There's still quite a bit of youth attached to Little Rock Hall this season, but that hasn't stopped Jon Coleman from doing the same thing he's done during his entire tenure with the Warriors.
"Still working, still trying to pour into these guys," said Coleman, who's in his 13th season as Hall's head coach. "Trying to rebuild and turn the corner, but we're making some strides. We've won a couple of games, played a good Little Rock Christian team [Tuesday] that kicked our teeth in.
"But we're getting a lot better, and the work the guys are putting in. ... I love to see it."
Coleman would love to see even more progress from his team today when it takes on Bryant in the opening round of the Charles Ripley Holiday Classic at Little Rock Southwest High School.
The event is in its second year and honors the lasting legacy of Ripley, the long-time high school coach who died in June, 2020, at the age of 74.
"Last year's tournament was a rousing success," Little Rock School District Athletic Director John Daniels said in a news release. "We are honored to host this event again in the memory of Charles Ripley and have worked hard to make sure that like last year, this will be a tournament of which Coach Ripley would be proud."
Ripley coached at Little Rock Parkview and led the Patriots to 10 conference championships and five state titles in his 21-years at the helm. He also made collegiate coaching stops at Westark Community College, now the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, as well as Arkansas Baptist.
The tournament again features an eight-team field, with the first game pitting Southwest against Pine Bluff at 4 p.m., followed by Little Rock Central and Little Rock Catholic at 5:30 p.m. Little Parkview will take on Mills at 8:30 p.m. in the final game of the night.
For Hall (2-5), which plays Bryant in the prime-time slot at 7 p.m., there's nowhere to go after enduring an 0-19 campaign in 2021-22. That Warriors group was full of underclassmen, just like this year. But the difference is that this current crop of youngsters have tasted success and competed in most of their games.
That wasn't always the case a year ago.
"We took Searcy into overtime and played well against Jacksonville and Mills this year," Coleman explained. "We were able to have somewhat of an off-season program, which has helped tremendously, but in saying that, we've got 11 new players. We're starting three freshmen and two sophomores.
"But this young group, they're eager to learn and eager to play."
It's still early, but Coleman has been impressed with the way his ninth-graders – Jayden Slaughter, Vance Cunningham and Landen Hill – have played, particularly against more experienced opponents. He also noted that sophomore Derrick Johnson has been "tremendous" as well.
"Those guys are doing a super job," Coleman said. "We've got a core now, too. With Bryant [today], this will be our second time playing them this year because they beat us over in the Searcy Classic last week. So we're looking forward to seeing how we do the second go-round."
CONWAY GIRLS
Adding to her legacy
Chloe Clardy has had as decorated of a career as any who's ever donned a Conway Lady Wampus Cat uniform. Yet on Tuesday, she was recognized for doing something that hadn't been done in the team's history.
The 5-9 guard, who's the state's reigning Gatorade Player of the Year and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps Girls Player of the Year, was lauded for becoming the first player to score at least 2,000 points in a career on the same day the Lady Wampus Cats blew past Marion 80-40.
The Stanford signee scored 13 points in the game for No. 1 Conway, which also moved up to No. 15 in the ESPN top 25. Clardy is also Conway's single-season and all-time scoring record holder.
KING COTTON CLASSIC
Difficult openers
The field for the 16-team King Cotton Holiday Classic was revealed in October and the brackets have followed suit.
The tournament, which is slated for Dec. 27-29 at the Pine Bluff Convention Center, will again have two divisions – Kings and Creed – with eight teams in each. That also means there will be two separate champions.
For the four Arkansas teams involved in this year's event, they will all have tough first-round draws on Day 1. In the Creed bracket, Mills will play South Shore (N.Y.) Brooklyn at 8:45 p.m., while White Hall battles Grissom (Ala.) at 5:30 p.m. In the King bracket, Pine Bluff has St. John Bosco (Calif.) for its opener at 7 p.m., and Jonesboro squares off against Newton (Ga.) at 11:30 a.m.
Other opening-round games include Windermere (Fla.) playing Silsbee (Texas) at 10 a.m., Beaumont (Texas) United meeting Sidwell Friends of Washington, D.C. at 1 p.m., McEachern (Ga.) entertaining Bishop O'Connell (Va.) at 2:30 p.m., and Elkins (Texas) battling Greenforest (Ga.) at 4 p.m.
CONWAY CHRISTIAN GIRLS
Putting in work
Conway Christian's Brooklyn Pratt hit an extra gear Tuesday night against Mountain Pine.
According to the Arkansas Activities Association record book, the sophomore guard joined an elite club after becoming just the third girls player in state history to finish a game with double figures in four different statistical categories. Pratt tallied 16 points, 15 rebounds, 11 steals and 10 assists to help the Lady Eagles roll to a 63-43 victory.
The other two players to have ever recorded a quadruple-double are Alpena's Janna Rose Case, who had 35 points, 23 rebounds, 22 blocked shots and 10 steals in a game in 2011, and Delanei Hart of Johnson County Westside, who totaled 16 points, 15 rebounds, 11 steals and 10 assists during a contest in 2015.
TIP-INS
Joseph Whitfield, a 6-1 guard, has averaged 25.5 points, 3 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.5 assists during a two-game stretch for Southwest Christian Academy. The junior also was a standout wide receiver on the football field for the Lions. ... Going into Tuesday's game against Jessieville, eStem's Justin May had averaged 24 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. He had 40 points on Saturday against Newport. ... Lake Hamilton guard Zac Pennington had a couple of notable moments earlier this week. The senior scored his 1,000th point of his career Tuesday when he scored 10 against Pine Bluff and on Monday, the Southern Arkansas signee made national news when he made ESPN Sportscenter's No. 7 play of the night when he hit a running 75-footer just before halftime of the Wolves' game against Sylvan Hills. He scored 23 points in Lake Hamilton's 66-65, double-overtime loss.