Miners building a culture of success
The Bauxite Miners have gotten off to a slow start in a season where the goal is to make steady progress and build a culture conducive to success at every level of the program.
Miner Coach Coady Church likes the potential that exists for the Miners. But as of now, and throughout the season, a major point of emphasis will be to simply build a foundation for what lies ahead.
“We’re working on being consistent,” Church said. “If we get better with being consistent, we can win some games. But right now, the emphasis is building the culture that I want for this program. The culture I think we need to be successful. A big focus for the season is doing things the right way. We want to do things the right way. We want to win games – but we’re focusing on how to do things the right way, building a culture.”
Thus far, there have been highs and lows in regard to laying that foundation for the program.
“It’s a process,” the coach said. “We have things we’re working on every day. It’s something I have to be patient with. Something I’ve learned is that consistency is a big key to being successful.”
Church, who’s in his first season at Bauxite, comes over from Sheridan where he was previously assistant boys basketball coach. He’s enthusiastic about the season, his new beginning and especially his players.
“I enjoy working with these kids,” he said. “It’s extremely rewarding helping them build their character. It’s rewarding to know I have a positive impact on the players.
“In this program we have really good kids. They work hard. When practice is over, I like to leave the gym open and let them get more shots up. But I have to run them out of there sometimes because they try and stay too long after practice to get extra work
in. I have a lot of optimism about this group.”
When asked about their conference opposition, Church mentioned that Little Rock Christian is expected to be elite not only in conference, but on the state level. The coach also believes that Clinton will be solid
along with Lonoke, Joe T. Robinson and Little Rock Hall which will all be tough as well.
However, the Miners have players capable of leading the way and helping the team peak once conference play arrives.
“We have two seniors in Charlie Rogers and
Landon Summerhill,” he said. “We have a couple of juniors in Mark Banks who is a quick guard that can get to the rim and is a good on-ball defender. Carter Temple is a 6-1 guard who’s really athletic. He can shoot it well. We have a freshman, Landon Morton, who has really helped us. He’s strong and physical. Ty Summerhill has done a great job, especially defensively. Those are the guys who are going to have to play well for us this year and help us establish the culture we’re working hard to build.”