Lyon’s Tapp to coach at UAM
MONTICELLO — Fouryear-old Grace Tapp laid down one condition for moving from Batesville to Monticello with her family.
“If you get to know her, you cringe at what’s coming next,” her father Chad Tapp said. “She said ‘I’ll do it for a horse.’ Being the shrewd negotiator she is, she settled for ice cream.”
The sweet treat deal done, the 39-year-old was introduced as the University of Arkansas at Monticello men’s basketball head coach Friday inside the Student Success Center.
Tapp, who accepted the job Monday, spent the past eight seasons at Lyon College, leading the Scots to the American Midwest Conference regular season championship — the first conference title of any kind for the program in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics since 1983. According to his online bio on Lyon’s website, the Scots ranked first in the NAIA in points allowed per game, seventh in points per possession and among the top 25 in both field goal and three-point percentage defense.
Those accomplishments helped the 6-foot-6 Madisonville, Ky., native earn AMC Coach of the Year honors for the second time in his career.
In leaving the Ozark foothills for the timberlands, Tapp is walking into another championship program. The Boll Weevils won the Great American Conference tour
nament championship at home in March and earned their second NCAA Division II tournament berth in five years.
Kyle Tolin, the architect of the Weevils’ recent resurgence, was introduced as University of Texas Permian Basin coach on Aug. 10.
“I had some friends who worked here, so when the potential for the job came open, I had a chance to reach out to [one of the friends] about just what UAM had to offer,” Tapp said. “There are a lot of opportunities. Obviously, there’s the Division II thing and the opportunity to compete. UAM has a really good balance of academics, but they’re going to care about athletics as well. That was appealing to me as well. But most importantly, the people and interaction.”
Tapp’s arrival capped a quick transition in coaches.
The coaching search in Monticello has highlighted a busy 36 days for Hud Jackson. That’s how long he’s taken on the role of interim athletic director while preparing his football Weevils for the Sept. 2 season opener against Oklahoma’s Southern Nazarene University at Convoy Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium.
“We had six people we brought in for interviews,” the 11th-year head coach said. “We did that in a threeday period. Normally in this situation, we put a committee together and get it done, but we just didn’t have time. … We did an interview last Thursday, one Friday, two Saturday and two Sunday.
“We also got in a scrimmage game.”
Prior to Lyon, Tapp worked three years as head coach at Indiana University South Bend, another NAIA program. Tapp took a Titans team that went 8-23 during the 2009-10 season and led them to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in school history, according to his Lyon bio.
“I was 28 years old and thought I knew everything,” Tapp said. “I wanted the job, and they said, ‘Congratulations, you got the job. You have eight kids coming back, and seven of them have eligibility or discipline issues. Go get ‘em.’ So, we had some things we had to work through, and as a young coach, it was a tremendous experience. Everyone says you learn the most during your first year as a head coach. I spent the first years trying to keep my head above water, and it turns out, it was a great deal for me. … My last season there, we had a 20-win season, which was the first 20-win season in school history, and our league was really good. The team that won it went on to win the national championship. It was a great experience to have to learn to coach, not just get talent.”
Tapp took the Lyon job in 2013 to bring his wife Lindsey closer to her hometown of Caraway, near Jonesboro. He finished with a 120-113 record with the Scots, including an 11-5 mark during a covid-19 shortened 202021 season and has gone 166160 overall.
“We were in a league with really good teams, and we had some disadvantages in terms of really high academic [standards] and funding maybe not where it needed to be,” Tapp said. “I really had to learn to coach and figure out a way to maximize resources.”
To help build his first Weevils basketball roster, Tapp also brought his two assistants — twin brothers Jeremy and Justin Wagner — and eight of his players from Lyon down to UAM.
“I said to all the parents, we don’t take it lightly that their intent on Monday morning was to move into Lyon College to start class,” Tapp said. “When the situation presented itself, they wanted to go with us. We don’t take that lightly in terms of the faith their parents put in us. I stepped into the whirlwind but kind of brought them with me. I’m extremely appreciative.”
Sophomore Cole Anderson of Magnet Cove is one of the now-former Scots who made the leap of faith.
“I’m a really competitive person,” Anderson said. “Like he told me, it’s going to be way more better competition than over at Lyon. I was really sold on that. The past couple of days have been crazy. Everyone just moved in, we just got settled in and then we had to move out pretty fast, so we’ve been here. It’s been a whirlwind.”
An official roster is not yet available, but Tapp said four Weevils from this past season have remained in the program, and he’s signed three new players. Tapp added he is working on getting “a couple more” signed.
“This guy, he is going to find a way to get it done,” said Anderson, a 6-foot-8 post. “No matter what it is, what the circumstances are, he’ll find a way to get it done.”
UAM also officially unveiled Ken Hamilton as head men’s and women’s golf coach. Hamilton, who was named July 30, was most recently coach and athletic director at Jacksonville College, a two-year school in east Texas.
“The NCAA Division II level is a level that I’m comfortable with,” said Hamilton, a graduate of Texas A&M University-Commerce and Navy veteran. “I’ve played at the NCAA Division II level. I understand the language these kids talk. I understand the work these kids have to put in to be successful, and so that’s the level I want to coach at. The GAC is a tremendously competitive conference in golf. There are several teams that do well nationally, and so do I think we have the opportunity to do it here? I think so. It’s just going to take a lot of work. It’s going to take shaking the trees a little to get the right kid here who wants to be here.”
Hamilton succeeds Adam Buie, who now coaches at Montana State University Billings.