Erica Taylor and Josh Hayes both were looking for challenges as high school basketball coaches after the 2019-20 season.
Both think they have found what they desired.
Taylor is set to take over the girls team at West Memphis, while Hayes will follow in the footsteps of a beloved alumnus at White Hall.
"This is honestly like a dream job for me," said Taylor, who was hired to lead the Lady Blue Devils after Sheila Burns announced her retirement in March after 24 years at the helm. "My goal is to win championships, and I've done that as a player many times. But it's a different feeling on the coaching side, and I want that.
"I know I've got the ability to do it, and going to a place like West Memphis -- where there's a solid tradition already in place -- that's exciting to me. It's the kind of test that I want."
Taylor was up the challenge as the head coach at Forrest City.
The Lady Mustangs won just one game prior to Taylor's arrival in 2015. The former high school Parade All-American, who was a three-time all-state player and consensus Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year in 2001, guided the team to respectability over her first four seasons, including double-digit victories for the first time since 2007 in the 2018-19 season.
This season, Forrest City went 12-12 and tied for third in the 4A-5 Conference, but missed out on a playoff berth because of tiebreakers.
"We were close, but we lost some games we shouldn't have," she said. "But that just comes from belief. When they were in junior high, it was just losing, losing, losing. By the time they got to the senior high, it was almost like a mental thing to where they didn't believe they could win.
"I think mentally, it was just trying to get them over the hump, and I think they took a big step forward."
There's no rebuild necessary at West Memphis. The Lady Blue Devils went 22-7 and finished as co-champions in the 5A-East Conference this season.
Taylor is looking to build on what is already established by Burns, who won 10 conference championships and one state title during her reign.
"I know Coach Burns has done a wonderful job," Taylor said. "Being a former player, I think I have some experiences where I believe I can take them to a level that I'm not sure they've been to before. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't miss my players at Forrest City.
"The hardest conversation I had with them was over Zoom when I had to tell them that I'd no longer be with them. But they understood, and I had a lot of support in Forrest City. A lot of times, people leave a place because they're upset about something, but that's not the case. I'm leaving a place where things are good, and the culture has been changed."
Hayes is intent on doing the same thing for the White Hall boys program, albeit under different conditions.
The Bulldogs are coming off a tough season in which they lost Coach Marc Stringer, who died Jan. 24 after a lengthy battle with cancer. White Hall finished 4-21, including 0-14 in the 5A-Central Conference.
"I want to come in and kind of be a buffer for the program," Hayes said. "Those guys have been through a lot these past few years. This is no knock to anyone at all, but what I want to do is come in and bring that change.
"We're going to come in and go to work. We're going to run, get up and down the floor, press, trap full court ... do some different things. But I also want to give them my expertise as a former Division I player and coach."
Hayes, who played and later coached at the University of Central Arkansas, won at least 20 games in four of his five years at eStem. The Mets went 25-14 last season and reached the Class 4A semifinals before losing to Mills.
The 38-year-old said he enjoyed his time at eStem but believed it was time to move on to something bigger.
"It's a step up in classification, and I was looking to move up and get that challenge," he said. "If you want to move up in this coaching business, you've got to be willing to move around. White Hall has all the resources a coach needs to be successful.
"Of course, it's always tough to leave a place that you spent five years at. The relationships, the players, we built something special at eStem. But I felt that there wasn't much more growth for me there, and I wanted to test myself at that next level."
Sports on 05/01/2020