Homecoming
MARBLE FALLS — Faith Academy assistant football coach Jamie Graham laughed at the question and didn’t take long to answer.
Do your players know who you are?
“I could show them VHS tapes,” he said with a grin. “But they would ask me, ‘What’s a VHS tape?’”
Graham returns to Marble Falls, a former Mustang tailback who helped put the football program on the powerhouse map.
It was a golden time for Burnet County football. The Burnet Bulldogs and the Mustangs used to battle for district championships in the early 1990s before Marble Falls moved up to Class 4A.
Graham was the first power runner for the Mustangs in the David Denney era. He was a 1,000-yard rusher as a varsity starter in 1990 and 1991 and helped the Mustangs reach the playoffs for the first time since 1980.
Ironically, he wasn’t a first-team all-district running back. But he was a first-team All-Central Texas selection and was the team’s offensive back of the year in 1990 and 1991.
“We had some good running backs in that district,” Graham said. “I didn’t come on until the playoffs. I didn’t have real good games until the playoffs.”
Marble Falls advanced to the playoffs in 1990, losing to Ballinger in the first round and to Burnet in the regional quarterfinals in 1991.
The former Mustang now puts on the Faith red and black and looks forward to working with six-man football players after a stint at Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, N.M., where he coached freshman football for four years and varsity receivers for one year.
Six-man football now is second nature to Graham. After he earned a teaching certificate from Texas Tech in 1999, he was the defensive coordinator for the six-man team at Southland High School for two years and then was the head coach for three more before moving to Carlsbad to be close to his wife’s family.
But while he was visiting his parents, Dr. Fred and Paulette Graham, during this past Christmas, he and his wife Tenisha, along with their sons Cameron, 5, who will be attending Faith as a kindergartner, and Brody, 3, began to give serious thought about moving to Marble Falls.
It also helped that Jamie’s younger sister, Gabe, and her family are living here, he said.
So the pair took a drive through the area and saw two dance academies. One of them, Starz Dance Academy, was for sale.
The couple bought it and renamed it Hill Country Dance and Cheer.
“I didn’t want to force my wife to come to my hometown,” he said. “I love Marble Falls, I love the size of the town. It just happened to work out that way.”
He “applied everywhere within 30 minutes” of Marble Falls for a teaching and coaching position, Graham said.
He interviewed at Llano Independent School District and was a finalist. But in the end, the district decided to promote from within.
When he was back in Marble Falls, Graham talked to Faith Academy athletic director John Berkman about his interest in teaching at the small Christian school.
Once head coach Russ Roberts became the assistant athletic director, Faith had an opening for a history teacher, Graham’s specialty. He will teach two history and two freshman history classes. The new coach doesn’t see Faith as a step down. Rather, he believes he’s right where he should be.
“I always knew Faith would be an option just because I coached six-man,” he said. “Everything has worked out. We were patient. We tried to make some decisions. We prayed a lot.”
Graham went to some 7-on-7 games during the summer and offered a little advice until two-a-days began Monday.
He believes he will be able to contribute to helping the players “focus on the little things and to always get better.”
“I want to get the most out of each kid and establish the relationships with them,” he said. “They’re capable of doing some things, usually more than what they think they’re capable of doing.”
Roberts believes Graham’s background in six-man football is one of his great strengths.
“That makes him invaluable,” he said. “He’s a great addition to our staff. We’re happy to have him and very pleased and looking forward to the addition he’ll make to our staff.”
Graham said he believes Faith is a place that celebrates and respects each person’s strengths and welcomes newcomers with loving arms. That’s apparent in the way the players have responded.
“Every one of those athletes are special in their own way,” he said. “It feels like a big family. I’m happy to be back in the Hill Country, happy to put down my own roots. I look forward to being here a long time. I never wanted to be one of those coaches who moved around.”