Lady Miners look for continual progress
When Bauxite Lady Miner Coach Bryce
Evans was asked what he expected his team to do this season, his quick response was — make continual progress.
“I want us to get better each day, consistently improve,” he said. “We’ve had to overcome some early difficulties. But the focus is to just improve on a daily basis.”
How will the Lady Miners attain that goal?
“We must work hard in practice,” Evans answered. “Also doing things like studying film, getting extra shots up in practice, working hard and playing hard from start to finish of each game will help us improve.”
There are a core group of players who must lead the way, Evans added.
“For us, it starts with our senior point guard Stephanie Rico. She’s our primary ball-handler,” the coach said. “We need her to take care of the ball and be a vocal leader. I depend on her to help her teammates, be a leader and motivate her teammates. If she continues to work hard, her teammates will do the same.
“Kennedy Ballard is a sophomore who can score. She’s about 5-10 and can score from anywhere on the floor. She already shoots the college-level 3 with ease. Jadyn Mcdade, a sophomore, does great things and is not afraid to go inside the paint and score, she also can score on all three levels of the floor. Jadyn and Kennedy mirror each other – a lot.”
This is Evans’ first season at Bauxite after previously serving as an assistant coach in the Benton boys basketball program.
“I’m excited about this opportunity,” he said. “I love women’s sports. Having the opportunity to coach the Lady Miners, I’m excited about this role.”
Due to it being an inexperienced roster, Evans is being patient while building a rapport with the players.
“Before I start yelling at them on the court, I was supporting the players at other events outside of basketball,” he said “I’ve learned that when a player realizes you care about them as people as more than just basketball players, you can get them to better work with you. I want to build a strong
relationship with the players because I’m going to push them, and sometimes I’ll push them hard. But players respond better when they know that you love them.”
Currently, the Lady Miners are in the process of turning things around after a slow start. Evans is confident they can accomplish that goal. He expressed how the community providing support
and encouragement can also make a difference.
“The girls are young,” he said. “But they play hard and they genuinely care about bringing respect to Bauxite basketball. Support from the Bauxite fans, support from the 6th man can help a lot when you make a big play and there are a lot of people yelling and clapping for you.”
If everything falls
into place, and the Lady Miners improve consistently, Evans is confident the team can finish in the upper half of the league standings and find itself in position to qualify for the state tournament.
“I’d love to make it to the state tournament,” he said. “If we continue to improve, we can put ourselves in position to make it to at least the first round of the regional.
Once you make it to that point, a win would put us in the state tournament. If we keep working hard each day, I know when conference play arrives, we’ll do fine. Finishing in the top 4 of our conference will not be easy. But I’m confident that if we keep improving each day, we can do it. I remind the girls often that as long as they keep working hard, God will reward them.”