HATTIEVILLE — After leading Wonderview to the school’s first girls state basketball championship in 2012 — his first season at the school — Jeremy Simon said the Lady Daredevils’ prospects were bright.
“We’ve got some good groups coming up,” he said then. “We’re going to be real competitive the next six or seven years, at least.”
Indeed, they have been.
Simon’s seven seasons at Wonderview have been stellar:
• 2011-12 — 38-6, Class 1A state championship.
• 2012-13 — 30-8, state semifinals.
• 2013-14 — 33-8, state runner-up.
• 2014-15 — 33-10, state runner-up.
• 2015-16 — 27-13, state semifinals.
• 2016-17 — 38-5, state runner-up.
• 2017-18 — 40-3, state champion.
Simon, 36, is 313-93 for his 10-year career, which also included three seasons (and 74 wins and a state runner-up finish) at Sacred Heart. At Wonderview, he is 239-53 — a winning percentage of nearly 82 percent.
And he is the River Valley & Ozark Edition Basketball Coach of the Year for 2018.
“Coach Simon has hit the ground running from his first day here at Wonderview,” said Jerod Squires, athletic director and boys basketball coach at Wonderview. “He has definitely established a winning culture and has instilled a champion’s mindset with his players. He holds his players to a high standard of excellence on the court and off, and they are constantly working to improve.
“It has been an honor and privilege to get to work with him these past seven years and see firsthand the impact he has had on this program and the young ladies who have played for him.”
After returning everyone — including seniors Shelby Reynolds, Brooke Zimmerman and Breanna Gottsponer — from the 2017 Class 1A state runner-up squad, the Lady Daredevils were a favorite from the beginning of the 2017-18 season.
But they weren’t anointed.
“We started the season off a little slow,” Simon said. “It seemed like we had a hangover from the way last season ended. We were very disappointed.”
Wonderview fell to Norfork, then No. 1 in Class 1A, in November, 50-49 in overtime; to Vilonia in
November in the semifinals of the Clinton tournament, 56-48; and to Pottsville in December in the championship of the Hoops for Hunger tournament in Russellville, 53-45.
The Lady Daredevils didn’t lose again and are unbeaten in 2018.
“We struggled at times early in the year,” Simon said. “I didn’t feel like we were playing as hard as we could. I didn’t feel like we were competing like we had in the past.
“But those three losses woke us up. In early January, I noticed we were playing harder. Maybe after that loss to Pottsville, we saw the season was nearing an end, and from that point on, we started playing really hard, and things started to change for us.”
Along the way, the Lady Daredevils prevailed over rival Mount Vernon-Enola five times — twice in the regular season (40-38 and 52-45); and in the 1A-5 North district championship (54-43), the Class 1A Region 3 championship (58-43) and the Class 1A state championship at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs (56-40).
“Sacred Heart was a rival for a few years, then Nemo Vista took over, and now Mount Vernon
has,” Simon said. “We knew going into the year Mount Vernon was going to be solid. They had most of their team back that went to the semifinals last year.
“They were really good. We knew we should be the top two teams in our region, but we didn’t know we’d meet each other in the state finals. I was proud of my team.”
To set up the championship date, the Lady Daredevils had a first-round bye in the state tournament before knocking off Mount Ida, 73-33, in the quarterfinals and Bay, 44-39, in the semifinals.
Simon said the team’s experience in state-title games paid dividends.
“Our seniors were able to play as ninth-graders in the 2015 state-championship game,” he said. “They helped us get there, and they played in the final. This was Mount Vernon’s first time to play [in the state final at Bank of the Ozarks Arena]. It’s very tough to get a feel for that gym and get comfortable. It really helped us that we were able to play in it last year.”
In the loss in the 2017 championship game, Wonderview went 0-for-17 from the 3-point range.
“We got a little more comfortable,” Simon said of this go-round. “It was nice to hit a 3-pointer early in the game.”
This time, Wonderview hit 7 of 18 from the 3-point range.
The seniors were in the sixth grade when Simon led the Lady Daredevils to their first state title. He coaches all three girls teams and has coached this group since they were in the seventh grade.
“We could not have asked for a better coach,” Reynolds said. “Coach Simon believed in us when there were times we didn’t believe in ourselves. He has always been there to push and motivate us into being the best players we could be.
“However, he didn’t stop at basketball. He always pushes his players to be good students and all-around good people as well.”
As Squires said, Simon’s success at Wonderview has changed the mindset of the Lady Daredevil program.
“The expectation now is you want to be able to compete for championships,” Simon said. “We expect to win. The younger ones have seen nothing but success at the senior high [level]. They want their turn; they want their shot at a state championship.
“That’s tougher done than said, but having confidence in yourself will go a long way.”
The Lady Daredevils had lost three consecutive state-final games. Simon said it was big for this team to get over that hump.
“I kept thinking to myself, ‘If we keep giving ourselves chances, we’re going to break through,’” he said.
Although they graduate a lot of minutes, Simon said, the Lady Daredevils would have plenty back — including three starters.
“We’ve still got some good pieces,” he said. “We should be able to make a run.”
Simon, who played basketball for Vilonia, graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2008. He said he sort of fell into coaching girls.
“My first year out of college, I was applying all over the place and having a hard time getting an assistant job or anything,” he said. “I was interviewing twice a day and couldn’t land a job.”
Sacred Heart had openings for boys and girls. He applied for both and was hired to head the girls program.
“Sacred Heart landed me Wonderview,” he said of his career track. “I enjoy coaching girls and would be OK to coach them the rest of my career, but I’m open to coaching boys. We’ve been blessed with talent at Wonderview, and I’ve enjoyed my seven years here.”
So have the Lady
Daredevils.
“We have been blessed to play for such a great coach for the past six years, and it is going to be hard to let all of that go,” Reynolds said.
But she and her teammates will have rings to help them remember those good times.