Williams selected for girls coaching award
FOUKE, Ark.—Fouke girls basketball coach Mo Williams stresses the team philosophy.
Despite the Lady Panthers accomplishing several hurdles this past season, the coach didn’t give an individual MVP Award: he awarded it to the team.
“What I’m really trying to preach to these kids is the star of the team is the team, and nobody is more important than the team,” he said. “Everybody has such a vital role; I’m really
trying to stress the team-first mentality.
“I’ve been blessed with the kids, too, and that’s what it really boils down to. They’ve bought into what we’re trying to do.”
Williams has been selected as the Southwest Arkansas girls Coach of the Year for the Gazette’s All-Area team.
“What we’ve really done the last three years was get the most out of ourselves, as a team and individuals,” Williams said. “We may not have been the most talented team, but we were getting the best version of ourselves.
“The kids have really bought into being the best we can be each day. I tell them, ‘Doing the little things right is what big things happen.’”
Williams has been in charge of the Lady Panther program for five years.
“Cody Powell has been with me for four years, and he’s a tremendous help,” Williams said. “And I’ve had a lot of support from my athletic director.
Williams’ journey to where he is now started five years ago, when he was invited to apply for the open girls coaching position at Genoa Central by Byron “Bear” Bryant after he graduated college in Alabama.
Williams had lived in Southwest Arkansas for three years.
Williams wasn’t hired at Genoa Central, but Bryant asked if he could send his resume to Fouke High School, where they were looking to fill the same girls basketball coaching position.
Fouke AD Jim Rice interviewed Williams a few weeks later.
The Panthers had won 11 games in four years prior to Williams coming to the school.
“He said it will take you about four or five years to get it to where you want it to be; it’s a tough job,” Williams recalled about the conversation with Rice. “That summer I got offered a job from a school in the same county I had lived (in Alabama), and they had gone to the state semifinals the year before and had everyone coming back.
“My dad told me, ‘If you take that job, anybody can win there. Fouke will be work for you to go there. But if you do get it and turn that program around, it will say more about who you are as a coach.’”
Williams decided that if he was offered the job at Fouke, that he would take it.
He got the phone call from Rice near the end of the summer, and Rice said, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is the job’s yours if you want it; the bad news is we need you out here in five days.”
Williams knew it would be a process, and that the upperclassmen wouldn’t reap the benefits of his coaching philosophy, that it would be the younger girls.
The junior high went 0-16 his first year. This year, the Fouke junior high went 17-0.
The varsity Lady Panthers clinched the first state tournament berth for Fouke since 1989—a 28-year streak broken.
This senior class were eighth-graders when Williams took over, while Hannah Mauldin—the lone junior on the team, who eclipsed 1,000 points in her career during the season—never had a coach other than Williams.
The 2016-17 team had four seniors— two who suffered injuries that kept them out of most or part of the season—one junior and the rest were sophomores, and freshmen pulled up after the junior high season was complete.
“We have some talented pieces, but every one of our girls works hard,” Williams said. “I’ve had great support from my family and my wife, Robyn; she is the heartbeat of me and my career.
“My biggest thing is, if we base everything on winning and losing we’ll be up and down from year to year. If we base everything off us being the best version of ourselves, then we’re a success.”