Episode 1: Willie Arnold

Welcome to Episode 1 of the Coweta County Bicentennial Podcast Series - Our Community, Our Story. 

Meet Willie Arnold who has served as a community youth football coach for more than 40 years with the Coweta County Parks & Recreation. During this episode, Willie is interviewed by Parks & Recreation Division Director Jay Walton as they look back on Willie's time growing up and now serving the Coweta County community. 

Do you want to capture a piece of your family’s history? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at info@coweta.ga.us and stay tuned for more episodes.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Cow Wida County Story Booth Podcast. Our community, our story. In each episode, family members and friends will interview one another, share memories, local traditions, and experiences growing up in Cal Wita County. These stories are being preserved as part of a living archive for future generations. We hope you enjoy.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

My name is Willie Arnold, a AK Zulu.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

And my name is Jay Walton. Work at the Recreation Department. Today I'll be interviewing my good friend, good acquaintance, acquaintance about his time growing up in Cal Wita County. Some experiences that he feels make the community special. Alright, first question. Jump into it. When were you born in? What part of Cal Wheat were you born in?

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Rocky Hill. I was born on June the 4th, 1954. Okay. Did you grow up in Rocky Hill? Where did you grow up at? On VC Street, right off of 123 Wish Washington Street. That's why usually we moved to.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Give me some stories from your childhood that went on back then.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Well, it was went to Roof Hill School. Mostly we had to walk to school each and every day. And uh I was kind of short and, you know, most of the time kids pick on me a lot, but you know, I guess that comes when you're short.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Yeah, I've been through that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

And uh I remember playing uh basketball at Roof Hill School in the sixth grade on uh Coach Washington, Bernie Washington, he came there. He was a physical education teacher. And at Roof Hill School, we, you know, we did a lot of activities, you know. Uh I played with most of the uh older guys because most of the younger guys, you know, we didn't play with them. I grew up, you know, all around the big, big guys because, you know, that's the way they brought us up. You know, we followed the big guys and we they lead us on to a better situation of how to play sports and do all that. Right. I played, started playing football when I was six years old at Rootfield School. We were the first school to have a football team. What year was this? It's about 60, 67, something along in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Okay, so 67 would have been the first year that Ruth Yo had a football team.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah, we had a football team. We had a basketball team, we had a track team, and uh we started playing football. I I was in the sixth grade, and uh I remember Mr. Jimmy Hill, he came over there to help us out, you know, to teach the fundamental of the game. And he asked me, he said, uh, I said, he said, what position you want to play? I said, uh, halfback, you know. He said, You sure you want to play that? I said, yes, sir. And uh he put me back there, he taught me the holes and position, how to run and all that. Eighth grade, we got a chance to play Noonan Junior High. A couple games over there at Pickett Field. Uh we did pretty good, ran all over Noonan Junior High. Okay. And then we finally got a game with Noonan High. We played the ninth grade over there at Noonan High. We kind of beat them too. And then we played a team from uh Barnesburg, Georgia, that Coach Washington knew. They came out of them guys are pretty big that we couldn't really do nothing with them guys. And uh at the eighth grade before they integrated, uh, I had a chance to talk to the coach from Noonan Junior High. He wanted me to go to Noonan Junior High that year. My parents wouldn't let me go over there. So my last year at Roof Hill, we ended up winning a championship basketball. We did pretty good that year before I entered high school.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Okay. What part of Cal Oda do you live in now?

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Well, I stay on the west side of it. Okay. You enjoy the west side? It's okay. You can't complain about nothing.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Okay. I know when we I I first met you, you was working at the uh at the prison camp as a guard out there. Um where in Cowita have you worked during this during your lifetime?

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Well, when I graduated from high school, I went to uh Knoxville College up there, played football. I had a scholarship up there. Only reason I went up there because of my best friend, he told me he was going to the University of Tennessee. So I went up there and stayed up there a year. It was cold up there. I'd never, you know, really been in cold weather, you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

And uh I stayed up there a year. And uh after I came out of college, I hung around for a while. And then I joined the military, went into the military. I did six years in the military. I come out, I uh started working as a firefighter for Coyote County. I worked there for about 18 months, and I went to another job. I started driving trucks, didn't like that. And then by 18 months, I joined the uh Coyote County Corrections Center out there. I stayed out there for 28 years. Got a chance to meet a bunch of young kids out there coming into the prison system, you know, and you try to help them out, you know, the best way you can to keep them from going in and out of prison.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Okay. Is there any story that you remember when you was a prison guard or some of the guys in your camp or whatever? Any story that stick out in your mind all them years that you was there, but one story that you can't forget, or this first thing that comes to your mind when somebody asks you about their job?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, I remember one. I kept uh, you know, we we had guys that come from different places, you know. And uh we had one and now he's from Decatur. Most of all the kids uh guys come from Decatur, they had gold in the mile. And, you know, he was sitting there one day. We was on the bus, we was riding, and uh we had a uh guy from he from Atlanta up there, but he was from Jamaica. And uh I used to call Decatur, you know, talk man, because he talked all the time, you know. And uh he kept talking to the Jamaican, and the Jamaican got mad. And I told uh Sergeant Axison, I said, he gonna fight when they get off this bus. You know, he said, and I said, I ain't gonna, you know, do nothing. I said, because Jamaica, he just talk, talk, talk, talk, you know. And so when they we got off the bus, and uh we sit there for a while, gonna eat lunch, and after a while they they jumped up. So me and the sergeant, we had to break them up and come in there. And uh on the uh he had done whooped old Decatur pretty good there. And when we got to the camp there, and the warden, we walked and put him in the war and said, Hey, what happened to you? He said, Oh, ain't nothing but some bushy hit me when I was cutting the bushes down. And I just tickled me to death because he done whooped him that bad, you know.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yeah, okay. Um, I know you've been in Calhouda for a long time. So as far as from you can remember until up until now, what's the what's the biggest changes that you would say? What's the difference in Cowita County is how it was when you first can remember being here to present day?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

It's a whole lot, you know, Caesita County done grow from the time that I was raised, you know. It's a whole different story now, you know. When we was uh growing up, you know, we really didn't have too many places to go. The little places that we did go, you know, we couldn't stay out late because we had to get home before it got dark.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Go a little bit deeper into that.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Well, you know, parents, you know, back then was a whole lot stricter than they is now. You know, we we goes to the playground or to the project. Well, we say most of the time we play basketball in the project. Before, you know, they say before the sun goes down, you have to run home or you have to be there. You had choice, you know. You know, we won one of the best raising the best, so you know, I had choice for I had to go to school or whatever. Right. You know, I'd cut wood and do all that stuff, make five before, you know, because I had five sisters, you know. You know, girls don't do nothing, you know. And uh me and my brother had to do most of the work. And, you know, I remember one one night, you know, had got them and uh it was kind of cold, you know, cold. And I had done in all the firewood and stuff, you know. And uh by the time I got ready to go to bed, my sister and them had done burned up all the wood. And I was laying there asleep, you know. And my dad had pulled the cup off and man, it was something else that night. And he made me get up out the bed and go out there and cut some more firewood before I go to bed, you know.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

So he got you up out of your sleep.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Mm-hmm, that's right. And, you know, kids got it easy today, you know. They, you know, they got a silver spoon in their mouth and they, you know.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

They, you know, they they don't have to work hard like we did.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

I totally agree. I totally agree. Um, if there's one thing you miss most about the old Cowita versus the new Cow Wita, what's what's the what's the give me something that you missed? Something that you wish still was going on that's not going on now.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Well, I'm I miss playing baseball. You know, we had a baseball league. You know, we used to play over that picket field every Sunday, and the kids that played baseball, they would come, you know, one of those, you know, we would go to Atlanta, Decato, all around. And the kids from Nuna High that played baseball that summer they would come over and play with, you know, play with us. And, you know, we had a couple of, you know, guys, white guys that come over there and play to play for Nuna High. And the coach over there at Nuna High, he would always tell them, you know, go over there, you know, during the summer if you're not doing nothing, and play baseball. So every, every weekend, man, we used to go play baseball with my friends, you know. I started playing with grown guys when I was 13 years old. And all my friends, they, you know, we grew up, you know, they come in, Andrew Hill, you know, Jerome Coleman, all them. We played, you know, with the with the older guys in baseball. So when we got to high school, there really wasn't, you know, nothing the high school guys had on us because we had learned from the guys that came from central high that played, you know, during that time.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

I already had played a lot of competition, so you were ready by the time you got to. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Um What do you like most about Cowida now? What what's the what is anything you well I know some things you like about it, but so one main thing you like about Cow Wida County now?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Well, the main thing I liked about Kaida right now, it ain't it ain't rough as Atlanta, you know. You can walk the streets, you know. You you know, ain't that much, you know, crime around here. That's the main thing, you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

I agree. Um I want to veer off because how I met you and how I how I came to but know the name of Zulu is when I was young growing up, I had friends that say they played football at the recreation department and they coached with Zulu. And it was crazy because I mean you you hear Zulu as when you're young, you don't know what it means. You don't know if it's a name or a nickname. You say, how can that be his name? But I want to veer into that part of uh of your life. Um, I know you've been coaching for the recreation department, um, football, tackle football for over 50 years. And I just want to know what first inspired you to even start to come along and start coaching kids. What made you want to do that?

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Well, you know, most kids, you know, I I played football for Nuna High for four years. And uh I look at, you know, my talent, you know. God gave me good talent. And uh I didn't do nothing with it, you know. So I just rolled out, say, you know, if I can do that, I can, you know, spread it around. And most of the kids that I coach, you know, seem to understand that, you know, basic what I'm saying, you know. And uh we have coached a lot of kids there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Absolutely. What keeps you motivated to keep coaching all these years?

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Well, I just like to be around kids. Anything, you know, most of the time if I can help a kid, I help him, you know. It doesn't make any difference whether, you know, we'll call it nothing, you know. A kid is a kid, a good kid, you know, most of the time, you know, we get the kids that don't have the father figure in the home. And most of the time you see the moms over there with the with the kids. And uh, and that inspires me a lot to, you know, talk to the kids a lot because they don't have a father figure. And it's easier to go down the wrong road than to keep straight, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Absolutely. Absolutely. When you first started out, did you ever imagine now, today, today, did you ever imagine that you would still be around this long, still coaching, volunteering your time, um, working with the kids?

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Not really, because most of the time, you know, I see a lot of coaches come out there, you you probably see them too, you know. They come out there because of the sewing out there to play, and you know, they coach one year and, you know, and you're looking for another coach. Well, you know, I see it as, you know, as a job. Anything that inspires me to keep motivating and keep going in my life, that uh, you know, most of the kids come out there. I enjoy being around them. And when I'm not coaching, you know, I'm umpiring baseball, it keeps me going, you know, season from season. You know, I used to umpire, you know, uh referee. I used to travel, you know, different high schools and stuff. Got tired of that when the kids start getting, games start getting out of hand. You know, the parents coming on the basketball court, and uh, I seen that right then that I had to break away. Because, you know, once your attitude changed, you know, ain't no need of being in the game because it's gonna always, you know, different stories gonna make you mad or gonna, you know. And the coaches today, you know, they really don't have no respect for the umpires or nothing, or referees or nothing like that.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

What role do you see rec football, rec sport playing and shaping the community?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Well, I see it a lot, getting the kids out the street. That's the main thing. Helping the younger kids to develop in some kind of sports instead of uh running the street late at night or whatever. Get them, just get them out the street and give them a sports to play. Most of the time the kids don't have nothing to do. And you if you give them, you know, a book or give them some sports or something for them to do, and instead of letting them just run the street, you know, we'll have better athletes out there. We can get them in into the wreck. Most of the time they go to the wreck, you know, it's some kids have never played football before. And uh you have to sit there and it's just like teaching school. You know, you gotta teach and make sure that that kid understands all about the game because, you know, I tell them, you know, football's a man game. You know, you can't stand around and look because, you know, somebody's gonna come from the blind side and hit you, especially a little man, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Indeed. That's a good segue into my next question. Um, what do you think athletes, young athletes playing rec sports, rec football, what do you think they mostly need from the coach?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Well, most of the kids need a little discipline from the coach. Most of the time, when you coach, you become as a father fickle, you know. Most of the time they, you know, can trust you and you can trust them. You can talk to them or, you know, nature or whatever going on. But most of my kids that I coach, I always tell them that respect goes a long way. And most of them, when they come out there, you know, never brought up the right way, you know. They say, huh, and what, you know. But most of the time I would, you know, get them and tell them is yes, sir or no, sir. Regardless of who you is or where you come from, if you say yes, sir or no, sir, people look at you in a different way, you know. And most of the football players that I have, you know, I try to teach them, you know, the game where, you know, sometimes, you know, you may not be able to play this position, or you may not be able to do this, you know. Find you something that you can do that you enjoy. Because, you know, if you're out there playing football and you don't enjoy playing football, ain't no need of being out there, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Absolutely. We talk about this a lot. I want to get your opinion. What's the difference between the players when you first started, maybe 10, 15 years in uh versus now, uh 50 years later? What's the difference in the the kids that you see?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

It's a whole lot different. Kids, when I first started, they were bigger. You know, they was in bigger size. Now you get 11, 12 year old, he's small. He's real small. And the teams that I have now, you, you know, the kids are smaller, they're not growing. That's one reason because, you know, they're not eating no, you know, eating that pizza and chicken and stuff like that. They don't want to eat real food. But, you know, they come out there, I, you know, they got to have weight on them. If they ain't got no weight on them, you know, they're gonna be pushed around.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Absolutely. What's one moment, one moment from the past 50 years that just sticks out to you? A memory in the football that just sticks out to you that you think about.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

I had a kid that played quarterback for me. And um, it it sticks out a lot, you know, because, you know, I had kept telling him not to do, not to deuce, do the thing that he was doing. I said, well, you know what? I said, uh, you know, once you keep doing it, I'm not, I ain't gonna have to tell you anymore. So they hit him that day and he laying out there and uh and the coach, I had already had done told him I wasn't coming out there, you know. I said, the other coaches come out there and they'll get you, you know. And uh he came out there, they went out there and got him. And uh he looked at me, he said, Coach, he said, he said, what happened? I said, I don't know. I said, you doing the same thing I told you not to do. And one stick out real good. I had a young lady to play with me. You know, I was the first one to have a young lady to play on my football team. And uh she played running back. And I had kept telling her, I said, you got to stay low. You just can't keep running up into that hole. I said, you know, they're gonna hit you and they're gonna hurt you, you know, just like that. So they went out, she ran up through there and they hit her. And she came back over to the sideline. She was crying. I said, take your helmet off, because I don't want my helmet to get wet. And she looked at me. I said, Well, I said, either my way or your way, ain't it? And she looked at me, she said, What you mean, coach? I said, either you're gonna get down or you're gonna keep running high. And I said, I guess it's gonna be my way, ain't it? And uh, you know, she was a, she was, she played good. And I tried to get uh JD let me play one more year for her, but he told me he wouldn't let me get her back. So, you know, good experience right there. Cool.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

What's your what's your what's your favorite football team? Pro, pro college?

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Well, college, I'm an LSU fan.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Where that come from? I thought you was from Luna. I thought you grew up in Luna.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

I see, you know, LSU fans is, you know, you see a lot of blacks in there, you know, and they get a lot of opportunity to play. You see LSU, you know, they pick a lot of pros to go pros. Okay. Pro? Uh Dallas Cowboys, you know. I'm a full cowboy fan, you know. From Luna, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:01

Or is it from are you from Dallas or Louisiana? Is it?

SPEAKER_02 17:04

It doesn't make any difference. You ask me who my favorite team is.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

I'm just checking to make sure who's all still in the same state. I'm just making sure. What kind of advice you would give 22-year-old that want to come out and maybe start coaching football? And maybe what kind of advice would you give him to to for longevity as far as being in it as long as you've been in it? How what what what advice would you give him? Him or her?

SPEAKER_02 17:23

The first thing when you come out there, you got to enjoy being around kids. You got to understand how kids act or, you know, and someday they come out there, you can teach them a play. Tomorrow they may not even know to play. So you got to, you know, be able to accept things that kids do, you know. Because as a football coach, you know, you got to love the game in order to coach the game. You understand what I'm saying? If you don't love the game, you can't you can't coach the game. I always tell, you know, when the coaches come out there, if you never play football or you never played basketball, what can you tell that kid that you gonna coach because you never played? You know, the coaches that I have with me, they've been with me most ever since I've been out there. The three coaches that I have right now. I don't usually pick up any coaches. You know, Jay noticed that I, I guess, because the coach that I have been with me so long that if I can't make the make the day, I can call one of them to sit in for me. But most of the time, you know, I be out there every day because, you know, they got to be able to understand what really coaching is about, you know. Sometimes, you know, you you get on a young kid, you don't, you don't want to scold him or what's that, you know. Most of the time when I get on a kid, I hug him and tell him to come to me. I said, you know, laugh while I'm telling you this, you know, like that. I said, you know you didn't supposed to do that, don't you? He said, Yes, sir. I said, well, okay, we're not gonna do that anymore. And he'll look at me and say, yes, sir. And uh I said, well, go on back out there now. Don't let me have to come get you now. And I always tell my football players, they're not doing what I they supposed to be. I say, you know, I'm not coming out there on that field when I call time out. Somebody else is gonna have to come out with me, you know. And when I go out there, they know I'm not coming out there, you know, just to be coming out there. Right. And the main thing is, you know, is coaching and, you know, loving the game. You gotta love the game just as well as coach the game to the kids, you know.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

If this was your last season, what would you want people to remember about your coaching style? You as a man, you as a father figure to the kids? What what you what would you want them to remember about Willie Arnor, aka Zulu?

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Well, you know, basically as a man and as a coach, you know, and as a, you know, most of the time, you know, when I played football, you know, most people didn't really know my real name. They always called me Zulu Arnold. Absolutely. You know. And half of the folks in Kaida County don't even know who Willie Arnor is, you know. Most that's what I went by school by.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Uh, Zulu, is there anything else uh you want to share?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, uh, you know, when you play in football, and uh, you know, and the first time you score that touchdown, that's the best feeling you ever had. Any line. I can feel it right now. I was in the ninth grade and I was playing varsity at Noon and High. And uh I scored that first touchdown in there. Man, that was the first best feeling I ever had. A lot of people in the crowd. Man, what you talking about, man. And uh I always tell my football player, you know, you don't want it. Because when you score that first touchdown, it's something else, you know. Yeah, it feels good, ain't you?

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Yeah. It feels real good. Well, man, that's all I got. I've been knowing you for the last 19 years personally. And I enjoyed every all 19 years we we did together doing that football, man. I appreciate what you do for the community, what you do for the kids, man. And if it's possible, man, I'd like to have you around for another 50 more years if we can do that. So that's all I got, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

I'm gonna try to be around 50 more years, but I don't think I'm gonna be out there on that football field.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Absolutely, man. Appreciate you. Appreciate you doing this, man. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

I appreciate you, Jay. All right. Thanks for listening to the episodes of Cal Wita County Story Booth Podcast. We hope you enjoy hearing these memories and traditions that make our community special. If you would like to share your own story and help preserve a piece of Cal Wita County's history, email us at info at Cal Weedas.gaus again. That is info at Cal Wita.us.