BRYANT -- Kirk Bock's coaching style is straightforward.
Bock advocates fundamentals and his teams thrive on hard work. It's hard to argue with his program's success.
"Everything we try to do is blue collar," said Bock, who has coached the Bryant Hornets to four state Class 7A baseball titles in the past seven years. "Those are folks who make the world go around, like that dude out there digging that ditch. He busts his hump every day, goes home, wakes up and does it all over again, knowing that he's making a difference. ... I want players that have a blue-collar mentality."
That mind-set, which and this year's Class 7A championship, Bock is the All-Arkansas Preps Coach of the Year.
The son of Arkansas coaching legend Billy Bock, Kirk Bock has been well traveled, both as an athlete and as a coach. He attended four schools -- Arkadelphia, Arkansas High in Texarkana, Jefferson Prep in Pine Bluff and Pine Bluff High -- in his final three years of high school.
Bock says it helped make him into the man he is today.
"Everything can be a curse or a blessing," said Bock, who coached baseball at Mountainburg, Van Buren and Harrison before arriving at Bryant for the 2008-2009 school year. "A lot of people might say that attending four high schools in three years was a curse, but I think it helped me develop as a better person because I got to meet other people and be around other programs."
Bock, 51, credits his older brother Kraig for helping him learn how to play baseball. He said the two spent almost every afternoon learning how to play the game in their backyard.
"A lot of kids don't do that anymore," Bock said. "The game is so structured and organized now. I think today there's better athletes, but I don't think they can function outside the box like we could. We just had to figure it out."
Bock became a fan of the Atlanta Braves when they became a cable staple in the 1980s, and third baseman Bob Horner was Bock's favorite player.
"We watched some baseball every night," Bock said. "We tried to mimic those guys."
After more than two decades of being a coach,
Bock said he doesn't watch games the same after more than two decades as a coach than he did his baseball viewing has been altered.
"I don't watch games for the enjoyment of watching games," Bock said. "I watch to try to figure out what somebody's doing. I watch it to learn. ... My wife hates watching a game with me because I'm always trying to break it down."
And then there is the influence of his father. Billy Bock won nine state titles at four different schools -- St. Anne's Academy in Fort Smith in 1967, Sylvan Hills in 1974, Texarkana in 1982 and at Pine Bluff in 1983-1986, 1992 and 1995. Billy Bock also had five other teams to finish as runners-up.
"Expectations ran high in our family," said Kirk Bock, who was a part of two state baseball championship teams as a player and who has won five baseball titles as a coach. "If you lost in the championship game, that meant you're the last loser of the year."
Billy Bock died in 2003, but his impact on Kirk Bock remains.
"The way he went about some things are a little different than the way I do it, but his baseball philosophy and mine are similar," Bock said. "He believed in fundamentals and he believed in working harder than anybody else. He understood as a coach, you're not going to outcoach people, but you can outwork them."
Sports on 06/19/2016