By Thomas Sellers Jr.
This November David Wampler has been pulling double duty and logging in extra hours on the campus of Brighton High School. After his daily responsibilities were done in the school, he headed over to the gridiron practice field to prepare his Cardinal defense for a postseason game. With hardly time to grab a drink of water, Wampler might change his shoes to step into the Brighton Gymnasium to do some preseason work with his Lady Cardinals. While some might complain about the marathon schedule, Wampler rejoiced in the early November days just happy to be alive. As he continues his recovery from Prostate Cancer, Wampler took pleasure in guiding the defense of the 2017 Region 8-5A champion Cardinals and preparing the Lady Cardinals for the new-look District 13-3A. “I hope it stays like this for at least a month,” he said. “Basketballwise, we’re just trying to do what we do and be good at what we do. In basketball, a lot of my opponents watch film. I don’t. I feel like we’ve got to be good at what we do. Until we get good at what we do, it don’t really matter what the other people do. “Footballwise, we adjust every week,” Wampler continued. “This week I charted about 200 to 300 plays. I charted every play. A lot more film footballwise. I feel basketballwise, where we’re at from last year, we’ve got to get fundamentally stronger. And we still do that everyday.” The veteran coach is heading into his second season as the leader of the Lady Cardinals Hoopsters. Wampler used some of his football training to strengthen his girls for the upcoming basketball season. The Lady Cardinals have hit the weight room doing powerlifting, cleans, squats, seated military, jump scrugs and more. After finishing runner-up in the Millington Christmas Tournament and ending the district drought, the hopes are higher for Lady Cardinal Basketball. “Fundamentally we’re getting more sound and we’re understanding our schemes better,” Wampler noted. “But just having a leader, the two leaders left with seniors Aubree Jones and Lindsey Morrissette. We’re sorting having a peaking order to see who are leaders are.” Players like Sylvia “Bug” Jones, Taliyah “Tee” Brown, Haley Simpson, MG Smith and Kailee Hunt all have to mature on and off the court according to Wampler. “Bug, skillwise, is the best player,” he acknowledged. “But she’s a sophomore and she’s still a little immature on taking on the leadership role. Tee is starting to step up on bing a leader but she’s such a quiet kid. She’s trying to lead by example. Alkalize is trying to figure it out. Right now they’ve bought into we’re going to work hard every day and we’re going to have fun doing. And we are still trying to get 1 percent better every day.” In order to give his best to his players and program, Wampler is living by his own philosophy of getting 1 precent better every day. “In the summer, I had Prostate Cancer and had to go take care of that,” he recalled. “When I came back from that, I sort of just set on the bench and let them play. I didn’t stand up, scream or holler. I didn’t tell them where to go. I just sort of threw them out there and let them play. If they screwed up, put another one out there and continued to let them play. We didn’t do very well. We were 9-18. “They learned a lot and we went away for two weeks and came back with a new attitude and work ethic,” Wampler added. “They realize now we’re not going to sneak up on anybody. We have to work hard and bust our butts. I thought yesterday being the second day of practice, it was one of the best practices we ever had. We have 4 or 5 new girls coming into the program.” As the program adjusts to the newcomers, Wampler was learning how to heal his body while coaching. “When you get into this business, it’s not about wins,” he said. “It’s about people. I was told about a year and half ago I was going to eventually have cancer. I was probably 5 to 15 years away. I found out in December I had Stage 10 cancer. “I had a chance that I could be dead in a year,” Wampler acknowledged. “In March I had a robotic vasectomy. They removed it. Basically my doctor told me that I am a walking miracle. That I should have had to have radiation and chemo. Thank God I haven’t had to.” Wampler’s battle not only humbled him. “I think from a basketball standpoint my kids saw what I went through and what I was dealing with, and still deal with everyday,” he said. “I still have issues and will have to have more procedures done. But I think its made them see, it has cut out their complaining. They’ll come in and say, ‘Are you having a good day Coach.’ I’ll tell them, ‘Everyday God blesses me with another day it’s a good day.’ Because I’m really living on borrowed time. “That’s the way I feel and the way I try to teach my two little boys,” Wampler continued. “I have a 7-year-old in first grade and a 10-year-old in fourth grade. I try to teach them at the same time, make every minute count. I tell the girls every time we walk on the court we’ll make every minute count.” The Lady Cardinals are making every minute of the preseason count preparing for a district featuring the Hardin County, Dyer County, newcomer Liberty and defending champions Munford. “Baby steps,” Wampler said. “Everyone wants to say we’re heading in the right direction, but that’s yet to be proven. I guess 8-18 here got a lot of people excited. “We did break the losing streak and didn’t finish last for the first time in forever,” he added. “Now there’s expectations. When you’re young and now there are expectations, there’s more pressure. We’re going to play hard when get on the floor and battle. It may not be pretty but we’re going to give ourselves a chance with just effort.” Wampler said effort is not coached, it comes out of the desire in a person. This November his boys and girls have given him energy and desire on the football field and hardwood because they see his sacrifices. The veteran coach hopes the trend from the second official day of practice carries over to February for his Lady Cardinals.
“We went through a full practice with effort,” he concluded. “We had execution. We had it upbeat and positive — no dragging. So if we could do that everyday, we’ll give ourselves a chance. And that’s all you can ask for — a chance.”
