Good Sports: Central's Kent Gibbs and his HOF career

Cape Central head football coach Kent Gibbs leads his team to the field next to Gage Wooten (10), Levi Tuschhoff (56) and Tanner Herbst (7) before the start of the Tigers' 49-0 win over Normandy at Central's Jungle, September 6, 2019.

Jacob Wiegand ~ jwiegand@semissourian.com

Good Sports is a column featured weekly in the Southeast Missourian and on semoball.com. It is primarily designed to showcase people who have impacted the sporting life of Southeast Missouri, so that readers may get to know them more fully. Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Today: Kent Gibbs, 62, head coach, Cape Girardeau Central Tigers football team. Gibbs, a 1975 Jackson High graduate, holds an undergraduate degree and a master’s in secondary administration from Southeast Missouri State. A three-time SEMO Conference coach of the year, he is a 2012 inductee into the Missouri Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. A head coach for 31 years, Gibbs came to Cape Central in 2019 after amassing an 85-49 record in a dozen seasons at Sikeston. Gibbs has also helmed high school football programs in Hayti, East Prairie and Fredericktown. Gibbs leads a Central team which posted three consecutive Class 4 semifinal appearances in the last decade. The Tigers made it all the way to the championship game in 2014.

You came to Central after the Tigers had a disastrous 1-9 campaign under the previous head coach. You led Central, in your first season at the Jungle, to a 7-5 record with two postseason wins. How did you feel about your inaugural year?

I try to keep my expectations in check. You’re expected to win, of course, but for me it’s not primarily about W’s. I have a process, a way we do things. I wanted to get my players on board with a new way and we did very well from that standpoint. (The transition) has gone smoother than I expected. A couple of weeks into practice last summer, I felt really good and thought we could have a successful season.

What is the system you’ve put in place?

Holding kids accountable, being patient, seeing the big picture. I don’t have any secrets, man. I’ve been coaching this way for 40 years. It used to be if a player asked why we were doing such-and-such a drill or a play, I wouldn’t explain. But now I will. From when I started until now, a couple of things haven’t changed. Kids still want to know if you care about them. They still want to know you want to make them better. Kids must respect you and if they do, they’ll work as hard as they can for you.

What should a Kent Gibbs-led team expect to hear from you?

I like to say, “Every day is a great day to have a great day.” Finish what you do, whatever it is, whether it be a single rep, a sprint, a block or a tackle. Finish. Don’t quit.

Your offensive philosophy?

I think in general, if I had my druthers, I’d prefer to run the ball twice as often as we pass it.

Are you a strict disciplinarian?

I think that (idea) is funny. I just happen to think there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things.

Have you changed as a coach?

I don’t raise my voice as much now. The game is more complicated today. When I started out coaching, you had a 4-3 slide defense and a wishbone offense, that’s it. Now, there are so many different looks, schemes, schematics, you can’t run the same play over and over.

Tigers football players gather around first-year head coach Kent Gibbs as he reviews a play during a summer workout, July 30, 2019, at Cape Girardeau Central High School. Ben Matthews ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

What is still the same for you?

I’ve never wavered in holding players responsible. First, responsible to themselves, which means eliminating excuses. If you try to use an excuse, you are not holding yourself accountable but try to blame somebody else or a situation. Second, be responsible to your teammates and coaches.

Your colleague, Coach Jim May of Scott City, calls football the greatest game in the world.

I’d second that. My life has been about football. I used to teach a football class at Southeast. It’s the greatest game because it’s mentally and physically demanding. Success on the field is so dependent on one another. The game can teach character, personal traits to kids they’ll have all their lives.

Do you have people you’ve looked to as mentors?

I’ll mention three. The late Jim McKay, head coach at Portageville, helped me so much when I was starting out at Hayti. For 10 weeks, McKay invited me to his home on Sunday mornings to review game film. We’d put the 16-millimeter film in Jim’s projector and he’d show me how I could do better. The late Willie Wilthong, head coach at Scott City at the time, for whom the Rams’ field is now named, told me once after a game, “Gibbs, I like how you do things.” As a young coach, that remark had enormous impact on me. Charlie Vickery, assistant at Scott City now, was a head coach at Chaffee and Sikeston back in the day. Any discussion of mentoring has to include a great offensive mind like Charlie’s.

Do you play a player who’s failing in the classroom?

I’m a big believer in academics. If MSHSAA (Missouri State High School Activities Association) requires a certain grade point average to be eligible to step on the field, we won’t add additional expectations on a player. I’d rather have a couple of weeks to work on a (classroom) problem. Most of the time we get good results.

You left Sikeston after 12 years to come to Central in what some may call the twilight of your coaching career. Why?

Always you have to ask yourself, wherever you are, if you are still getting it done. (Editor’s note: Gibbs’ final two seasons with the Bulldogs saw Sikeston post back-to-back records of 4-6 in 2017 and 5-6 in 2018.) You ask yourself whether or not your services are best employed somewhere else. The timing was good for Sikeston and for Central to have a change. It was a no-brainer to come to the Tigers and I’m certainly glad I did.

Was the fact that you have long made your residence in Cape County a factor in coming to Cape Central?

Not really. I’ve lived outside of Jackson for a long time, for all the years I was in Fredericktown and in Sikeston. For 30-plus years, I’ve been in Cape County. No, the drive time didn’t bother me. It was more a matter of who can use my help and is there a new challenge out there.

After being on the Bulldogs sideline all those years, you were on the other sideline when Central went to Sikeston and shut them out, 33-0, last September. What was it like to go back?

It was strange before the game, a little odd. I walked up to the Sikeston coaches, shook their hands, hugged them. When you have a bond with those men, as I did, well, it was tough. Once the game started, it was better for me. I didn’t realize until afterward how much beating Sikeston meant to our kids. They appreciated that win a lot.

You are no longer in the classroom.

Yes, I’m a retiree since 2012. I still work part-time in the high school office. If there is an attendance problem, an on-time problem for a student, those kids come to see me. I’ve done lots of things in my career. I’ve been an assistant principal and an athletic director.

You’re a Jackson Indians alum. You know the Tribe draws better crowds to the Pit during football season.

The crowd size isn’t my focus but I’m aware. As we go on, I would hope interest and support from our fans will increase. But we know we’ve got to earn respect for this to happen. Kids want to play in front of big crowds, no question.

You are talking like a man intending to coach for awhile.

If you would have asked me in 1980 how long I planned to coach, I would have said, “Forever.” Now, at my age, ask me the same question and I’d still say, “Forever.” Candidly, I’ll coach until practices stop being fun. Look, I haven’t been much good at anything else (than coaching). I still really enjoy being around players and coaches.