John King Q&A

Photo Credit: Jessica Japp & Joanie Groshans

AURORA – Having led Fleming to four 6-man state championships, John King, owner of 203 career victories, has another up-and-coming team on the rise.

His team knocked off recent powerhouse Cheyenne Wells to improve to 2-0 this season to earn this iteration of Wildcats a key victory against a top opponent.

Today, he is being recognized as the Broncos High School Tackle Coach of the Week. The Denver Broncos and CHSAA will continue to honor one flag football coach and one tackle football coach each week throughout the season.

Throughout the season, all Coach of the Week honorees will be recognized on the field during a pregame ceremony at Broncos home games.

Q&A with John King:

So, how long have you been at Fleming and what is your career record?

This is my 35th year coaching here in total. I was here for 12 (including the final eight as head coach), and then I went and coached in Sterling as an assistant for a couple years, took two years off and then I've been back at Fleming for 23 years now, so this is my 31st year as head coach. ... I only know that I have 203 wins because I won my 200th last year. Eighty-some losses. Way too many losses. I definitely agonize more on the losses than I ever enjoy the wins, for the most part.

What led you down the path to become a football coach?

I'm from Florida, and I got the opportunity to go play college ball at a small school in Kansas. I met my wife there, and she was from Fleming. We got married the day after we graduated, and decided to move out here. Her little brother was just starting junior high, and I said, you know what, if I had a younger brother that age, I'd want to go back and watch him grow up and go through junior high and high school. That first year I went to some Fleming games and they just weren't doing very well, and I told them I'd be glad to help them out when I could. Their coach left after that season and a teacher wanted to take the job and I became his assistant for four years, and then he moved on and I became the head coach. I just thought, 'OK, I'll do it, and then I just good hooked on it, and I guess the school hasn't been smart enough to get rid of me after all these years.

Do you have any particular coaching philosophy or coaching style? Is there anyone you've tried to emulate?

I was born in Ohio and lived there until I was 13, and so I'm old enough that I grew up watching (legendary Ohio State coach) Woody Hayes football. Three yards and a cloud of dust. Most people don't connect 3 yards and a cloud to dust with 6-man football, but we're kind of a power running team and play action (passes) off of it. Obviously, I've had to expand a little bit, but officials, especially those who haven't done many 6-man games, will come up to me before games and ask if we have any unusual plays that they need to be aware of, or just what our style is, and I say, 'We're as much like any 11-man team you will see at the 6-man level.' ... I stress the fundamentals because -- I don't care if it's pee-wees or the pros, and I don't care if it's 6-man or 11-man -- if you want to be successful, you better block, you better tackle, and you better take care of the football.

So, big win over Cheyenne Wells last week. How big was that one for your program?

It was really big because the last couple years, we've been really young. And I knew there was some good talent coming up. Last year, I was hoping that we would be a little better than what the season turned out record-wise. But now we're finally playing juniors and seniors instead of freshmen and sophomores. I knew that one was a big hurdle. We had to go win a game where our players had doubts in their minds about whether or not they could win it. Last year when we played a team that the players were pretty confident going into the game that they would win, they played really well. But if we played one of the top teams who we could have competed with, we kind of laid an egg. It was just a maturity deal -- we just weren't quite ready yet. So I had said last week, as crazy as it is for week one game (Fleming also had a zero week game), it may have been the most critical game of the season for us, just to prove to ourselves that we could play with one of the top teams in the state. I think this bodes well for this season.

What's it like coaching this group?

I've been doing this a long time now, and this may be the best group of young men I've ever coached. It's just a super group of kids. They're going to be good citizens. They're hardworking. They don't balk. They'll do extra. It's going be a group of kids that will be real successful and lead pretty happy lives because they just do things the right way. So it's a lot of fun right now.

So after getting that big early win, have expectations changed much?

We've got a tough schedule this year. I don't pay too much attention to the rankings, but I think we have a chance to be one of the top five teams in the state this year, but if you look at who the top five teams in the state are, they're all on our schedule. ... A lot of factors are going to go into it. We've got to stay healthy and we've got to keep improving. ... I think mentally we're ready to really compete with with the other top teams in the state.