Orrick varsity 8-man football coach Kirk Thacker’s coaching tree is finally, as he put it, “not straight up and down anymore,” he said. That tree has sprouted two branches – both former players-turned-assistant coaches. One branch is Zac Smith, a former player of Thacker’s who’s an assistant coach at Norborne Hardin-Central (NHC), the co-op program Thacker led from 2015 to 2020. The other branch is former player Tommy Burton, now Thacker’s assistant at Orrick and the school’s junior high 8-man coach. So far, Burton’s duties have included helping Thacker run Orrick’s first team camp this summer, held in June. His upcoming duties will include helping Thacker run the second camp, slated for July 11-14 at Orrick to prepare the Bearcats for a July 15 intersquad camp, hosted by East Atchison, a co-op program between Tarkio and Fairfax. A perk of having Burton as his assistant is that Burton already knows Thacker’s system, the longtime coach said. “You don’t usually get an assistant…