire state to have a 15-0 record. Under Volarvich the Scrappers were also able to break numerous school records including rushing yards in a season and touchdowns.
Coach Volarvich was also able to groom a quarterback in Leonard Snell that struck fear in any team that had to face Nashville this season. Volarvich was known for helping mold quarterbacks at Henderson and he translated this skill flawlessly to Nashville. With Volarvich as his head coach, Snell was able to be one of the most productive quarterbacks in all of the high school football scene in Arkansas. Snell also broke a state title game record for touchdowns scored by one player when he was able to account for all of Nashville’s touchdowns in the title game against Prairie Grove.
Volarvich also helped send four seniors on to play at the collegiate level. This included Snell and Terell Grundy who signed letters of intent to play at Volarvich’s former coaching grounds Henderson State University, Joel Thurman who signed to play at Langston University and Troy Thomas who signed to play at Southern Arkansas University.
Volarvich said it was a great honor to receive the award, “They honored many different players at the event and it was great to be honored too. They always put on a great event and it was a great night.”
With the success that was prevalent this year for Volarvich and the Scrappers, the 4A Coach of the Year Award was one that was well deserved for Volarvich and he will seek another one this coming year as he tries to build off his stellar first year as head coach.
