Dion Hargrove has done a lot when it comes to coaching high school basketball.
He's coached both boys and girls teams and has done both at the same time. He's been the coach at small schools and larger ones, and he's done it at a successful rate over his 31-year career.
Now the 53-year-old Hargrove will attempt to have that same success at Bentonville West, where he was named the new girls basketball coach during Tuesday's school board meeting. Hargrove replaces Randy Richardson, who stepped down from that position after 5 years.
"There are so many good things up there," Hargrove said. "It's a very attractive area, and we have family up there. There are a lot of people interested in coming to Northwest Arkansas, and I was very fortunate to get it."
Hargrove has spent the last 4 seasons at Perryville and coached both the boys and girls teams the last two years. Perryville's boys went 66-41 during the four years under Hargrove, including a trip to the Class 3A state tournament quarterfinals in 2018, while the girls team went 27-19 in two years under Hargrove.
Hargrove has also coached at Viola and Flippin in northern Arkansas during his career, as well as West Plains, Mo., and at Springfield (Mo.) Hillcrest. He has compiled a career record of 736-309 (.704 winning percentage) and has coaches to teams to state championship and multiple district and conference titles.
He has been named coach of the year by his peers 14 times and nominated as an all-state coach on nine occasions.
"We do everything by committee here, and we had the opportunity to interview Dion three separate times," Bentonville athletic director Scott Passmore said. "Each time we spoke to him, he brought a level of maturity and a knowledge of the game.
"The most important thing that impressed us is he has a plan to build a program and build a winning program. We felt like he had what it takes to take Bentonville West basketball on the girls end and take it to the next step forward."
Passmore said Hargrove was chosen from a list of 30-plus applicants, with eight of them receiving interviews.
Hargrove said he plans to be on campus later today and meet with his new team. After he spends with additional time with the Lady Wolverines, he will come up with what style of play he expects them to have.
"I'm anxious for the opportunity to get up there and get started," Hargrove said. "We're going to play hard, going to play smart and play together. That will be the base of what we want to do.
"We're going to play in multiple formations on offense and run some set plays when we need those. We'll also play different defenses, depending on our personnel."