ABERDEEN — Chris Duncan has fully served his year — and then some.
What began as a one-year commitment to coach the Aberdeen High School football team has turned into a five-year gig. In that time, Duncan has helped re-build a program that won one game in the two previous seasons and has elevated it into a perennial state title contender.
Duncan wouldn’t have been able to make that happen without the help of a lot of people, and someone he has leaned on a lot for strength and guidance.
“The Lord has helped me through it and we have had some good years and have done a lot,” Duncan said. “We have had a lot of kids go on and be successful. The wins and losses, I don’t look at those too much. I look at how many kids are in college, playing ball, and being successful. How many kids did we help change their whole outlook of life and thinking they’re no good? I think we changed their whole outlook and thinking they were no good at football. I hope in the five years that some have come to know The Lord because of our influence at the ballfield. We don’t have to know that, but I hope some have.”
Duncan guided Aberdeen to a 7-6 finish this season and a trip to the second round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 3A playoffs. Aberdeen beat Velma Jackson in the first round and then lost to Charleston 20-0.
For his accomplishments, Duncan is The Dispatch’s Small Schools Coach of the Year.
Since taking over a program that went 1-9 for Andy Stevens in 2005 and 0-10 for Jack Hankins in 2006, Duncan has went 54-18 in five seasons. He led the team to a 9-4 finish and the third round of the Class 3A playoffs in his first season, 2007. In 2008, Aberdeen went 11-3 and lost to Louisville in the North Half title game.
Aberdeen won 13 and 14 games the next two seasons, falling to Tylertown and Forest in the Class 3A championship games.
This season, Duncan and the Bulldogs relied on a strong defense, led by All-State performer Channing Ward, as a young offense gained experience.
The growing pains weren’t easy for Duncan to handle. But after 15-16 years of coaching and juggling his work as head coach, pastor at Reedy’s Chapel Baptist Church in Derma, and father and husband, Duncan took solace in the fact he had the strength and wisdom of God to help him.
“As my children have gotten older, that is something my wife has reminded me of,” Duncan said of the challenge of doing so much. “I have seen the look on their face sometimes when they ask, ‘Daddy, help me,’ or ‘Let’s do this or that,’ but I have to say, ‘No, I have to go,’ or ‘I have to go to the ballfield.’ I can see the disappointment on their face when I am not able to do that with them.
“My oldest son has gotten a little older, and he has been telling me for the last two years, ‘Daddy, I want you to quit coaching and come play ball with me.’ That hurts me every time he says that. I guess a few days ago Jennifer (his wife) told me he has changed a little bit. He said, ‘I want daddy to coach one more year where he can win that college championship.’ He has it mixed up a little bit, but as a young child you don’t understand a lot of things. You just know daddy is not there.”
Duncan and Jennifer have three children: Isaac, 5, Jacob, 4, Gracie, 1. He said his wife often asks him why he doesn’t come home earlier, like some of the other coaches she sees, but he said those coaches aren’t winning. He said he “can’t halfway do anything,” and that he will step away from coaching when it comes to a point when he feels he doesn’t need to do it.
But that time isn’t now.
Duncan admits, though, it has been a challenge to get everything done. He said he missed Isaac’s first Little League game because he was at the school. He said it is difficult to find time to study the Bible, to prepare the sermons he gives Wednesday and Sunday at Reedy’s, which is between Calhoun City and Vardaman about an hour away from Aberdeen, and to assist with the work that is helping establish a mission in Wren.
All of that work goes back to a promise Duncan made five years ago. At the time, Duncan said he wanted to devote all of his time to the ministry and to his family, but he said The Lord opened opportunities for him and that he didn’t want to let down the principal and helped give the student-athletes at Aberdeen High “better than what they were getting.”
After getting 21 or 22 things he said he needed to become football coach, Duncan said he tried to live up to his word and do the best job possible.
Five years later, he is still doing his best.
“It has been a blessing to me, and a lot of times it has been a struggle to get a program off the ground that was at the very bottom,” Duncan said. “There is a reason a program is at the bottom because of how things are done and the people around it. Those changes don’t come easy. We have made a lot of positive changes, and there still are a lot of positive changes to make.
“You can look back and things are a whole lot better now than they were five years ago around the football program and with the community and the football program.”
Duncan gives all of the credit to The Lord because He is the one doing it. He said he has learned not to be a micro-manager and to hold people responsible for their work. He said that realization and the ability to lean on God for assistance have helped him through tough times.
“I believe wholeheartedly on leaning on the Lord for everything, and I think doing all of the things I have done here have made me do that,” Duncan said. “There was a time in my life I thought I could do everything and control everything, but He has made me understand I can’t and I need to lean on Him for all things.
“That is a big reason I have been here. We have been through a lot. A lot of people don’t know the stuff we have had to go through as a coaching staff at the school. I know He controls it all, and I think He has put me through that to build me up spiritually and to make me stronger.”
Rod Farrar, who has been keeping score for Aberdeen High football games since 2007, has watched Duncan re-energize the program. Duncan was working as a pastor at Union Grove Baptist Church in Fulton when he met him, and he has been impressed by how Duncan is “truly a man of God” and how he is firm, fair, and disciplined.
“He preaches the word and speaks to the word of God,” Farrar said. “He preaches the Gospel and doesn’t mince any words about it.”
Farrar said Duncan’s integrity and consistency have enabled him to relate so well to the players. He said the student-athletes see Duncan means what he says, lives how he preaches, and holds them to the same standard.
“With brother Chris they know what they are going to get,” Farrar said. “With consistency, there is a sense of safety with that. He is very firmly grounded in God and scripture. That is the source of brother Chris’ strength.”
Farrar credits Jennifer Duncan for being a “very solid rock” who helps her husband with everything he does. He said Duncan’s relationship with his wife is just part of a balancing act he handles every day.
“He is successful as a coach, as a pastor, and as a family man,” Farrar said. “To watch that blossom and grow since 2007 is a representation of that in and of itself because I see from where I sit it is three ministries he is doing. It is a ministry as a pastor, where he is preaching the word of God. It also is a ministry being able to be a head football coach and to be an example to the student-athletes and, at the same time, he gets to be a minister to his family and his children, and he is successful at all three.”
James Howard Easley also has watched Duncan develop the strength and wisdom to minister to so many people. Easley, who is one of six deacons at Reedy’s, coached Duncan in football and in basketball at Vardaman High. He said his former lineman is “very faithful to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and that he “brings that out in every message.” He said Duncan’s personality allows him to minister to the 65-70 people who attend worship service at the church and to make everyone feel a part of the family.
Although he hasn’t watched Duncan coach many games at Aberdeen High, Easley knows the challenges Duncan faces working with student-athletes and that he shows strength and calm in handling those responsibilities extremely well.
“He is very disciplined,” Easley said. “He doesn’t shy away from talking about God to them and being responsible for their actions. I think he does a tremendous job.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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