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North Little Rock coach is a social media sensation
Daryl Fimple switches on the camera, glances at the half-asleep teen in the passenger seat next to him then turns back and addresses his audience.
“Guess what day it is,” he says, his voice rising and pounding one fist into his other hand. “It’s a great day to be alive Wednesday. Greatness! Wednesday is Greatness Day!”
Over the next two minutes or so, Fimple extols the benefits of his self-proclaimed Greatness Wednesday for an online audience looking for a fix of motivation. In this particular episode, he extols viewers to start their day with something to inspire greatness.
“You say, ‘What would you do, Coach, to make you do great things?’ I’ll tell you what you do,” Fimple says, holding a tube to the camera, showing hand-lettered GREATNESS TOOTHPASTE. “You’re gonna bush your teeth with greatness EVER’DAY!”
Welcome to the inspirational and downright hilarious mind of Daryl Fimple, head girls basketball coach for the North Little Rock Charging Wildcats, father of two teenage girls and, since the start of the school year, a bona fide social media sensation. Looking for a way to inspire his daughters in the era of COVID-19, as well as their classmates heading back to school, Fimple began recording and posting short messages, reviving a concept he had a couple of years back.
“A couple years ago, when [daughter] Katie first started middle school, and it’s a big middle school because it’s almost 2,600 people, which is crazy, she was kind of scared,” Daryl says of the original idea. “So, we did it just one day. We tried it one day and everybody laughed and thought it was funny.”
“This year, I did the one-day thing and everybody was like, ‘This is awesome! Let’s have another one.’ I started doing another one and then, it just started balling up.”
Daryl’s videos are funny on many levels, combining elements of Dad humor, coaching cliches and a delivery that goes from homespun to intense to meandering in the blink of an eye. His tone, Southern-fried-Will-Ferrell-deadpan, carries even the most ridiculous of concepts, teetering on the edge of cracking himself up. It’s so good, you envy him a little for all the fun he’s having.
In addition to Greatness Wednesday, viewers have been treated to commentary on Feel Good Thursday, Nickname Monday, Telephone Tuesday and, frankly whatever else pops into his head moments before hitting the record button as he sits in the car with cheesy favorites from the 1980s playing in the background. Daughter Katie and her older sister Payten often come along for the ride to provide eyerolls.
“The funny thing is, none of it is ever scripted,” Daryl says. “They don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. I might come out in a banana suit and that might be the clue, ‘Oh, God. What’s he doing now?’ Their reactions are what’s priceless because they really don’t know what’s going on. To tell you the truth, I really don’t know what’s going on, either. I just say, hey, this is where we’re going to go.
“I’ll read something about a hammer and a nail or being the captain of a ship and all of that stuff and tweak it. Sometimes, [people are] like, ‘Are you ever going to end these?’ I don’t know if we can, at this point.”
The videos are so entertaining, it’s hard to pinpoint the appeal. Daryl insists there’s no character-shaping going on, what you see is what you get.
“I’ve always been somebody that’s kind of a cut-up. I’ve always been fun and the life of the party, liked making people laugh,” he says. “I can’t live without laughing. I’m a believer and I think the Lord Jesus Christ smiles. I’m sure he looks at some of the stuff I do sometimes and goes, ‘Man, what is this guy doing?’ But, if you’re not going to be happy, it’s hard to get through the day.
“There are too many things that go on and too many decisions to be made to feel sorry for yourself every single day. Another slogan that we always say, ‘Battle on,’ I got from my mom. My mom passed away twelve years ago from leukemia, and I remember her sitting there and telling us that every day is a battle. You’ve just got to battle on. Ever since that, I’ve always thought that every day was important, and you’ve got to make it that way.”
Whatever nerve he’s hitting, it’s proving universal. That point was driven home in no uncertain terms when he got an out-of-the-blue email from Good Morning America.
“It started with GoodmorningAmerica.com. This reporter watched our videos, she said for twelve episodes or whatever. She said, ‘I can’t stop watching these things. I’d like to do a story on you guys,’” he says. “Her producer was from the actual Good Morning America show and she told him to start watching them. So, after she did her story, he called and said, ‘Hey man, I have not stopped laughing. I don’t have a clue why I’m so attracted to these videos, but these are phenomenal.’
“He wanted to know if they were scripted or if we had a sponsor. He wanted to know all kinds of stuff and I go, ‘No, we had a five-dollar camera holder and that’s it. That’s our budget. It’s five dollars so we’re five dollars in the hole right now. If you want to sponsor us, I’m all for that, I guess.’ He took it and ran it on Good Morning America.”
Aided in part by the national exposure, Daryl’s videos have gained an international following.
“It’s amazing how many coaches that I don’t even really know that they follow me. They go, ‘I know what you’re talking about, but you’re putting a spin on it that makes it funny,’” he says. “The kids still get a message, but it’s kind of funny because when you try to do it in a stern way, hell, nobody knows what to think. I just put a spin on it where you want it to be lighthearted and still send a message and make people laugh.
“The funny thing is, if we don’t post, there’s no telling how many people will send me a message like, ‘Are you guys ok? Are you sick? Have you got COVID?’ No, I just didn’t have time to do one today. I’ve been hit up today by people in New Zealand and Australia. I’m going, ‘Goll-ee, guys. I don’t know who you are.’”
Daryl just shakes his head at the widespread impact his two-to-three-times weekly messages to the world appear to be having. But for as far as they reach – from the local Walmart to halfway around the globe – the connection he appreciates most is with his daughters.
“I think Katie enjoys it because a bunch of her classmates’ parents started showing them at home. They were like, ‘Katie, what are you going to do tomorrow?’” he says. “That kind of got her going like, ‘Hey, I don’t know. I never know.’ She got more involved in it because she’s seen the impact it was making on her friends.
“Middle school age, thirteen years old, bless your heart, you’re going through all kinds of stuff just getting along, especially now. She was still going face-to-face and not virtual school. She’s getting to see some of her friends, but not all of her friends. It’s just an unheard-of time because nobody’s ever done any of this stuff before.
“I think what helped it a lot, too, was Payten was involved, especially early on. When your kids look at you and think this is kind of cool and then they get the comments like, ‘I didn’t know your dad was that cool!’ I’m like, man, that’s big time.”
As for the future, he plans on doing these as long as it’s fun and as long as people respond. He frequently gets requests for bringing back certain topics and characters, especially the Captain of the Ship, complete with sailing cap and a mustard yellow blazer.
“My wife said I could continue to do it as long as I don’t ever talk about politics or take a stand on anything. Just have fun and enjoy the kids and give them a little message,” he says. “Some of them I don’t think are as good as the other ones, but people gravitate to those. They’ll ask if we can make another one like it. We’re at the sequel level right now.”
Find your greatness with Daryl Fimple’s motivational messages at facebook.com/daryl.fimple.
