Among a slew of changes in the Russellville School District this year are new high school head coaches for football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and track.
“We’ve had a busy semester,” Athletic Director Johnny Johnson said a few weeks ago. “It’s a pretty good overhaul, and for different reasons.”
Also new are head coaches for junior high football and junior girls basketball, and three assistant football coaches.
One of the personnel changes is a homecoming. Will McCrotty, 36, returns to his alma mater (class of 1997) as head baseball coach. McCrotty, with his twin, Wes, played for their father, longtime Cyclone baseball coach Denny McCrotty, who now is an assistant cross-country coach.
“I’m extremely blessed and excited to be able to come back to a place I spent so much time playing baseball and being in the program,” said Will McCrotty, who spent eight years playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Indians organizations and the past four as head coach at Dardanelle. “I’m honored to be able to be a part of it.”
McCrotty replaces Matt Long, who took the head baseball spot at Ozark.
McCrotty said coming home had been his goal for some time.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to come back and be part of the Cyclone program,” he said.
Former girls basketball coach Steve Wiedower returned to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as an assistant to women’s coach Joe Foley. Former Fort Smith Southside coach Sherry White, who has won four state championships, was hired to replace Wiedower.
“I wanted to come to Russellville for a couple of reasons,” said White, who played at Arkansas Tech. “My daughter, Calli, transferred to Arkansas Tech from (Missouri-Kansas City), so that caught my attention at first. But then I also knew the girls basketball program here had always been very competitive, with good work habits.”
The transition has been a good one, with the brand new Cyclone Arena, which opens this fall, a nice perk.
“I am really happy to be a Cyclone,” White said. “Everyone is very supportive and super nice. I love this group of girls already. They are working really hard in the preseason, and I have high expectations. And I’m very excited about the new Cyclone Arena. We are looking forward to trying it out.”
Other high school changes include football coach Billy Dawson, who came from Nashville and has led teams to three state championships, replacing Jeff Holt, who was reassigned; boys basketball coach Matt Hall, who played at Harding University and professionally overseas, coming from Central Arkansas Christian to replace Codey Mann, who went to Alma as head girls coach; and track coach Ben Goodman, who was elevated from assistant after the retirement of his father, longtime Cyclone track coach Charlie Goodman.
Three high school assistant football coaches left: Charlie Goodman retired; Jeff Carter got out of teaching and coaching; and Matt Warrick went to Morrilton. The high school staff this fall will include Dawson, Dave Wheeler, Ben Goodman, Jim Peters and Harley Sisson, as well as newcomers Chad Harbison and J.D. Plumlee, who came from Harrison.
Dean Norsworthy, who was head junior high football coach, left to take an assistant’s position at Henderson State University and was replaced by Michael Smith, who was offensive coordinator at Horatio last year. Besides Smith, the junior high staff will include Rick Correia, Jeff Crumpton, Jason Martin and Jimmy Wilson.
Veronica Black, who was head junior girls basketball coach, moved to Georgia. Replacing her is Chase White (Sherry White’s son), who was an assistant at Highland.
Nick Brill and Blake Young were moved from junior high football assistants to become head coaches of the middle school Black and Red teams, respectively. The staff for the Black squad will include Brill, Mickey Duvall and McCrotty; staff for the Red team will include Young, Casey Spradlin and Adrian Meredith.