Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Booneville girls putting together special season
Sweet 16.
That’s the number of wins the Booneville girls basketball team has achieved this season.
Zero.
That also matches the number of losses for the Lady Bearcats.
A major reason for the team’s unparalleled success has been the play of senior guard Heaven Sanchez. The 5-5 senior guard is one of four seniors on the roster and leads the team in scoring at 14 points per game, while also averaging 4 assists and 4 steals per game.
“This year we’ve really played well together,” said Sanchez, who scored 24 points with 8 assists in a 66-33 win against Hackett recently. “We’ve just worked really well as a team.”
Last season Booneville finished 13-9 and did not make the regional tournament, a season hampered by covid-related restrictions that did not allow the team to compete in any tournaments, said coach Tim Goers.
Sanchez said she saw last season the potential for this year’s team to excel.
“Last year we practiced with the (current) sophomores and we knew that they were really talented,” said Sanchez. “I felt like we had a pretty good idea of what we could do this year.”
The Lady Cats ( 16- 0, 6-0 3A-4 Conference) have rolled up double-digit wins in 14 straight games including Thursday night’s 49-18 romp over Cedarville. They’ve only been seriously tested twice, and that was back in November.
For Goers, he’s hoping the third time’s the charm for his tenure at Booneville. The Illinois native is making his third tour of duty at the school, but his first as the girls’ head coach after twice leading the boys’ basketball team. This is his third season as the girls’ coach.
“Booneville was my first head coaching job back in 2004 or 2005,” said Goers, who graduated from Arkansas Tech. “I’m from Northern Illinois and I’m a coach’s son. My dad was the winningest coach in Illinois history as far as wins and losses when he retired.”
As a student at Arkansas Tech, Goers met his wife, Amy Goodpasture from Fort Smith. She is now the principal at Booneville High School.
Goers left Booneville the first time to join his father as an assistant coach, but returned to Arkansas when his father retired.
“I really didn’t want to take over for him at that particular point in my life,” Goers said. “He had been at that school for 30 years and averaged 25 wins a year.”
Goers returned to Booneville, then later coached at Vilonia and Ozark before making his way back to Booneville four years ago. He also spent some time in the corporate world before the lure of coaching brought him back. He led the boys’ program to both regionals and state tournament appearances before moving over to take over the girls’ program.
“My wife got an opportunity to come back here and be the high school principal and we’re happy as can be,” said Goers. “Our family loves it here. We’re happy campers.”
The nucleus of this year’s team is built around the four seniors, Goers said. Besides Sanchez, Brooke Turner, Joleigh Tate and Hayley Roberts have provided solid leadership for the team
“We didn’t have a senior on our team last year and this year we’re senior dominant, so that experience has been big for us,” said Goers. “We competed with everybody last year, and not it’s time for us to be the one that’s being chased.”
The team has thrived despite losing Turner for much of the early season, said Goers. She has since returned from the ankle injury and Goers expects Turner to play a key role as postseason comes around. The other three seniors have started every game.
“These girls, these seniors, really bought in from the beginning,” said Goers. “Heaven … she just doesn’t have many bad days. If you walked into our practice and you listened, you’re going to hear Heaven. She’s very consistent. She loves the game of basketball. She wants to be a teacher and coach. She just is a positive influence 99.9 percent of the time.
“She’s a great leader and her motor … she just always plays hard.”
Goers said the biggest difference in the seniors now as compared to when they were sophomores is their resilience.
“As sophomores, any sign of adversity sent them down,” he said, “but as seniors, they have learned to overcome adversity and keep fighting. Now when they get a challenge, it’s not, ‘OK, now we’re going to lose.’
“Now it’s ‘OK, let’s find a way to win,’”
And so far they have … 16 straight times and counting.