That’s why Loftis is now an experienced head coach taking over the boys basketball job at his alma mater, Palo Duro. Loftis had been at PD for a while as an assistant to Jeff Evans before leaving to become the head boys coach at Hereford.
Earlier in June, though, Loftis returned to the school where he graduated from in 1999 and served as an assistant under Evans for nine seasons. The path might not have been what he expected, but now Loftis will be living the dream as the head man calling the shots on the sidelines for the Dons next year.
“As a coach you always want to go back home and coach there,” Loftis said. “It’s where you played and grew up at so it’s been a dream ever since I became a head coach to come back here.”
Loftis took the head coaching job at Hereford in 2019 and compiled a 78-46 record, leading the Whitefaces to the playoffs in each of his four seasons. His mentor at Palo Duro, Evans, resigned from the school after 23 years in March to pursue a college assistant coaching job.
For nearly a decade, Loftis served an apprentice role under Evans, and thought about stepping into that role one day. Evans had expressed that he would like Loftis to take the reins of the Dons eventually.
“He would tell me ‘Hey, when I’m done, I want to hand it over to you,’” Loftis said. “He knows how I am, how I coach the same style as him. I fed into that and knew I could feed off that legacy.”
The thing is, Evans didn’t give Loftis or anybody else a timetable for his departure from Palo Duro. When the job came open and Hereford, Loftis went for it and was rewarded.
Loftis showed he could run a program as a head man and be successful. Just as big as anything, he got to coach his son Kenyon, who graduated from Hereford last month.
After coaching almost, a decade under Evans, Loftis took several key lessons into his first head coaching job at Hereford.
“The big thing was discipline and accountability on and off the court,” Loftis said. “It was getting those players to buy in and once they bought in I thought we had a pretty good run.”
Loftis also learned about the buck stops here dynamic of being the one at the top of the coaching pyramid in a program.
“It’s tough,” Loftis said. “The spotlight is on you. It holds a lot of responsibility and it’s a grind being the head coach more than it is an assistant. There’s so much not dealing with the game of basketball that you have to come into.”
Loftis did gradually learn those responsibilities under Evans, who was grooming him for a head coaching spot someday. That shot came first at Hereford.
Before Evans handed in his resignation to Amarillo ISD two weeks before the end of the school year, Loftis was one of the first people he contacted about his intentions.
“(Evans) told me that he was going to let everybody know on Monday,” Loftis said. “He said ‘As soon as it happens I want you to talk to (AISD assistant athletic director Justin) Hefley to let him know you’re interested.’ He told me to apply. As soon as it happened I jumped right on it.”
On June 1 it became official, as AISD announced Loftis would be the next Palo Duro boys basketball coach. His name will be presented at the next AISD board meeting Monday for official approval.
While others showed interest in the job, Loftis seemed like the natural fit in so many obvious ways.
“He understands the environment and the culture of Palo Duro basketball,” AISD athletic director Brad Thiessen said in a statement. “With his experience as an assistant for those years with Jeff, we see this as a seamless transition and a great chance for PD to just keep the program moving forward.”
That’s what Loftis was doing at Hereford when awaiting word on his status after interviewing for the Palo Duro job.
“I was actually still in Hereford working basketball camp when I got the call,” Loftis said. “I couldn’t be happy, happy, but in the back of my mind I wanted to jump up and scream. I had to finish up what I had to do, but I was super happy about it.
“Those kids have bought in over there (in Hereford) and I’ve done something over there and it’s always hard to leave that, but I think it was time and the kids understood that.”
Making the decision to return to PD easier was the presence of Eric Mims Jr. in his third year as head football coach. Loftis and Mims attended Palo Duro at the same time.
One of the things Mims often emphasizes is “Northside Pride” which draws graduates back to coach at the school. That includes Ziggy Hood, the former NFL defensive lineman and recent inductee into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame who is now a defensive assistant in football.
Loftis is part of both following tradition and trying to re-establish one.
“Just from outside and the community, the word is they’re all happy we have alumni here that can get the job done,” Loftis said. “I think that pride is coming back. It has left but I guess it’s more prevalent now with us being here. We’re coaching some of the kids whose parents we went to school with.”
It’s one thing for Loftis to follow in the footsteps of tradition, it’s another to be as successful as Evans, who had a 546-156 record at PD. Loftis knows he has a tough act to follow, and he’ll be watched.
“In the back of my mind I feel pressure to just try to sustain it, but you get a lot of people who say I’ll do fine so that calms my nerves,” Loftis said. “I don’t want to come in and not succeed so I’m kind of putting that pressure on myself.”
