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Ken Cribb isn’t known for empty promises.
When he took over the Bluffton High School football team last year, he said he was going to turn the struggling program around, just like he’d done in previous jobs at Stall, South Florence and Georgetown high schools. The coach more than lived up to his word, guiding the Bobcats to a 12-2 record and the semifinals of the Class 3-A state playoffs. Before that, Bluffton had never won more than five games in a season.
That’s why fans and foes alike need to take notice when Cribb says he expects his team to win the state title this year.
“This is probably the most excited I’ve been in a long time, maybe ever,” Cribb said. “We’ve really got a chance. We just have to make the most of the opportunity.”
What has Cribb so excited is the quality of players returning. He’s got eight starters back on offense, including quarterback C.J. Frazier, wideout Marquis Webber, tight end Corey Stoner, fullback Zachary Scott and wingback Eric Boyles.
There is also the addition of two impact transfers: Hilton Head Preparatory star receiver Dimitri Lowry and all-region running back Jerry Scott from Ridgeland.
“I’m sure we’re not going to sneak up on anybody,” Cribb said. “I’m sure we’re probably going to get everybody’s best game. We welcome that challenge and we’re excited about it. We just have to go out and make things happen. We can’t sit and wait for things to happen.”
Sitting and waiting has never been Cribb’s plan. He believes things happen for a reason and good luck comes to those that work hard. He credits his success to a work ethic that he began forging at age 9 when he baled hay and worked tobacco fields on a small farm in Pleasant Hill, Okla.
“I know it sounds like a lie, but I lived down a mile-long dirt road,” Cribb said. “We had to walk the road each day to catch the bus. I rode the bus until I drove the bus — I started driving the school bus at the end of my junior year.”
He got out of the transportation business after high school and joined the Army, where he was stationed at Fort Sill, Okla.
“I went through all that training and wouldn’t trade anything for it,” he said.
Cribb isn’t picking tobacco or doing as many push-ups these days, but his current gig is just as demanding. During the season, he’s at Bluffton High School by 6:30 each morning. He’s never home before 9 p.m., and doesn’t return on some nights until 2 a.m. Weekends are spent preparing for the next opponent.
Things don’t slow down much in the offseason, either. Cribb takes his team to strength competitions in the winter, hosts practice in the spring and fills his summer with 7-on-7 tournaments and football camps leading up to the start of another season in August.
“Those coaches who aren’t working year-round, they’re falling behind,” Cribb said. “You’ve got to have your program moving forward, working all the time.”
His wife tells him he works more than any doctor she knows. (She also reminds him he’s making much less than minimum wage based on the number of hours he puts in.) But for Cribb, it’s not a job. Coaching is a lifestyle.
“It’s my hobby, my passion, my career all in one,” he said. “It’s just fun to see kids have success and grow. It’s not a matter of what you know, it’s what you can get them to learn.”
A player that has possibly learned the most is Eric Boyles, a wingback who went from a junior varsity player in 2009 to arguably the varsity team’s biggest playmaker last season. He’s already been offered a full scholarship to Newberry College and is being heavily recruited by Georgia Southern.
“(Coach Cribb) loves the game so much,” Boyles said. “He pushes us every day to make us better and get us where we need to be to become a championship team.”
This season could also be Bluffton’s last chance to realistically compete for a state title. Next year the school will bump up to Class 4-A after the S.C. High School League’s realignment, which begins with fall sports in 2012.
“This is it,” Cribb said. “This is the go time. We’ve got to get gettin’ while the gettin’s good.”
