The Rison Wildcats have a new head football coach after Chris Vereen received a unanimous vote from the Cleveland County School District board on Monday night. He makes his way to Rison from Star City, where he has been head coach since 2018.
Vereen spoke with ArkansasVarsity.com Tuesday afternoon to discuss the job, and what it was about Rison that made him want the job.
“Honestly, it is the tradition,” said Vereen. “When I started my coaching career as a head coach I was the head coach at Gillette and the atmosphere and seeing how people live, breathe, and die football in Rison made me want to be a part of something like that one day. It’s funny how throughout my career it circled back, but to answer the question, it is the tradition.”
Vereen was able to meet his team at Rison Tuesday afternoon and gave his thoughts on how that meeting went.
“It was awesome. I compare it to when Rocky Balboa went to train with Apollo Creed and that hungry look in their eyes, it’s there,” said Vereen. “You can see that the kids were disappointed in how things turned out this past season for whatever reason, and they want to get back to Rison football and that tradition of winning and they’re hungry for it. It was a great meeting and the kids listened and they are ready to go.”
It won’t take long for Vereen to get to work. He will have his first full day at Rison on Monday.
“I met with them today and I have to turn some paperwork in before the end of the week and officially at 8:00 Monday morning I will be a Rison Wildcat,” said Vereen.
He spoke about some of the first things he hopes to accomplish at Rison.
“We want to get in there and go to work. I want to see how the kids work and I want to implement them into our system,” said Vereen. “I want to go ahead and lay that foundation of what we are going to expect out of them, and see who is going to buy in and do what we want them to do.”
“The first week I want to watch them work,” Vereen continued. “That is what we are going to do. The week after that we will go to testing to see where we’re at strength-wise and speed-wise, then start to develop our game plan on what direction we need to go.”
Rison went to the spread under one-year coach Caleb Carmikle in 2023, but Vereen said that he plans to have a run heavy game plan like Rison is used to.
“It is like we told them. At Star City two years ago we had an outstanding wide receiver and if we can throw it a little bit we will throw it, but the bottom line is we want to put it down your throat,” said Vereen. “That is what we are going to do. When I told the kids that today I think every head in the room was nodding up and down with a yes. I love smash mouth football and to control the clock, and that is what we are going to do.”
A longstanding relationship with Rison Athletic Director with Davy King helped to lead Vereen to the job. King, who will become Superintendent at Rison following this school year, and Vereen have a history that goes way back.
“Davy, when I was 26 years old coaching against Rison, he was across the field as Coach Clay Totty’s defensive coordinator, so I’ve known Davy a long time,” said Vereen. “His nephew played for me at Star City my first year there, and his sister was our cheer coach at Star City, so that definitely had a lot to do with it. Davy bleeds black and gold and will be the new Superintendent, so that definitely played a key part in it.”
Vereen told ArkansasVarsity.com that he plans to retain all assistant coaches on staff at Rison, and does not plan to bring any additional assistants in unless any current assistants take jobs elsewhere.
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Luke Matheson | ArkansasVarsity.com
Luke Matheson | ArkansasVarsity.com