Jarad Richards, Rockdale                                                                                                                                       Coby Richards, Cameron Yoe

It would seem to be a very difficult situation, to say the least.   They are head baseball coaches for different teams who are in the same district.  They are head baseball coaches for different teams who have a long rivalry with other.  And, they are brothers.  Obviously, it would have to be a tense and awkward situation.  But that is not the case for Jarad and Coby Richards.  For them, being close and doing similar things has just been a way of life.

Jarad, 27, head baseball coach for the Rockdale Tigers, and Coby, 26, head baseball coach for the Cameron Yoe Yoemen, have done most things together throughout their life.  As young boys growing up in 1A Cross Plains, a town 43 miles SE of Abilene, Jarad and Coby were often outside together playing some sport.  Just 1 ½ years apart in age (2 years by grade), their passion for sports led them to playground tennis, football, basketball, baseball, or whatever game they could find going on.  They loved sports and they enjoyed playing them together.

As they grew older and moved into competitive sports, their sports career often took the same paths.  In football, older brother Jarad was the quarterback for the Cross Plains Buffaloes his junior and senior year.  He graduated and younger brother Coby took his place as the next Buffalo quarterback during his junior and senior years.

In baseball, Jarad was the 2^nd baseman his freshman and sophomore year and then moved to shortstop his last two years.  True to the pattern, Coby played 2B as a tandem with his brother during his early years and then became the team’s shortstop for two years after Jarad’s graduation.  The only sport in which they took different paths was basketball.  At 5’9” Jarad was a guard in basketball while Coby, who was 6’2”, became the team’s post player.

 

Their paths took similar routes in college.  Upon graduation, Jarad first went to Tarleton State University in Stephenville to play baseball.  After a redshirt year, he transferred over to Howard Payne University in Brownwood, only a 30 minute drive from Cross Plains.  He started at 2B his first year there and loved the program.  Younger brother Coby was able to attend a lot of the Howard Payne games and before the season was over, he was invited to sit on the bench with the team during the games.  So where else would he go but to Howard Payne to join his brother on the baseball team? 

 

Both of the Richards boys chose careers in coaching after graduation from college.  Their journeys took different paths after their college careers but only for a short time.  In the spring of 2006, Coby was in his 3^rd year at Cameron Yoe as an assistant baseball and assistant football coach.  Jarad was a little further south in Lexington doing exactly the same thing.  But then the head baseball coaching position came open at Rockdale, a town just 16 miles south of Cameron and Cameron’s biggest rival.  Jarad applied for the job and was hired.  A month later, the head baseball coach at Cameron Yoe moved over to become Yoe’s head basketball coach and Coby was named as his replacement.  The 2006-2007 rivalry between Cameron Yoe and Rockdale now had an added component.  Two brothers coaching on opposite sides of the battle.

 

In the Fall of 2006, Cameron Yoe and Rockdale met in football in the “Battle of the Bell” in which the brothers were both assistant varsity football coaches.  The "Battle of the Bell" is the name of the annual game between these two teams and the winner of the game gets to take the bell home (see right), paint it their school colors and keep it until the next year.  The Yoemen won the game this night 50-12 and held on to the bell for the third year in a row. 

 

Then baseball season came around the next spring and finally the brothers met up in a head-to-head district battle of head baseball coaches from the rival schools.  The first game between the two was to be held in Cameron but rains forced them to move the game to Rockdale.  As the umpires and coaches came together for their meeting at home plate just before the game, the umpires witnessed something never seen between coaches of these two battling schools.  Instead of the customary handshake between the coaches, the Rockdale coach and the Cameron Yoe coach embraced each other in a big hug as though they were family with strong ties.

 

The rivalry game began with the Yoemen scoring two runs in the top of the first to take an early lead.  After scoring another run in the third Cameron headed into the bottom of the fifth with a 3-0 lead.  Rockdale, though, found some life and scored three runs in the fifth to tie the game at 3-3.  After a scoreless sixth, the game headed into the final inning.  Cameron found themselves in the 7^th with the bases loaded and two outs.  The batter, Jason Sigler, came through with a two-run single that gave Cameron a 5-3 lead.  They shut Rockdale down in the bottom of the 7^th to take the win.

 

“I told my guys before our game,” Coby laughed, “that if we lost this game to my brother it was going to be B-A-D for them.  He’s beat me all my life in everything but basketball and golf (Jarad only admits to golf) and I did not want to lose this game to him.”

 

The second game in Cameron was even more intense.  Going into the top of the 7^th inning, Rockdale found themselves down 5-2.  But once again, they found life and scored three runs to tie the game at 5-5.  In the bottom of the 7^th, Cameron got a leadoff double.  The runner then advanced to 3^rd on a sacrifice bunt.  With a new batter up and two outs, the next pitch sailed high and past the catcher allowing the runner to score from 3^rd and giving Cameron the 6-5 victory and a sweep over the rival Rockdale Tigers.

 

In spite of the intense rivalry, Jarad and Coby spend a lot of time together outside the field of sports.  Being 16 miles apart allows them to do that on a regular basis.  “We don’t talk football or baseball when we’re together.” said Jarad.  “We talk about golf, family, and things like that.”  Currently, the brothers play on the same team in a weekend flag football league and are both eagerly awaiting the birth of Coby and his wife Veronica’s first child, which is due any day now.

 

One of the things they also enjoy is their parents’ attendance at the rivalry games.  Monty and Melissa Richards still reside in Cross Plains and have made the trip down to every game that Cameron Yoe and Rockdale have played against each other.  This would seem to be the kind of a thing that would make parents a nervous wreck but Monty and Melissa have made the best of the situation.

 

“Dad has a lot of fun with this.”  Jarad explained.  “At the football games he tells us that he and mom are going to stand in the end zone for the first half and then sit in the bleachers on the side of the winning team in the 2^nd half.  And at the baseball games, he tells us that he is going to sit behind home plate until someone gets ahead.  Then for the rest of the game he is going to sit on the side of the team who is ahead.  He tells us that he wants to sit on the winner’s side.”

 

Despite what he tells his boys, Monty Richards has found a unique way to demonstrate non-favoritism support of his boys.  He had a special hat made to wear when attending  these games.  One half of the hat is Cameron Yoe maroon with the Yoeman logo and the other half of the hat is Rockdale blue with the Tiger emblem.  The Richards support their boys with enthusiasm and the boys' close relationship must make it easier on them.

 

Jarad and Coby said their close relationship makes both their coaches and rival coaches a little nervous.  “We don’t share secrets or insights about our team or about other teams,” Coby made clear.  “I think some coaches suspect that we do, but we don’t.”

 

Instead, the Richards brothers just continue to enjoy the thrill of competition and coaching and encouraging young athletes.  These two men have certainly demonstrated that the ties of friendship and togetherness that were formed at such an early age in their life are much stronger than any pressure and tension that could come from coaching at rival schools.