In seven years, Ryan Koerdt took the White County Central High School boys basketball team from the bottom of its conference to being one of the top teams in the league, winning 200 games.
“The kids really work hard, and it is hard for me to leave those guys, and those kids coming back won a conference title in junior high, so the talent is there,” Koerdt said. “I was really fortunate to coach those boys. They poured their hearts and souls into it and really turned it around to be a top program.”
On May 14, Koerdt was named the new head girls basketball coach at Russellville High School.
“It has been a lifelong dream of mine to coach there,” Koerdt said. “This was an opportunity to put us closer to my parents, who have been following and chasing me around, as I came up the ranks.
“Now that they’ve got a granddaughter playing, they are really excited.”
Koerdt’s daughter, Jaidyn, will be a junior this fall. She averaged 19 points per game at White County Central, and she has already received Division-I interest, Koerdt said. He coaches his daughter during the summer for an Amateur Athletic Union league in west Little Rock. This will be the first time Koerdt will coach girls at the high school level.
“Basketball is basketball,” he said. “Boys and girls are different, obviously, so the temperament on the sidelines and everyday interaction will be different, but the work ethic, expectations and goals will all be the same.
“I’m a single dad, raising a daughter, so I know the ups and downs that a girl can go through, so that background will help me also.”
Koerdt graduated from Subiaco Academy in 1996. He earned a bachelor’s degree from University of the Ozarks in Clarksville and a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
His first coaching job was at Emerson High School.
He led the White County Central boys team to a state-tournament appearance during the 2016-17 season, when the team finished 34-5. It was the first time any team for White County Central had made it to a state tournament.
At Russellville, Koerdt is replacing Sherry White, who has coached the girls team for the past five years. White led the Lady Cyclones to the state tournament for four of the five years she was at the helm, including a state-title appearance in 2016. She was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
Koerdt got involved in basketball and coaching because a lot of his family members were coaches. He said that with so many coaches in his family, it is in his blood.
“We just had a strong love for the game, and that just kind of led me down this path,” he said.
Koerdt said watching his daughter have the same love for the game has been the best feeling in the world.
“[I’m] able to see her grow and succeed and, hopefully, play a small part in that,” he said. “Being involved in sports is a big deal for all kids. Watching her have success and watching her be happy — it means everything to me.
“That’s why I made this move.”
He said it is one thing to move when you’re young and the kids are young, but to move when they are in high school and established, “they have to have a say in it, and she was all for it.”
“The girls at Russellville have already been so kind to her,” Koerdt said. “Watching her have fun and grow and learn to build a strong work ethic — it just means the world to me.”
Koerdt has yet another reason for wanting to coach for the Russellville School District. When he was at University of the Ozarks, he played basketball for Johnny Johnson, now the athletic director for the Russellville district, and
Koerdt said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work for Johnson.
“Anytime you have former players, you try to stay in touch and see them be successful,” Johnson said. “Ryan has been successful at every stop. He did a good job at Emerson, and he was at Mountain Home for a year and was around some good people there, and he built a dynasty at White Country Central.
“He’s in a unique situation, coming from being a boys coach and now coaching his daughter her last two years in high school. It’s a really good fit for us and a chance for us to get a quality coach. We are just excited about getting Ryan back in the River Valley.”
Koerdt said the first goal for him as the new head coach is to make sure all the girls are all on the same page, work-ethic-wise.
He said that, hopefully, “they will buy in, and the success will follow.”
“Our long-term goal is to make the state tournament. That would be the goal,” he said. “We want high-character kids who give it their best every game, and generally, when kids do that, they have success on and off the court.”
Koerdt will finish up his contract with White County Central today.
“Having grown up in Scranton, Ryan is familiar with our conference, with Greenwood, Siloam Springs and Greenbrier,” Johnson said. “It is one of the toughest girl conferences in the state, but Ryan is familiar with Russellville, so I think it will be a really good fit for him.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.