By Mark Buffalo, Sports Editor

After 158 wins and the school’s only state championship in football, Hazen coach Joe Besancon is leaving the Prairie County school to become head coach at Barton High School in Phillips County.

Besancon has coached at Hazen for 26 years, including the last 18 as head coach. He was an assistant under Bruce Thompson and Wayne Raney, coming over after two years as a coach at Jacksonville Junior High School.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Besancon said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for me. It’s a new chapter. I was at Hazen for a long time. I’m really excited about this opportunity and seeing what I can do at one of the most tradition-rich programs around, not just in small classifications but any classification in the state of Arkansas.”

Besancon is replacing Steve Sexton, who resigned following the 2025 season.

“Barton had an opening and I emailed Coach Guthrie, and he called me and asked if I’d be interested in coming in for an interview,” Besancon said, referring to Barton superintendent Bruce Guthrie, who was an assistant football coach at Carlisle previously. “It kind of went from there.”

During the Hazen School Board meeting Feb. 24, Besancon spoke during the comment period of the meeting. He was quoted as saying that the “whole district is stagnant,” and priorities for the district were focused on “tearing others down.”

“I love Hazen, and I always will,” he said. “I realize there needs to be some changes made, in my opinion.”

Besancon won the school’s only state championship when his football team beat Carlisle to win the 2022 Class 2A state title at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. He had previously taken the Hornets to the state title game in 2014 and 2018.

He said it’s hard to leave Hazen.

“I’ve built a career there,” Besancon said. “I had other opportunities in the past to pursue but didn’t. I was very blessed that I got to work with a lot of wonderful people in the school district. I got to coach some amazing young people. I surrounded myself with really good assistants. I’m very blessed. with the success I’ve had. A lot of that credit goes to the kids I’ve coached and the coaches I had helping me do it.”

Hazen superintendent Andy Barrett said the district is posting the opening for football on various job websites.

“It’s going to be hard to replace the type of experience and dedication that he’s put into our program and this community all these years,” Barrett said of Besancon. “His legacy is going to live on for a long time.”