Family tradition
Two Rivers coach hired to lead Lady Southerners
Jordan Riley is young in his basketball-coaching career, but he has a lifetime of experience watching his father’s example on the court. Riley, who will be 29 on Saturday, will take over as the new girls basketball coach at Southside High School in Batesville. His father, Alvin Riley, has been coaching for 38 years, the past 18 in the Vilonia School District.
“He’s been a girls basketball coach since I’ve been alive,” said Jordan Riley.
Riley is the coach of the Lady Gators at Two Rivers High School in Ola.
“It’s pretty awesome. People don’t realize how much sports, and for us, basketball, can bring a family together and give you a unique bond that, really, a lot of families don’t have a chance to have. Especially as successful as [my father has] been, I’ve been around a lot of really good teams. I feel like I have a little bit of an advantage over some of these people because I’ve been able to see what it’s like.
“Your family’s definitely going to have to sacrifice a lot,” Riley said.
He is just starting his family. He and his wife, Kelsi, are newlyweds, married on March 16. They met in the Two Rivers
School District, where she is a business teacher.
Riley said he was interested in the Batesville position because of the chance to move from a 3A to a 4A school. Also, he will get to coach peewee teams.
He said the day he interviewed for the Batesville coaching job, two business teaching jobs were posted in the Bald Knob School District and one in Midland, which is closer to Batesville.
“I felt like it was too much of a coincidence,” he said.
Riley told his wife to apply because he thought he was going be offered the job at Southside.
He said he told her, “The stars are kind of aligning for it.”
“It just felt like a meantto-be thing,” he said.
“Monday, I got the call [for the job]. I said, ‘I told you! I told you!’” he said, laughing.
The couple live in Russellville now, but they are looking for a home in Batesville on the south side of the river, he said.
Riley is the oldest of three children. His sister, Alaina Riley, is an assistant girls basketball and assistant volleyball coach at Mayflower. His brother, Alex, lives in Vilonia and works at Acxiom and “isn’t interested in [coaching] at all,” Riley said.
Riley also worked at Acxiom in Conway for four years after he graduated in 2013 from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in management information systems and in 2017 with a Master of Arts in Teaching degree.
He is in his fourth year of coaching girls basketball in the Two Rivers School District, his third as head coach.
“I always knew I wanted to coach, but I chased the money for a little bit,” Riley said. “I really liked the people that I worked with [at Acxiom], but it’s still one of those desk jobs; you sit in a cubicle. I just knew there was something more I was supposed to be giving to the world. I had grown up around coaching.”
Riley said he first grew up in Tuckerman, where his dad also coached, but his family moved to Vilonia when Riley was in the sixth grade. His mother, Gina Riley, previously taught in Vilonia and is now the special-education designee in the Cabot School District.
Jordan Riley played basketball in the Vilonia School District under coach Lance Davis, who is now a coach in the Stuttgart School District.
“He was really influential in
a lot of things I do. I use a lot of my dad’s stuff, and I think my dad does a really good job, but I’ve had to figure out for myself my philosophy and what my teams were going to look like,” Riley said.
“I was never one just married to a philosophy. … You see what you have, and that dictates what you’re able to do on both ends of the floor. Coaching is one of those things you never quit learning,” he said.
“One thing we’re not going to compromise on is, we’re going to work hard on both ends of the floor, giving 100 percent,” Riley said.
He told the Southside players he met that he wants the team to be different.
“Are you putting your team above yourself? I feel like individualism is a huge thing in our culture right now. The really special teams you see come together and really emphasize that the team is more important than the individual. Are you going 100 percent in practice every day? Are you putting in the extra time?” Riley said.
“My dad’s thing has always been, there’s no real secret — you’ve got to put a lot of time in and outwork everybody else,” he said.
“The biggest thing I’ve taken away from my dad’s coaching is just to make sure you’re doing everything you can to give the kids the things they need to be successful,” Riley said. “He’s great at making sure he’s keeping them accountable and keeping those high standards. There’s never one way to do something, but holding onto your values and making sure everybody is on the same page, I think that’s one reason he’s been successful, and they do work hard for him all the time.”
Alvin Riley, who led the Lady Eagles to a state championship in 2009, said he’s tried to share his knowledge with Jordan.
“I think what I taught him was that hard work and persistence pay off,” Alvin said. “And when things are not going your way, you have to find a way to change the way things are going.”
Alvin said he’s proud of his son’s decision to go into coaching.
“He left a good job and took a huge pay cut to go into coaching his first year because that is what his heart told him to do,” Alvin said. “His love for the game meant more to him than money. He didn’t love what he was making a living at; now he does.”
Jordan said he doesn’t regret his delayed entrance into coaching, though.
“It’s good to be able to land
in good spots, and I’ve been really fortunate — even my experience at Acxiom has helped me in this coaching journey,” he said. “The things you have to learn coming out of college going into the corporate world and having a role a little bit bigger than I anticipated, I learned organizational skills, communication skills, leadership skills. … It’s a lot more connected [to coaching] than people think.”
He also bragged on his dad, saying that his father’s varsity record is 794-261 in 33 years as a senior high coach.
“His win percentage is over 75 percent — pretty impressive,” Jordan Riley said.
He’s looking forward to leading the Lady Southerners, he said, and fans can expect to see a “high-energy brand of basketball.”
“I am intense, but it’s coaching,” Riley said. “I’m not going to berate the kids. I’m not going to cuss officials. I’m on [the players] from start to finish. What I hope is for my teams to feed off my intensity on the floor.”
This year, his Two Rivers girls won the conference and were district runner-up. They qualified for the state tournament for the second year in a row but were knocked out in the first round by Mountain View, the state champion.
He said last year’s Lady Southerners had a record of 6-21.
“Those girls who are there, they’re young,” Riley said. “They’ve had to fight through a lot of adversity.”
He said one of the team’s best players was out last year with an injury, but she is coming back.
“They have some really good young players,” Riley said. “I just want to be a part of turning that program around and giving those kids the best chance to be successful and give them the program they deserve. There’ a lot of tradition there.”
Riley said that although his contract at Southside doesn’t start till July, he’ll start practicing this week after school with the Lady Southerners.
In his family, hard work is a tradition.