Within three months of Mark Teague’s first head coaching job he had faced enough obstacles to make most people in his shoes seriously consider selling life insurance or used cars or finding any other career with less stress.
After just one year as the defensive coordinator at East Ridge, where his Pioneers held six opponents to fewer than 20 points, Teague was hired to take over a Howard program that had won just three games the three previous seasons. Only eight boys showed up for the team’s first day of workouts and just seven players took the field for the first three days of spring practice.
Howard head coach Mark Teague (second from right) signals his team. The Brainerd Panthers visited the Howard Hustlin Tigers in TSSAA football action Friday Night.“It was an eye opener for me,” said Teague, a native of Dothan, Ala., who has spent time as the defensive coordinator at Alabama’s Ashford Academy and later as an assistant for four seasons at Marion High, an Arkansas prep school located half an hour from Memphis.
“I looked around at the locker room and the weight equipment and I was shocked,” Teague said. “I spent the better part of my time that spring painting over graffiti on the walls and lockers. I had been to some inner-city schools in Memphis to play games, but I hadn’t seen anything like it was here.
“When you take over a program you have dreams and aspirations, but nobody gave me a blueprint on how to start from rock bottom. Installing our offense and defense was the furthest thing from my mind because we were spending so much time just trying to get it to be a functional football program and teaching kids the importance of showing up on time every day.”