It was only a benefit game for the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA), but new head coach Brian Martin hopes that last week's
48-37 victory over visiting Mena is a harbinger of things to come for his Bulldogs. The GHS boys outscored Mena in each of the first
three quarters, 7-6, 11-3, and 17-8 to build a 35-17 lead going into the fourth quarter. Greenwood had three players to score in double
digits with junior forward Billyjack Freeman leading the way with 15 points. Sophomore guard Ryan Lensing added 12 points while senior
guard Brandon Brewer chipped in with 10 points. Junior Chris Caudle also contributed six points from his forward position. The Bulldogs
currently have just 11 players in uniform, pending the end of football season when the basketball roster will almost double.
As for Martin, who begins his first season as the head coach of the Bulldogs, Tuesday's win was a positive first step in what he hopes
will be a long journey of discovery and success at his alma mater. Martin graduated from Greenwood High School in 1999, married a
Greenwood girl, and even served two years as head basketball coach for Raymond E. Wells Junior High from 2005-07. His first job
out of college was as head coach for Ramey Junior High inFayetteville in 2004-05.
Most recently he led Beebe High School to something of a basketball resurgence after years of frustration and losing. Compiling a woeful 9-65 record the previous three seasons, the Beebe boys went 10-15 and 16-10 under Martin's leadership, including a second place conference finish this past spring, losing in the state playoffs to Forrest City in overtime on a last-second shot.
The young coach had inquired about the GHS job the last time it came open, but was advised to first get some head coaching experience on the high school level. After doing so, the 28-year-old Martin was rewarded with his dream job. "Growing up, this is definitely a job that I wanted," said the coach. "Being a player here, this is the job that I always dreamed of having."
Martin was a player at Greenwood during what were arguably the program's most successful years, under the direction of former head coach and current AAA Executive Director Lance Taylor. With shooting guard Brian Martin leading the way, Taylor's Bulldogs reached the state finals in 1998 before losing to Hot Springs. Martin described Taylor as a father figure to him, and the new GHS coach hopes to recapture some of the magic of that earlier era. "I think one reason we were so successful then was because we had so much passion, energy, and enthusiasm for what we were doing, and that's one thing we're trying to bring back - the enthusiasm, energy, and excitement back to basketball. That's a good start for us to try to build back a program that once was successful, and we have high expectations."
Asked to describe what Greenwood fans can expect from his team this year, the Louisiana Tech graduate (2004) said, "You can expect to see an exciting brand of basketball. The kids are going to play extremely hard. We're going to have a brand of basketball that's exciting to watch, [and] it's going to start on the defensive end of the floor. We're going to have that enthusiasm and energy to where there's a little bit of a buzz in the arena. We're not going to win them all, but I guarantee you, win or lose, you're going to walk away from the arena [knowing] that our kids played hard and gave it everything they had, and that's what [being] a Bulldog is all about."
During the interview, Martin spoke with passion about his love for the Bulldogs, and he has tried to mend the fences that may have broken down in recent years between the basketball staff and coaches in other sports, especially football. "My number one goal was to get the best basketball players that we have at Greenwood High School, regardless of whether they played baseball, football, or were just all basketball kids," he said. "I knew we had some good players out in football, and I knew we had to get those athletes in order for us to be successful on the basketball court. I also thought it would be beneficial for us to be in FASDOGS, not only for our kids to go through that program, but also for me and [assistant] coach Renner Reed to develop some relationships with coaches and some of the players that would be coming from football or baseball to our program. We want them to know that we are part of the Bulldog family, and we want to have that relationship with everybody, players and coaches, and it's turned out to be extremely beneficial. I have the right kids out to help us, and I have a great relationship with Coach [Rick] Jones and his staff and [baseball] coach Randy Gardner and his staff. I can't speak to the problems here before me, but I'm the biggest fan of our football team and baseball team that there is, mainly because I am from Greenwood. I'm a Bulldog first," said Martin.
The new coach began fall practice with just 11 players, but is expecting nine more to arrive at the end of the football playoffs, which concluded for the Bulldogs with last Friday's quarterfinal loss to Pulaski Academy. Unfortunately, those players won't have much time off before hitting the hard court. "In a perfect world I'd like to give them a week off to just get away," said Martin. "But unfortunately, nobody does that. I've got [only a few] weeks to evaluate those kids before January conference [play] starts, so we need every minute and every quarter we can [get] to evaluate them. We're going to need them out quickly. I'm very understanding about them coming out of a very long season, but I think they'll be enthusiastic [and] ready to come out here and compete."
According to the coach, being in football shape is not the same as being in basketball shape. "The biggest difference is that their cardio won't be in basketball shape," said Martin. "It's a lot faster-paced and they've got to go from one end of the floor to the other. [For] the skill players in football, it takes them about two weeks to really get in basketball shape, or sometimes the bigger guys may take a little longer. But by January they'll all be in shape and they'll be ready to go. The fortunate thing is that we have enough depth to kind of ease those guys back into basketball shape."
Asked about how his starting lineup might change over the course of the season, Coach Martin was quick to dismiss the significance of who starts, either now or later in the year. "To me, it's never a big deal who starts and who doesn't. What's great about being able to play a few games with these 11, is getting to see these kids get a little extra floor time, and getting to evaluate them in a game setting rather than practice. We've been practicing since the first week of school, and we've been hard at it. But we're tired of practicing and we want to play somebody else besides ourselves."
The coach went on to critique his team for the upcoming season. "There's obviously still a lot of unknowns because I haven't got those [football] kids out, but we'll definitely be bigger than we have been in the past. We'll have a little more size with [football players] Spencer Harris, Kyle Helms, and Stephen Hogan. Those guys are tall and long. But we've also got some big, strong guards. Tony Sandifer will be one of those. Tyler Shook is also coming out, and a younger guy, Hayden Smith. That's just to name a few. Our style always depends on what the personnel is. In a perfect world I'd like to push the ball as much as we can and get easy baskets, as well as shoot the three. Shooting the three is the hardest thing to guard if you've also got some guys that can score on the inside.
"Probably one of our better shooters is Ryan Lensing, a 6-2 sophomore shooting guard. Tony Sandifer can shoot the ball really well. [Lensing, Sandifer,] Brandon Brewer, and Patrick Kelley - those four guys can really shoot the ball. There are some others, but those guys can really shoot it, and they're only going to get better and better the more we work on it. If we're open for a three, we're going to shoot it. It's kind of like the deep ball in football. Anytime it's going to be there you've got to take advantage of it, to open up the running game, or in our case, to open up the inside game and spread out the defense.
"We're not very tall at the guard spots, but where we lack in height we do have a little bit of quickness," added the coach. "But really, [it's] heart, grit, and just hard work. No matter what size and strength you are, you can work hard, and we definitely have those guys. I guarantee you they are going to get after it. Those [football] kids definitely come to us tough-minded. They're going to be real gritty coming off the football field, [and] that's a positive. That's one thing we really have worked hard on in the pre-season with the 11 kids we've got, just trying to make them more physically and mentally tough. We've come a long way since day one, and I think that's going to be a positive for us going into the season.
"Brandon Brewer will be our point guard," said Martin. "Our team starts with Brandon. He's our leader. He's our vocal leader and he also leads by example. He's just a tough-minded kid. When you think of what you want a Bulldog to be, he's one of those kids. He's an all-around good person, and he works hard. We're looking for him to be our playmaker and set the tempo on defense. We'll need him to score, especially early, but we'll definitely need him to score during the season to take the pressure off some of the other guys. I'm expecting a lot out of Brandon this year. He's the only returning starter that we have.
"The [only] other player that had any experience from last year is Patrick Kelley. He's a junior, another 5-9 guard, [and] a very similar player to Brandon. He can shoot the ball and can also create a little bit off the dribble, and can play good defense. Chris caudle is back, [but] he had to sit out last year as a sophomore with a medical condition. He's a junior postman, about 6-3. He's the only true postman we've got right now, [and] he's very quick off the floor. [He's] very athletic and can run and jump. He'll have to hold down the post until we get Kyle Helms and Spencer Harris and some of those guys [from football].
"Shawn Hankins is a left-handed guard," the coach continued. "He's a junior and we're looking [for him] to also help Brandon bring the ball up at an off-guard position. He's a very good defender. He's probably [the] best on-the-ball defender that we have right now. Billyjack Freeman is another junior. He saw limited minutes last year and will see increased minutes this year. He's more of a three position - not very tall, but he can play a little inside, [and] he's very quick and very strong.
"The biggest thing is, you've got to have depth at the guard position to be able to play up-tempo. I'm pretty sure we do have enough depth there, but time will tell. We definitely have a lot of ball handlers. Brandon Brewer and Tony Sandifer can handle the ball. Patrick Kelley and Shawn Hankins also. We've got four pretty good ball handlers, and we've got other guys as well. I haven't had this many ball handlers on a team before. [So] I'm really excited about the guards we have. Any time you have guys who can handle the ball and shoot it, you're going to be able to do some good things offensively."
But the Bulldogs won't be a guard-heavy team, according to their coach, who is also counting on some solid inside play. According to Martin, the Bulldogs have "three or four 6-3 guys, [and] that's the biggest size that Greenwood's had in a long time. This is the biggest team Greenwood's had in probably 10 or 12 years. [Senior] Kyle Helms (6-2) is definitely big and physical. I think people are going to be surprised by Kyle's ability. He's a very good basketball player. He played as a sophomore, but didn't play last year due to his [knee] injury. But Kyle's a very good player. He's mobile and his low post work is very fundamental. He's very strong and big, with broad shoulders.
"[Senior] Spencer Harris is another guy that can play inside, and can also play a little outside. He's 6-3 and about 185. He's very athletic and can run and jump. Him and Chris Caudle will be extremely fun to watch in the open floor. Both of them can really jump, and it's going to be exciting to see those guys run the floor and get some easy baskets [meaning dunks], and hopefully bring the crowd to their feet. They have that much athleticism. [Junior] Stephen Hogan is another kid, 6-3, [with] a good-looking body, that's going to bring us some more bulk. We're looking forward to having [him] out there as another big body."
Asked about having 20 players out for roundball, Martin was pleased with his numbers. "That's a great number," said the coach. "Twenty kids give you plenty to practice with, and that means you're definitely going to have 10 to 12 kids that really can be competitive every day. In the past two years I've played about eight guys in the rotation, but this could be one of those years when nine or ten guys get in. But that's what November and December are for, to find out who's going to be in that rotation."
The coach also emphasized that there has been a new focus on fundamentals with his players. "If you come to see one of our practices, you're going to see us harping on a lot of fundamentals. We're going to pass with two hands and catch with two hands. When do you make a bounce pass and when do you not? The way to shoot, where do you shoot, and when do you shoot. We want to make more free throws than our opponents attempt. You're going to win and lose games at the free throw line. If we're not getting to the line, we're not being aggressive enough. We're really going to attack the basket and take advantage of what the defense is giving us. We want to be in the 70s free throw percentage-wise, and from the field the mid-40s is great."
The coach also spoke of the tough 5A West Conference gauntlet that awaits his team this year. The Bulldogs finished 8-17 overall last season and 1-13 in conference play. In fact, Greenwood has won only nine conference games in the past four seasons, something the new coach hopes to change very quickly. "Just from what I'm hearing, without seeing them play, Alma is probably one of the favorites to win the conference," said Martin. "They've got one of the top players in the conference, and they're going to be extremely good, [along with] Morrilton and Harrison - those are probably the top three. But any team can beat any [other] team. I really do believe that. That's the way it's been in the past in the 5A West and I don't see it being any different this year. It's going to be a typical 5A West battle every Tuesday and Friday night. There's not going to be a game on the schedule when you say, 'Well, we got a break here.' There are none of those. Every game will be a must win. The good thing about that is it will make us better every single week, win or lose. You're going to have to bring your "A" game every day in practice.
"We're going to have to work hard every day, to make sure that we are giving our best, so we can show up and bring our best [game] on Tuesday and Friday nights. Typically, there could be five teams fighting for those two, three, and four [slots]. I really think up until the last week there's going to be spots available. It's going to be a grind through January and February, and the team that's more mentally tough it's going to give them a better chance to win every Tuesday and Friday," said the coach.
Of course, like all basketball coaches, Martin was adamant about winning at home. "You've definitely got to defend your home court. That's something we're going to take some pride in, and we're going to need Bulldogs fans to be here to help us do that. We've got to defend our home court and [try to] go 7-0 at home in January and February. It's a tall task, but one that we're up to meeting, but we've got to have the fans here," said the coach. "I'm very excited about the upcoming season, and I think people will be surprised in the improvement in the basketball program. We just want to make progress and put a product on the [court] that the community is proud of, and is going to give that Bulldog effort. It's going to be back to the basics and it's going to be fun to watch."
Coaches Martin and Reed will begin working with the new additions from football during Thanksgiving week, but the newcomers probably won't be ready to help much when the Bulldogs travel to Fort Smith to take on the Southside Rebels the Tuesday before turkey day. A week later the 'Dogs will be nearer to full strength when they compete in a tournament in Van Buren, followed by the annual H. B. Stewart Classic a week later (December 10-12) at the high school arena in Greenwood.