If one state title in a year is good, then three must be great
“It was fun to go on a mission with those girls. They bought into it. They worked for it.” Quitman Coach Tim Hooten
Winning a single state championship as a head coach in one season is an impressive feat.
But winning three? That had never been done before in Arkansas high school sports, until the 20162017 athletic season.
Tim Hooten helped lead Quitman’s girls’ cross country, girls’ basketball and girls’ track and field teams to state championships this past season. The Lady Bulldogs won the Class 2A titles in basketball and track and field while the cross country team took the Class 1A/2A crown.
Quitman had never won a state championship before 2016. With Hooten in charge, the school’s drought is over.
Hooten is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s All-Arkansas Preps coach of the year for 2016-2017 for
his efforts.
Last fall, Quitman won its first state championship in any sport in girls’ cross country, compiling 36 points thanks to Hailey Trawick and Halle Bennett finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Hooten started the cross country program in 2013, in part to help his girls basketball team get into shape.
Not only were his most of his players in shape for the 2016-2017 basketball season, they were also state champions in at least one sport.
“It was surreal,” Hooten said. “We knew we were really after that [state championship] in basketball. We had a good shot because we had everyone back. I was hoping basketball was going to be the first one. “But it’s okay.”
Hooten then got to work with the basketball team.
The Lady Bulldogs hosted the Class 2A state basketball tournament and advanced to their first state championship game by defeating defending champion Earle 49-44 on March 4. A week later in Hot Springs, they held Hector to the lowest point total in a girls state final game, cementing the school’s first state basketball title with a 4522 victory, finishing 33-3. Reagan Rackley, a senior, finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
It was a family affair for Hooten, whose daughter Rieley and niece Nikki were part of Quitman’s basketball team. But Hooten also appreciated being able to win a state title with a senior class who were ninth-graders when he arrived in Quitman in 2013.
“It was fun to go on a mission with those girls,” Hooten said. “They bought into it. They worked for it.”
Less than two months later, Quitman was on top of Class 2A for a third time.
The Lady Bulldogs’ track and field team earned 70 points, 28 ahead of Foreman, to win the Class 2A crown. Erin Stephens won the 400-meter title and the school’s 400 and 800 relay teams also won.
For Hooten, the key for Quitman’s success in multiple sports in 2016-2017 was athleticism.
“I want them to be athletes,” Hooten said. “Everybody wants athletes. Athletes can get it done. I’m not for specialization at all. My girls, their No. 1 sport is basketball, but they run cross country and track.
“Every sport makes you better in any sport.”