If ever a school was Arkansas’ version of Hickory High — the fictional Indiana worldbeater immortalized in the movie “Hoosiers” — it may very well be St. Joseph High School.
Just like in the movie, the Conway school is longer on heart than enrollment, basketball is held in particular esteem and accomplishments are often overshadowed by behemoth schools such as nearby Conway High.
But where the paths between fiction and Faulkner County diverge sharply is that Hickory High is frozen as iconic underdog but no one in Class 2A underestimates the purple and white, save at their own peril.
“We’ve been blessed this year,” said alumnus and athletic director Chris Kordsmeier in an exercise in understatement slightly less pronounced than his attempt to suppress a smile. “Actually, we’ve been blessed for many, many years, now.”
This school term alone, St. Joseph claimed three state titles, including boys’ golf and its first in baseball and boys’ bowling. The Bulldogs don’t dominate in any one game except girls’ golf with nine state titles, including five straight, since 2000. Rather, the Bulldogs are competitive across its slate of interscholastic sports.
Counting this year, the school has five state titles in boys’ golf; two each in boys’ basketball, girls’ track and girls’ soccer; and one in girls’ basketball, baseball, softball and boys’ bowling. Only volleyball, boys’ soccer, girls’ bowling and cheerleading lack a state title. The school doesn’t compete in football, wrestling, cross country, track and field and swimming.
Even in years the Bulldogs don’t win the team trophy, top individual honors often come home to Conway, such as with girls’ golf in 2011 and girls’ bowling in 2013.
Kordsmeier, whose office opens to a hallway so clogged with conference, district and regional trophies he stopped counting them years ago, is justifiably proud of the school’s athletes, as much as for achievement in the classroom and community.
“We have always believed we can maintain that balance between excellence in the classroom, in athletics and being very good citizens in the community,” he said. “That’s what a Catholic-based education is all about.”
Kids get their first taste of sports here through pee-wee basketball camps and cheering older kin, leading almost 80 percent to compete in junior high and high school. Brent Breeding, 2012-2013 president of the booster club, said few schools can match St. Joseph’s culture; being a Bulldog is as soaked into the sinew of certain families as the Mass they attend or who carves the Thanksgiving turkey.
“This school is a family tradition,” said Breeding, who married the former Teri Luyet, the school counselor. “In my wife’s case, she graduated from here, her parents graduated from here, all of her cousins went here and so naturally our kids went here. You see last names today that have been here for years. It’s something people really take pride in.”
Nostalgia aside, the Bulldog program was also built through smart planning and unwavering fan support. When Kordsmeier, who’s been athletic director since 2002, returned to his alma mater a decade earlier to coach basketball and track, the school only offered those two sports. They were easy to fund and easy to schedule, but left a lot of kids on the sidelines.
“We wanted to expand our sports programs to allow more kids to participate,” he said. “Today, you see some carryover where a kid who is good in one sport is also good in another, but a lot of kids find individual success in these newer sports.”
As the school’s slate of programs grew, the complexity of funding these activities followed. State championships, after all, don’t come with free gas or uniforms.
“As a parent of athletes, I saw some of the things the booster club did, but it’s only when you really get involved that you see what it takes to fund an athletic program,” Breeding said. “It’s eye-opening to see the amount of work and money it takes; I don’t think most people know or realize or appreciate how much goes into it.”
Part of making it go falls to volunteers for everything from fundraising to concessions to volunteer coaches. Fans even stick around to clean the gym after home games. Even so, Breeding estimated athletic costs of about $105,000 last school year, money raised through various events, tickets and other sources.
Kordsmeier, who was recognized as 2A Athletic Director of the Year for 2011-2012, said the knack for finding a way to succeed is not only the program’s X Factor, it’s something handed down and carried on from previous generations.
“The folks that established this school and this program made this place with heart and soul and spirit,” he said. “That’s still here, that commitment to doing what’s best for your school and your team.”
He voice tails off looking at a patchwork of team photos in his office, then a broad grin.
“They’re Bulldogs, man.”
