In a room where students once soaked up knowledge at the now-closed Our Lady of Good Counsel School are athletic accomplishments frozen in time. Volleyball spikes, football runs and basketball jump shots are suspended in the air atop roughly 100 trophies and plaques chronicling the school’s sports history in the 1980s, early 1990s and one trophy from 1979.
Students were champions in basketball, tournament winners in volleyball and even a winner in the pushmobile derby in the Quapaw Area Council for Boy Scouts of America.
“They came at a time when Good Counsel was monopolizing the sports world as far as Catholic schools go,” said Frank Zakrzewski, maintenance engineer at Good Counsel.
Rather than being only dust collectors, Zakrzewski pitched the idea of giving them to former students as keepsakes from their old alma mater.
“We were just wanting to offer them to anyone who was interested, who had been a student and loved the school, loved Coach (Bill) Hogue, before we donate them to a charity,” said Carol Miller, parish secretary.
The school closed in 2007 and the building is now used for homeschooling, meetings, wedding receptions and parish or neighboring parish events.
Our Lady of Good Counsel School started in 1894 and educated pre-K through eighth graders, with sporting events saved for fifth grade and up.
Hogue led the track, basketball, football and volleyball teams to victories for more than 30 years. He later went on to coach at Christ the King School in Little Rock, retiring in 2012 after 40-plus years as a coach.
“There was quite a few of them,” Hogue said about stand-out games from Good Counsel. “I couldn’t say one in particular. I just enjoyed the camaraderie; just being around” the student athletes.
Hogue said he thought giving the trophies away was a great idea — better than the alternative.
“We told him we were going to put them in his front yard and light them up with Christmas lights,” Miller laughed.
“I think it’s great. They’re all just sitting there in the hallway. We had given quite a few away,” Hogue said. “I used to donate them to the Special Olympics and also to the Boys Club. We won quite a few. I’m sure some of them (students) would like to have them.”
Former students interested in taking a trophy can call the Good Counsel Church office at (501) 666-5073 by April 1.
