This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students at Ouachita High School in Arkansas collaborated with Taylor Jones, a student in the Public History program at Ouachita Baptist University, to explore the history of the high school’s athletic teams and supporting organizations.

Speaker 1 (00:00): Okay, this is the interview for Coach Nail for baseball on April 21st, 2017.

Speaker 2 (00:06): All right, how do you prepare your team for the games?

Coach Nail (00:10): We have practices every school day that we do not have competitions on. We have the occasional practice on school holidays, such as President's Day or Good Friday. We also have voluntary practices on the weekends, mostly on Sundays. I can't host practices those days, but I allow them to voluntarily come out with no punishment to them if they don't come out there. We just try to simulate things that happen in games as much as we can. Baseball is a most complex sport, in my opinion. There's just lots of scenarios that you just have to practice so that whenever the players get out there, they know what to do without having to think, they can just react.

Speaker 1 (00:54): Okay. Why did you decide to be a coach?

Coach Nail (01:00): When I was in high school, I played, a very big high school, Conway High School. I was pretty good at baseball, but we had a kid that was, played my position that was better than me. I spent a lot of time on the bench and was a courtesy runner, and spent a lot of time around the coaching staff. And realized that I was very good with the mental side of baseball with stealing signs and knowing where everybody had to be. Not just the guy that played my position. My teammates knew that as well. If they didn't want to screw something up and needed to figure something out, they would come to me and ask me instead of having to ask the coach so they didn't get yelled at. I just, from then on, I started coaching summer baseball starting nine days after I graduated high school, and did that all through college. Just continued to love it and learned more about the game, became a better coach and how I do it for my job.

Speaker 2 (01:59): What personal sacrifices do you make for your team?

Coach Nail (02:04): I take a lot of what would be free time. I mean, just all the free time that I have in the off season becomes baseball time in the spring. From several hours after school for practices. Essentially all afternoon and evening for games, especially away games. Sometimes I end up spending my own money on stuff if I want to. The other day we needed some brooms and we needed a new water hose, and rather than going through the whole process of getting it approved and spending the school money, I just went and got it at Walmart, it was just easier that way. It's just, there's the sacrifices [inaudible 00:02:50] that you make to have things that your team needs, but so time and money is the main thing that I sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (02:59): The last question is, how do you feel this activity prepares your team for their future?

Coach Nail (03:07): There are lots of things about baseball that carry over into the real world. I told them the first day I took over as head coach that if you're not early, you're late. I learned that as a high school baseball player, and that has served me well.

Find a complete transcript on the Museum on Main Street website.

Asset ID: 2021.09.03.b