VAN BUREN – The track and field season was sort of emotional roller-coaster ride for Van Buren Coach Hays Lemley and his Pointers.

It certainly ended on a high, though, with the Pointers winning their first state championship in the sport.

"It's a big deal," Lemley said. "We started having track meets since the 1900s, and we started Van Buren High School in 1908, so for this to be the first one is pretty big."

Lemley is the River Valley Democrat-Gazette Track and Field Coach of the Year.

Lemley knew his Pointers would be pretty good before the season.

"We started looking after spring break," Lemley said. "There's not really a reason to look before that time because not everybody has run what they're going to run. After spring break, early April, I thought we're in there -- we're one of the top teams, top three, depending on who ran what. In the middle of April, I thought we were probably one or two."

That was before a hamstring injury to record-breaking sprinter Micah Hendrickson raised concerns midway through the season.

"We definitely mixed things up in the 4x100 and the 4x200 all the way around," Lemley said. "We ran some different combinations. We were forced to a little bit. When Micah was injured about halfway through the season, we mixed things up a little bit."

The Pointers had several athletes excel in different events as they won the Class 5A state track meet with a 74-73 edge over Mountain Home.

"It's really special, the way it transpired, coming down to the last race and going our way," Lemley said. "It could have easily not."

The championship went down to the final event of the night as Van Buren held a two-point advantage over Mountain Home going into the final event, which was the 4x400 relay. Van Buren finished fourth to earn five points, while Mountain Home finished third to earn six points, leaving the Pointers with the one-point advantage and the title.

"You get very particular on how you structure workouts and things for the rest of the year," Lemley said. "One of the things was we knew we had to score in the 4x400 at the state meet."

The championship also earned Lemley -- along with his dad, James Lemley -- a rare distinction of son and father winning state track meets. James Lemley was a long-time football and track coach at Southside.

"The obscurity of that, he was coaching at Southside at a time that they were very, very talented and he was very meticulous on the plan," Lemley said. "They won six in a row. It was structured a little differently at that time, and he did a good job of managing those athletes."

Coincidentally, James Lemley coached 29 years at Southside and this was the 29th year as a coach at Van Buren for Hays Lemley.

Hays Lemley's grandfather and namesake, Guy B. Hays, also won a state football championship at El Dorado in 1942.

Hays Lemley played for the Pointers and started his coaching career at Van Buren in 1997 as the offensive line coach before moving into the defensive coordinator position in 1999. He also took the Pointers through spring practice in 2003 as the interim head coach.

He's coached track the entire time he's been at Van Buren, and he had to rely on those years of experience to juggle lineups around a key injury.

"It also created a lot of flexibility for us," Lemley said. "The kids weren't afraid to step in there and be competitive in a very emotional, high-pressure situations. We went to a lot of big meets and competed against quality teams because we had a quality team. That was important."

LEMLEY EARNS NATIONAL AWARD

In addition to winning the first track and field championship at Van Buren, Coach Hays Lemley also earned national recognition.

At the regularly scheduled meeting of the Van Buren Board of Education, Superintendent Harold Jeffcoat presented him with a plaque for being selected as the Arkansas Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The USTFCCCA has selected a Coach of the Year for each state for both boys and girls for the past 12 years.

"That was a huge surprise," Lemley said. "To be awarded that at the Board Meeting with our kids was special."

Dave Anderson, a former assistant track coach at Bentonville and Bentonville West, is part of the nominating committee and nominated Lemley for the award.

Lemley is a third-generation coach in his family along with his dad, James Lemley, a long-time football and track and field coach at Southside who played at Van Buren under Clair Bates, and Guy B. Hays, a respected football coach at El Dorado and Smackover.

"You try to do the things that are necessary as a coach," Hays Lemley said. "My father, that's what he would have expected from himself and me. That's what I expect from myself and our coaches. It doesn't matter if we have a great team, an average team or we're going to struggle, our job is the same."

In his time as a baseball coach, football coach and track and field coach at Van Buren, Hays Lemley has leaned on a particular analogy.

"All of our kids get on the ladder at some point," Lemley said. "That's our analogy as coaches to get better. Some get on the bottom rung, some get on in the middle, some get on at the top. Our job as coaches and their job as coaches is to climb that ladder as high as they can. We're there to facilitate that."