Alonzo Hampton has spent the last four years trying to turn Arkansas-Pine Bluff football into a winner. prominence. On Saturday, he and the Golden Lions will have an opportunity to move one step closer to that goal in what is the biggest game of his stint as head coach to date.

Reigning SWAC champion Prairie View A&M is coming to Simmons Bank Field with significant implications for the SWAC Western Division race.

UAPB enters the matchup riding a three-game winning streak and ranked among the nation’s top HBCU programs — a place the Golden Lions haven’t been since playing for the conference championship in the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2021 season.

For Hampton, it represents the kind of opportunity he envisioned when he returned to the school, where he once started as a volunteer coach whose responsibilities included picking up lunch and doing all the “grunt work” under then-head coach Monte Coleman before eventually working his way up to defensive coordinator.

But as much as Hampton wants to see the Golden Lions compete for a conference championship this year, there is something he considers just as important as what happens on the field.

That his players are building a spiritual foundation.

Hampton doesn’t separate his responsibilities as a football coach from his desire to share his faith. In fact, he considers the two almost indistinguishable.

“My purpose is simple: to lead young men to Christ. It’s not to win football games,” Hampton told HBCU Sports. “Because I got a lot of rings. I won. I made a lot of money at different locations, but none of that matters.”

That philosophy has defined UAPB under Hampton, particularly during a tough 9-26 stretch over his first three seasons.

Now, with UAPB sitting at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in SWAC play, the Golden Lions are beginning to see the football results that Hampton believes will eventually accompany the culture he has worked to establish.

“When I took over this program, we were at the bottom,” Hampton said. “But I know what God spoke to me. He said we would become a lighthouse. I’ve never wavered from that.”

UAPB football is build around something bigger

Hampton’s approach to faith isn’t limited to private expressions of it.

The Golden Lions begin their days with scheduled devotionals, with Hampton and members of his coaching staff taking turns sharing messages about life intertwined with biblical principles. Players participate in Bible study sessions, attend church, and develop relationships with teammates that extend beyond the games themselves.

Golden Lions starting quarterback, Jack Schierholz, has become one of the most prominent examples.

According to Hampton, Schierholz leads Bible study and has even baptized several teammates. Hampton describes the quarterback as one of the team’s biggest worshipers.

Their relationship also illustrates how Hampton approaches recruiting.

When Schierholz and his father visited Pine Bluff while on a recruiting visit, Hampton shared during a recent SWAC coaches media briefing that he encouraged the quarterback to pray about whether UAPB was where he wanted to play football.

That decision became particularly significant when the team’s original starting quarterback, Garrison Davis, suffered a season-ending ACL injury against Alabama State in October. Schierholz, who hadn’t even been the starter when he was selected as a team captain, eventually took over the position.

“He was the best teammate possible to the starting quarterback,” Hampton said. “And God saw his faithfulness.”

Now, Schierholz is leading the offense. He’s thrown for 886 yards, 9 touchdowns and four interceptions while assisting Hampton to establish a spiritual and football culture.

“It just shows God has a plan for everyone,” Schierholz said in an interview before the season about his football journey and building bonds with his UAPB teammates. It might be in football. It might be being a great friend or being a great brother, father, or husband … and reminding them God loves them.”

How Alonzo Hampton got here

To understand why Hampton speaks so openly about his faith, it’s important to understand what he experienced long before becoming a college football coach.

It is a story that begins with tragedy.

Hampton was 3 years old when his mother was shot and killed while attempting to break up a confrontation involving her sister and her sister’s husband.

His father was also shot and killed when Hampton was in fifth grade.

Before Hampton was even a teenager, he had lost both biological parents. He was living with his grandmother in rural Johnsville, Arkansas, where he recalled using an outhouse for a bathroom and struggling academically at school.

After his father died, Hampton said, his stepmother returned and helped raise five children.

He considers that moment one of the most important turning points in his life.

She introduced him to structure, taught him the importance of studying, and helped reconnect him with the church.

Hampton’s mother had been a minister, and his father was a deacon. Faith was part of his upbringing, but his childhood experiences gave him a different understanding of what it meant to be steadfast in it.

Hampton played defensive back and ran track at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, earning All-Louisiana honors and finishing his college football career with 201 tackles and three interceptions.

Despite being undersized by football standards, Hampton went on to play pro football with the Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars and in the now-defunct NFL Europe.

His football career took him places he never imagined growing up in Warren, Arkansas. But Hampton believes his accomplishments show something beyond his own determination.

“All these things, man, what God has shown me, what he’s done for me, that’s why I can stand on the word of God,” Hampton said.

The coach. The preacher

A reporter once jokingly dubbed Hampton “The pastor of the SWAC” because of an inclination to seemingly deliver mini sermons during press conferences.

But that relationship with the ministry is an actual trade, not a caricature.

In February 2007, a tornado tore through Dumas, Arkansas, destroying his home and 32 other houses in his neighborhood within a town of 5,300 people.

Hampton recalled that he had originally planned to stay home that day but accompanied his wife to an appointment instead.

A tree, which had been uprooted by the F-3 storm, fell on the couch where he would have been sitting.

When he eventually returned to his damaged home, he discovered that the Bible and the handwritten notes he had been using to communicate with God were still there.

Hampton viewed surviving the storm as another defining moment in his spiritual journey.

A year later, on Feb. 24, 2008, Hampton delivered his first sermon at True Harvest Missionary Baptist Church in Dumas.

He eventually became an associate pastor and preached approximately 25 to 30 sermons before returning his primary attention to football.

Hampton is a licensed minister, but he doesn’t necessarily view a church pulpit as the place where his ministry happens.

It’s the football program.

“My calling is this football field. My ministry is these young men that I touch every day,” Hampton said.

That conviction helps explain why he’s comfortable talking about religion openly, even in a high-stakes profession where coaches are strictly evaluated by wins and losses.

When he interviews prospective players and coaches, Hampton said he wants to learn about their families and their faith.

He also makes it clear that he won’t compromise those beliefs for a job.

“I wouldn’t take a job if they weren’t accepting of my faith,” Hampton said. “I don’t go anywhere where God’s not in it.”

Saturday is everything. So is everything else

There is no question that Saturday’s matchup against Prairie View A&M carries enormous significance for UAPB in the SWAC standings.

UAPB has climbed to No. 6 in the latest Black College Football Poll, and have the second-best odds to reach the Celebration Bowl, according to the most recent projections.

Hampton called the upcoming matchup a conference championship game at home and urged the community to fill Simmons Bank Field.

Still, his expectations for Saturday extend beyond the game itself.

Asked what he believes God is telling him about Saturday’s marquee matchup, Hampton didn’t offer a prediction or suggest that UAPB would win.

Instead, he talked about accepting whatever outcome is once the clock hits all zeros on the scoreboard.

“God doesn’t care who wins the game,” Hampton said. “I do care about it, but I also care about these young men seeing a person that’s standing in front of them every day.”

He explained that he prays for both teams to be protected from injury and danger, adding that he hopes the Golden Lions win if that is God’s will.

But he refuses to let the outcome determine his outlook on the season or life.

“Win or lose on Saturday, God is still good to Coach Hamp and the UAPB football program,” he said. “And I’m going to get up on Sunday. I’m going to go to church like I went every Sunday before.”

He tells his players that sometimes people miss their blessings because they give up one day too early.

For three seasons, Hampton continued to believe that UAPB was moving toward something better, even when the results suggested otherwise.

Now, the Golden Lions are beginning to see the possibilities — the football and divine ones, too.

“We’ve got our foot down and we’re going to keep rolling now,” Hampton said.