Conway Christian Senior Night will be emotional

CONWAY — Come Senior Night at Conway Christian on Friday, Lady Eagle coach Jeremy Carson said he expects to be a weepy mess.

That’s when he’ll say goodbye to the four players who were eighth-graders when he arrived at Conway Christian School — Carly Powell, McKinley Wallace, Lindsey Clay and Katie Jo Henley. They have left their mark on the school and on him.

“Every one of these kids has a story that goes along with basketball where they’ve just matured, grown into good basketball players and teammates, and they’re great people, too,” said Carson, 33. “I’ve never seen a senior class like this. I never had one (at the University of Central Arkansas, where he worked as an assistant women’s coach), and I’ve never had a senior class like this here. From what I hear, it’s pretty rare.”

Carson succeeded Ashley Nance, who led the Lady Eagles to the Class 2A state championship in 2010 before leaving for Conway High School, where her Lady Wampus Cats took the Class 7A state title in 2014.

“From the very first day I walked in the gym, these kids kind of adopted me,” Carson said. “It’s hard to do that with kids who played for a different coach and had success. This group had the most buy-in of all the grades.

“I could’ve told them they needed to wear tutus and twirl around the basketball court, and they’d have done it. They are passionate about basketball, and they love each other.”

They love their coach, too. And the feeling is mutual.

••• During that CCS state-championship run, Powell, Wallace, Clay and Henley were seventh-graders who, with their families, were avid followers of the Lady Eagles.

“They followed that senior high team to every game,” Carson said. “They’d make comments like, ‘We want to win a state championship.’”

And after winning the district championship as ninth-graders, this is the season for which they’ve aimed.

“It’s been a highly anticipated class,” Carson said.

At press time, the Lady Eagles were 15-6 overall, 7-3 in 2A-4 East conference play. Hector was atop the conference standings, with CCS, Quitman and Conway St. Joseph tied for second.

Conway Christian lost to those three during the first half of the conference round-robin schedule, but the Lady Eagles overcame a 26-12 halftime deficit recently to avenge the loss to Quitman.

Carson called that one “a character-building game.”

“They just grinded out possession after possession,” he said. “What I love about these seniors is how they’ve embraced their roles, which have changed every year.”

••• Powell, a 5-foot-5 point guard, has averaged 2.6 points per game this season. She was the Lady Eagles’ post player when Carson arrived.

“Part of it was she stopped growing in seventh grade,” Carson said, “but she adjusted well.”

Powell said the move from the post was a big change.

“He taught me a lot about playing point guard,” she said. “It was a pretty tough transition, even though when I played post, I still had to bring the ball down the court.”

Clay, a 5-5 guard, averages 10.7 points per game.

“When she was in eighth grade, she was so skinny, I felt like she couldn’t even catch the ball,” Carson said. “But she worked and worked, and now she’s our leading scorer.”

Clay said she learned a lot during her eighth-grade year riding the bench.

“It was a growing year for me, not only physically, but

through the year I learned about the game and loved it and decided to stick with it,” she said. “Several from our class that year quit or transferred.”

Henley, a 5-6 guard, averages 3.0 points per game. She’s back from a torn ACL and meniscus that marred her junior season.

“Coming back, she has embraced a different role,” Carson said. “She played forward or guard before, but this year she’s simply a guard.”

After an eight-month rehab, Henley has relished every moment of her senior season.

“We’re a very talented bunch of girls, and we’ve been working really hard to get our chemistry together,” she said. “When we do have the talent and chemistry, that’s something really special. Our closeness off the court adds to it.”

Wallace, a 5-6 shooting guard, averages 2.6 points per game off the bench.

“This is the first year she’s not started for us,” Carson said. “Our personnel has changed. We went from an eight-player team to a 14-player roster. Because we’ve got so many post players, I’ve moved Katie Jo from a 4 to a 3, and that created a logjam, but McKinley has done a great job of giving quality and not worrying about quantity.

“In this day and age, that’s hard to come by. She’s embraced her leadership role, and as she goes, we go, attitude wise.”

Wallace said that leadership role rings true for all four seniors.

“The change in leadership has been a major improvement from last year to this year,” she said. “We’re all team-first people.”

Carson’s wife, Patti, survived a brain hemorrhage and Stage 4 cancer in 2012. Their Conway Christian family immediately embraced the family’s fight.

As Patti was nearing the end of her chemotherapy treatments then, Jeremy said: “If someone had told me ahead of time what we would go through this year, I would have panicked because there is no way any one family can have the strength to endure this. I found out real quick that we weren’t in this fight alone, and that our extended family, including the Conway Christian community, [the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton] community, Vilonia United Methodist Church, the Faulkner County church community and the coaching community would be with us every step of the way. We don’t even know who all to thank for the prayers, donations and help during this year.

“We are forever grateful for our ‘extended family.’ Our story is as much about their generosity and love as it is about Patti’s fight and miraculous healing.”

That ordeal also made an impression on Carson’s players, including this year’s four seniors, who were freshmen during the family’s crisis.

“He’s a great coach, but he’s taught us a lot more than just basketball skills,” Powell said. “He showed us that in life, there will be a lot of different things thrown at you. When his wife was sick, he knew he had good people around to support him. That was more of a life lesson for us. He didn’t blame God; he gave all praise and honor to God. He’s just like a second dad to us.”

Wa l l ac e e choed that thought.

“He’s kind of like a school dad to all of us. He looks out for us. We have grown with him since we were in eighth grade. We can see that he cares for us so much.”

Clay said Carson’s goals for the Lady Eagles go far beyond this year’s state tournament.

“More important, he wants us to be great students and to go on and live our lives and put God first,” she said. “He’s been a real encourager.” Henley agreed. “He cares about our lives off the court and about our futures,” she said. “He wants to be that coach who in 15 years we can come up to and say, ‘I want you to meet my family.’ He has pushed us, made us run when we didn’t want to, but he’s believed in us forever.

“He’s not going to put a goal out there he doesn’t think we can reach, and we want to make a run in the state tournament.”

Another thing about this group makes it special to Carson.

“Coaching high school girls is totally different from coaching college or boys,” he said. “I came in here with all kinds of ideas, and I’ve had to scrap every last one of them. This group has been through all of my experiments with me.

“Mental toughness is the final piece to making them the best they can be, and that’s what we’re stressing this year. What I love about them is their leadership. They are just fantastic.”

And come Senior Night against West Side Greers Ferry?

“I’m gong to weep like a baby,” Carson said, chuckling. “I’ve joked that I’m going to retire after this year.”