As coaching debuts go, Coach Richard Cochran saw a lot to like in his first season as skipper of the Little Rock Catholic High School football program. The Rockets posted a 9-2 record, including opening the season with seven straight wins and with only one regular-season loss.
For Cochran, the first Catholic High alum to lead his alma mater’s football program, the accomplishments of the season were many.
“There’s a calmness to this team, the confidence that, ‘Hey, we can get this drive,’” Cochran said. “There’s been two or three games where we needed to ice the game in the fourth quarter to win because the other team was getting momentum, and they were catching up and our guys just took it. They never showed any panic mode, you know, it’s just a gritty group.”
In the regular season, Catholic outscored their opponents by nearly nine points per game and that’s counting the 42-0 drubbing at the hands of perennial state power Benton. More than half of CHS’ wins were by double digits, and three were by 20 points or more, including an early win in Texas at the annual Catholic Bowl that Cochran said set the team’s confident mindset for the year.
The second loss of the year, unfortunately, came in the state 6A playoffs, where Catholic enjoyed a first-round bye, which Cochran said was sorely needed for the team to get healthy in preparation for a title run. One week didn’t prove to be enough, however, as CHS ran into a well-oiled squad from Mountain Home on their home War Memorial Stadium field Nov. 22.
Fresh off a first-round 57-50 shootout with Sheridan the week before, the Bombers picked up where they left off, bouncing the favored Rockets from the 6A playoffs for the second straight year 42-14. Turnovers and mistakes doomed the home team, as did the potent running attack of the visitors, which sent Mountain Home to its first state semi-final in nearly two decades.
True to its nature, Catholic hung tough, cutting the lead to 21-14 in the third quarter, only to have the ensuing kickoff returned 92 yards, a gut punch from which CHS would not recover. Cochran’s remarks after the disappointing outcome showed consummate sportsmanship, praising the victors and complimenting his team’s efforts and looking ahead to the future.
“I think the offensive line was probably our biggest surprise this season,” he told Arkansas Catholic. “I thought we were going to struggle early because we had some newer players and guys who hadn’t seen a lot of Friday night experience. We had our three-year starter Sam Paladino at center, and he pretty much had the monopoly on experience. Everybody else was trying to figure it out as they went. They were really green and yet they were able to hold their own early on in the season and from there they were able to take control of games even if we were falling behind.”
Cochran was particularly impressed with the way the team rallied in the face of myriad injuries up and down the roster.
“We had to play defense by committee a lot,” he said. “We lost four starting seniors due to ACL injury this year, for the season. He had a player crack his vertebrae. We really had to rely on that gritty teamwork, that brotherhood guys felt where one guy gets hurt, the next guy steps up. We’ve been rotating defensive backs and linebackers and everybody’s getting a chance to play and just try to figure something out, and trying to find who can anchor those spots.”
Having completed three seasons in 6A, it is clear Catholic High is in the correct classification after suffering for decades in 7A with school several times its size. Over that period, the Rockets are 27-7, counting playoffs — including the 2022 season where it posted the first undefeated regular season record in school history — and have made the post season each year. Cochran said while there are clearly power schools at this level, he’s confident the Rockets are poised for future success as they continue to chase their first state football title since the 1980s.
“We got kind of plagued with some injuries throughout the season, but we’re not going to make an excuse,” he said. “The way guys stepped in as backups and held their own pretty well, that’s a bright light for the future. One thing you can’t take away from them is that brotherhood, you know? They’ve busted it all year and with the exception of the Benton game where the boys were not happy with what they did, they always showed the grit to hang in there and fight. I’m so proud of them.”
