From the sidelines of the Har-Ber versus Greenwood game on Sept. 12, Danenhauer yelled to encourage and motivate the team as they tried to pull ahead. During the spring of 2025, Aaron Danenhauer, a football coach at Bentonville High School, heard through sources in the coaching world about a possible position opening at Har-Ber. Danenhauer had familiarity with this team and community after getting his first start as a graduate assistant for the Wildcats in 2007. 

“This school has always been the school that I thought has the tradition and that can be successful,” Danenhauer said. “You know, like in ‘07, we were state runner-ups. When I was here in ‘09, they won a state championship, so there’s history here.” 

Throughout the last few football seasons where the team has not had a winning season since 2019. Senior tight end Jack Gilder was excited to get a 2nd new coach after switching his freshman year and this year, to try to fix what was broken within the team and their bond. 

“He changed the team’s energy by just getting us all together as a family. He’s at practice. He’s always super hype and excited and wants us to be good,” Gilder said. 

Although it was disappointing for many of the senior players including senior wide receiver Noah Stephenson to see a coach of two years leave, it was exciting for many players. To have this type of change and to have a coach from this conference who was on a team who has continuously had winning seasons and was state runner ups within the last few years was motivating. Junior center Mark Ballard felt a coach within the conference who had seen the team play before brought strengths to the team. 

“I felt like he brought a lot of needed confidence and a lot of needed knowledge, being already knowing how to win in our conference,” Ballard said. “ And I felt like I really needed that.”

Along with Coach Danenhauer’s knowledge of how the conference works and what it takes to win, he made a few changes where the members were moved around within the football staff that he felt the coaches were better suited for. Stephenson is pleased with the changes made and is excited to see the program take off. 

“Some coaches moved around with what positions they actually coach. In my opinion, where they are now is probably the best mix we’ve had,” Stephenson said. “I think all of them are amazing.”

With the changes, including bringing more intensity to the practices to help the players feel better prepared for game day atmospheres, the players are glad to have Danenhauer use his previous knowledge as an offensive coordinator, and his college career at University of Tulsa to help their performance as this is his first year as a head coach. He is using multiple mentors and the expertise he learned from them to coach this team. 

“I think my first year here Chris [Wood], what I learned a lot about the toughness built into his culture,” Danenhauer said. “I think some of the biggest things that I learned from my Bentonville mentors was literally, how you speak to players.” 

He looks up to the way his mentor was able to build relationships with his players, how he knows their hearts and is a 3D style coach where he involves himself in the drills to ensure the best corrections that will help the players improve. 

Being able to see the team before coaching them gave him insight into possible strengths and weaknesses he would have at the start of the year. Surrounding the criticism received in the past years he started with the culture. 

“We have really flipped the switch on attitude this year. Even though we wanted a different outcome for the first game,” Stephenson said, “we didn’t relish on it like we would have in the past. We saw our mistakes. We put our heads to it, and we really fixed them.”

The perspectives of players have changed because of the new coaching style that Danenhauer is bringing, and has built confidence in players like Ballard. His goal is to raise energy and leave out negativity. 

“We talk a lot about positive influence. I think what’s maybe changed is just our coaches, the way we coach, the way we’re positive, and yet we’re pushing them hard, but yet we have a positive energy,” Danenhauer said. “How we talk, how even when we’re yelling, and we’re trying to motivate.” 

Danenhauer saw many strengths before officially joining the team within the natural talent in this group and knew that his mentors had taught him how to find a winning culture which was lacking. This chance for him was a big one with heartfelt meaning. 

“There were receivers, there’s quarterbacks. I mean, there were some bodies on defense. I really feel like you have talent. It was pretty exciting to come back here and to have this opportunity,”  Danenhauer said. “It was kind of like coming home.”