Editor’s note: This story was written by Mark Buffalo is The Grand Prairie Herald Sports Editor. (Photo: Coach Clay Totty on left.)

The Hazen Hornets have a new football coach, and it’s one of the winningest, most successful coaches in the history of Arkansas.

The Hazen School Board hired Clay Totty to replace Joe Besancon, who left in February to become head coach at Barton. Totty has won 257 games in 28 years, including 25 at Rison and the last three at Wynne. His 257 victories rank ninth all-time in Arkansas. He is the second-winningest active coach behind Van Paschal of Cross County. Paschal has 266 wins after leading the Thunderbirds to the Class 2A state title last December.

Totty, who had his contract non-renewed two weeks ago by the Wynne School Board, said he’s excited to be back at the small school level. He won two state titles as the coach of the Rison Wildcats.

“I’m a small-town guy,” Totty said during an interview with The Grand Prairie Herald on March 25. “I’ve always enjoyed the small town. But I felt like the Lord had called me to Wynne. Then after the tornado (March 31, 2023), he made it clear that’s where he wanted me, to get them through that. He pulled the rug out from under me and sent me on. I’m certainly more comfortable in a small school.

“I hate to see the way that high school football is trending at the bigger schools. If you are not committed to recruiting and you don’t have backing for apartments and things like that, it’s hard to compete at the highest level. At the smaller level, it’s still the purity of the game. You are on more of an even playing field. I enjoy that part of the molding men and developing and watching them develop from seventh grade, getting to know all the kids and knowing all the people in the community. I’m very excited in getting back to the small school.”

Totty said the school and community are “one and the same.”

“It’s a lot of fun, especially when you get everybody pulling on the same rope,” he said.

Totty got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. He played college football at Ouachita Baptist University, also in Arkadelphia.

Totty was also an assistant coach at Fordyce and Star City before coming to Rison.

“I’ve got 33 years of experience with 25 years as a head coach,” Totty said.

Hazen superintendent Andy Barrett said the school is blessed with the hiring of Totty.

“I was surprised, but very glad he expressed interest right off the bat as soon as we posted the job,” Barrett said. “Hazen has got a rich heritage and tradition of football. In the three years I’ve been here, I keep learning more and more about so many student-athletes from Hazen going on to play at the collegiate level. It’s every day you go around town and hear stories about great teams and great players. We just hope that Coach Totty is here to help keep building that tradition and pride going.”

Totty won state titles in 2000 and 2004, beating Shiloh Christian and Charleston respectively. His Wildcats also played McCrory in the state title game in 2015, losing to the Jaguars.

“We beat two of the top five longest winning streaks,” Totty said. “Shiloh had a 44-game win streak. Junction City had a 41 in 2015. Those were proud memories.”

Totty said his team will run multiple formations on defense out of a base three front.

“In small ball, you’re going to see the flexbone, Wing T, spread, so you have to be multiple,” he said. “We’ll base it out of a three-man front.”

Offensively, Totty runs a split back formation.

“It’s the origins of the split back veer,” he said. “We play according to our personnel. We have a shotgun package that we’ve implemented for the last four or five years. We’ll have our option package, and we’ll have our more Wing T type package.

“We have a lot of multiple flavors you can use. A lot of it is just getting over there and evaluating personnel and see what favors our personnel the most.”

Hazen opens the 2026 season at Marshall.