Conque relates twists and turns of coaching career

Clint Conque's life was shaped by a persistent single-mom, his ambitions were jarred by a rant by his wife over a "Poo-Poo Platter" for two and his career took a major turn with an out-of-the-blue phone call from Billy Dawson, a coaching friend.

An unforgettable detour was an "eyeball to eyeball" meeting with former Oakland Raider star Ted Hendricks.

Conque, who has established the University of Central Arkansas football team as the winningest program in the state, all levels, the last seven years, related the lessons learned from his roller-coaster ride from inner-city Baton Rouge to coach of the year during an appearance Monday before the Arkansas Sports Club.

His coaching career began after his father-in-law (Sonny Jackson) offered him a graduate assistant's position at Nicholls State University. Recently graduated and married for a little more than a year, Conque, who had a business degree with an emphasis on marketing, had interviewed and applied for several jobs but none that he felt a calling toward a career.

After several weeks, Angele, his wife, was getting more and more anxious and excited about the future, so he took her to dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant in Thibodaux, La., ordered one of the house specialties, and made the big announcement that he had decided to go into coaching with her dad.

He still vividly remembers how that strategy immediately blew up in his face.

"Angele had grown up in coaching and had no intention of even marrying a coach," Conque said. "She started crying. She threw her napkin on the table, left the restaurant and started walking home. That 'Poo-Poo Platter' for two went uneaten that night.

"... Fortunately, she stuck by me and 25 years later, we feel we are in a great position at UCA and the good Lord has blessed us with three great children born in five-year increments. My life has been blessed from the family side of things."

His decision to enter coaching had a great deal to do with his upbringing in Baton Rouge, where he was reared by his mother, who divorced his father when he was very young, and his grandparents.

"My mother and I really grew up together and learned along the way," he said. "My father was a part of my life and a very strong influence on my life but that was not until I got to high school. My mother never made more than $20,000 in her life. But she was able to send me to Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, and I had 12 years of Catholic eduction, which really helped form much of my discipline and lot of the values I have today.

"But had it not been for a mother who made me stay on-point as a child and made sure I had a lot of structure and male influence in my life, you might have had a different person up here speaking today. I'm forever indebted to my mother for her self-sacrifice in allowing me to get a private education in growing up in inner-city Baton Rouge.

"With more than 50 percent of players today coming from single-parent homes, those young people have a real soft spot in my heart because that was the way I grew up. I needed all the positive influences I could growing up."

Playing in high school at 6-foot-1, 175, Conque noted he was a late-bloomer, physically, largely because it was often a struggle to have food on the table. "I've eaten about every TV dinner known to man," he quipped.

Even though he had a 3.0 average in high school, he began his collegiate career at Southwest Community College in Mississippi, where he was able to grow to 6-2, 215 pounds and gain a full scholarship to Nicholls State, "which was big because that gave me the opportunity to get an education," he said.

And the connection with Sonny Jackson, also the father of "Hud" Jackson, one of his assistants, was beneficial in multiple ways.

"I thrived in the kind that environment under coach Jackson, which emphasized accountability on and off the field," Conque said. "I learned about service. And I met my wife (Angele) my sophomore year. We had a courtship of six months, got married my junior year. The relationships at Thibodaux changed my life."

After becoming a standout linebacker for Jackson at Nicholls, Conque said he dreamed of being a No. 1 draft choice for the Green Bay Packers (one of the great franchises in pro sports at the time) but ended up as free agent for the Los Angeles Raiders team that featured Jim Plunkett, Marcus Allen, Howie Long and Cliff Branch. "I know all their names, but I promise I wasn't there long enough for them to remember me," he said. "It was the proverbial cup of coffee in the pros."

But he has never forgotten an encounter with Hendricks, who at 6-7 was one of the most imposing players and biggest free spirits in pro football at the time.

"He could drink three pitchers of beer at lunch and show up for practice at 3 o'clock and not miss a beat," Conque said. "I wondered if he even had a liver.

"Ted had this big belt buckle that was a huge replica of an eye, looked as real as your eye," Conque continued. "He walks to my locker one day and stops right in front of me. All I can see was this big eyeball on his buckle that was six inches form my nose.

"He said, 'Rookie, your wife called me last night and told me to keep an eye on you. See this buckle. It's my eye on you.'"

Conque added, "Ted never said another word to me for four months."

His pro career was cut short by a knee injury so he missed out on a ring and money of the Raiders' Super Bowl run that year.

"But that organization taught me everything about how not to run an organization," Conque said. "It was the loosest-run organization I've ever been around."

After he endured Angele's initial rant about going into coaching, he served as a high school coach in Lafayette two years before joining Jackson's staff at McNeese State.

"But those two years in high school taught me some coaching lessons," he said. "In high school, you get what walks through the door or who you can recruit in the hallway. You've got to convince that 5-8, 160-pounder than he can be the best pulling guard to ever play in your conference. High school coaching makes you learn to coach and to teach. You have to mold them."

He said he learned a lot about building a new Division I program (1-AA) while serving as an assistant to Terry Bowden at Samford, where he learned a new system and made new coaching connections, including basketball coach John Brady, now the Arkansas State coach.

He then became a top assistant at Louisiana Tech, where he served seven years, eventually becoming offensive coordinator, and helped the Bulldogs to two notable and stunning victories over Alabama, and upsets over California and Mississippi State.

One day he got a call from Dawson, then the coach at Sheridan. He asked if he were interested in leaving Louisiana Tech to become a head coach. Conque said, since he felt he was passed over for the university's head coaching position after Gary Crowton left for the Chicago Bears, he felt he was ready to move on.

"Ever heard of UCA?" Conque said Dawson asked him. "I said no. Ever heard of Scottie Pippen, he asked me. Well, yeah. Ever heard of Monte Coleman? Yeah, I've heard of him too, I said. He told me that he felt it was a program with great tradition and he thought I would be a great fit."

Seven years later, Conque is still counting his blessings.

"I feel fortunate to be able to build a program at the Division II level and be nationally ranked and have great success, then turn around and have a chance to do it on the Division I level, getting a national ranking our first year," he said. "I've had chances to leave, but we've stayed because we believe in this community and we believe in what we're doing and we want to leave our footprint on UCA in a very positive way. When I took the job, I determined that I would work at it like it was the last job I'll ever have."

He said from the beginning, he's tried to embrace UCA's past while establishing a new tradition at new levels.

"We still proudly display our NAIA and AIC championship banners and we recruit to that," he said. "We display our NCAA Division II championship banner from the Gulf South Conference and we recruit to that. We appreciate the great players and coaches who walked through rocks and sand so we can have what we have today.

"And throughout my life, I've had relationships with countless players and coaches that supersede anything I've been paid to do this.

"I'm 46 years old I think one of the youngest speakers to ever speak before this group and I've been blessed with a good life."