Refugio Head Football Coach Jason Herring reached another milestone this past season as he earned his 200th win at the school with a 40-22 victory over Edna on Sept. 9.
As the dust settled on the 2022 season, Texas HS Football CEO David Phillips sat down with Herring to discuss their West Texas upbringing, the 200-win milestone, and his favorite part about being the Refugio head coach.
(Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity)
DP: I see you still got your old 325 Coke County phone number.
JH: Yeah, I do. I’ve always just kept it.
DP: We got some history back there, don’t we?
JH: Yes sir we do. We sure do. (Herring grew up in Robert Lee and Phillips in Bronte)
DP: Well, I’ve got a few of questions here for you. When you were younger, you said you wanted to be a dentist. What led you to decide to pursue coaching instead?
JH: Absolutely, no question about it: Nelson Coulter [Robert Lee head coach 1983-1986] and Ed Poehls [Robert Lee head coach 1987-1998]. All the way back first grade through sixth grade, I was telling my dad I wanted to be a dentist. Probably was just enamored with the money or something. But when I got in seventh grade football under Coach Coulter and Poehls, within two weeks, I remember telling my dad, forget being a dentist, I want to be a coach. I had an awesome dad, don’t get me wrong, he was a great provider, but he was in the used car business and gone from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. What happened was Coulter took me under his wing. It started in FCA, and we’d go to his house, and he’d play guitar and that’s where I became a Christian. And then he’d even go a step further. We’d get knocked out of the playoffs, and he’d say, ‘Jason, let’s go watch MOJO [Odessa Permian] play,’ so Coach Coulter and I would drive to Odessa like father and son. Anyway, I just fell in love with everything about athletics, coaching, and the relationships.
DP: Let me ask you this. You’ve been in charge now 16 seasons. What has the community of Refugio meant to you?
JH: Refugio is a special place. It’s very low socioeconomically, but we got great kids. A lot of them, life hits them in the mouth every morning. I mean like having food and the necessities of life. If you’re going to be the head coach at Refugio, you better love kids, have patience, and be ready to wear about eight different hats. You’ve got to be really involved. Like this morning, a kid can’t get to practice on time because the bus gets here too late, so I go pick him up at 6:45 and drive him to school and that’s a little eighth grade kid. Again, very similar to Coach Coulter taking care of me. But what’s happened here is this has become home. The community has treated us right. It was just a perfect match for a coach and a community.
DP: You earned your 200th win at Refugio this season. How special is that accomplishment to you?
JH: What was neat about it was my 200th overall career win happened when my son Kobie Zane was playing for me and that’s including my time at Sonora, Wall and everywhere I’ve been. But then this year I got my 200th win here at Refugio with my youngest son Karson [a sophomore WR/DB for the Bobcats]. So those are special, but here’s the thing about it: those things are about so much more than me. God has blessed me to be the head coach here. Our superintendent is incredible, our principals are incredible, our board is incredible, my coaching staff is incredible, and we got super talented kids that live, breathe, and die football. People would be shocked if they knew how much our kids are willing to do to win.
DP: What has been the driving force behind that success?
JH: The setup here is the reason we’ve been able to accomplish the goals we’ve accomplished. Everybody’s on the same page. There’s no politics. The consistency of the program and the willingness of the kids to buy in allows you to play at your maximum level every single year. We’ve played in the state finals seven times in my 16 years and won three of them, but what I’m most proud of is for 16 years, we’ve played December football and made it to the regional finals. That consistency level tells me we’re doing things right.
DP: What is your favorite memory from your time in Refugio?
JH: My favorite part about Refugio is the daily interactions and being able to help people. There’s hundreds of opportunities every single day to help a kid or help a family and to me that’s so rewarding. I try to spend every second of every day loving on and taking care of these kids, so whenever I need to discipline them or drive over to their house and yank them out of bed, they’ll know it’s out of love. What I’ve found here is when you show these kids how much you love them, still be hard on them, it’s going to make them do right, and they’ll absolutely run through a wall for you.
DP: Coaches are more than coaches in these small towns. That’s an amazing accomplishment you’ve done there. To hear how much you’re involved in these kids’ lives…
JH: That’s the most important part I tell the kids all the time. I don’t want this state championship or this record to be the greatest thing that’s ever happened in your life. I want you to stay off drugs, go to college, be a good husband, be a good father, be a good Christian kid, be a good person. In the big scheme of things, none of this other stuff really even matters.
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