This season was not Franklin County archery coach Todd Haygood’s first rodeo in the coaching world.
Haygood has coached softball, baseball and footbal in the past in addition to coaching the archery team at Franklin County. This week, he received his greatest coaching honor to date.
Just a few weeks removed from Franklin County’s Class 3A state championship, Haygood was named the 2014 Archery in Mississippi Schools Coach of the Year, an honor he’s found very humbling.
“There are several other people who are deserving of this award and I am honored to have it,” said Haygood, who noted he actually nominated another coach in the state before finding out he had won the honor himself.
“I’m not in it for me. When I started this I was a volunteer and I love helping kids,” Haygood added.
The coach has gone above and beyond for Franklin County’s archers, bringing unprecedented success to the program.
Haygood’s magical year actually began at the end of last school year, when he led the Bulldogs to their first state title in archery.
More impressive than the first state title was the way Haygood led Franklin County through its title defense in 2014.
“I’m always trying to motivate my kids. I told them ‘this school has won a title in football, in baseball a ways back, but Franklin County has never had back-to-back state championships in the same sport,’ ” Haygood said. “I tried to motivate them to make history and leave their mark at this school and in the archery program.”
In addition, Haygood helped Joshua Owen become Franklin County’s first male archer to sign an academic archery scholarship when he signed his offer from the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky.
Haygood is a self-proclaimed “old-school archer” who was sought out by former shooting buddy and current Archery in Mississippi School’s central region coordinator Waldo Cleveland to head the Franklin County program (Haygood now coordinates the northwest region). Haygood accepted and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
“I do it like I do anything else, just like when I used to coach softball and baseball,” Haygood said. “I took the position and I’ve loved it. I’ve loved teaching the sport and helping the kids succeed.”
Since taking over the program, the sport has grown tremendously in the Franklin County area. Haygood can now claim two high school state titles, and in recent years has been able to brag about the growth of FC’s junior high program. This year, Haygood said teachers from the elementary school have approached him about beginning an after-school program for fifth- and sixth-graders beginning next school year.
Haygood is exciting by the opportunity to further grow the sport. As he explained, archery is not an exclusionary sport.
“Every kid can’t play football or basketball or baseball. I’ve had kids with medical issues who’ve competed, I’ve seen a kid who was blind compete, I’ve seen a kid in a wheelchair compete,” Haygood said. “This sport gives kids who can’t play the physical sports a chance to compete.”
