Greg Nichols is entering his sixth season as a basketball coach at Greenwood High School, three years as an assistant, but now entering his third year as head coach for the varsity Bulldogs. It will also be his final year, which has been the plan for a while now, and he wants to go out as a winner.
“[Coaching] keeps me young,” said the then 60-years-old coach back in 2015. “I’m going to do my best for three years, and try to make this team better than the way I found it.”
After a long and successful coaching career in Texas (4 years) and Oklahoma (25 years), including a four-year stint at Carl Albert State College in Poteau, OK, Nichols served as a GHS assistant for three seasons under former head coach Brian Martin, who recently returned to Greenwood after leaving the coaching ranks to become a real estate sales professional.
“I retired from Oklahoma,” said Nichols two-and-a-half years ago. “But I enjoy coaching. I love being around young men and working with them, and I wasn’t going to [completely] retire until I found a job over here in Arkansas. That was my whole plan. I didn’t think [Coach Martin] would leave.”
Nichols took over the program at the beginning of the 2015 campaign after the previous team finished a dismal 4-19 earlier that year, and he knew the rebuilding process would require a lot of time, hard work, and patience. The Bulldogs he inherited were young, inexperienced, and lacked size.
“I’m very excited about it,” he said of the opportunity at the time of his promotion. “It’s going to be a big challenge. I would tell the fans to be patient and enjoy the hard work these kids will be putting in, and be appreciative of how hard they play.”
Indeed, his first two teams have worked very hard and played hard as well, they’ve simply been outmanned by most of their opponents, especially during the 2015-16 season while still playing in the ultra-tough 7A/6A Central before moving to the current 6A/5A blended conference.
The 2015-16 Bulldogs won just four games again, but last year’s group notched seven wins and reached the first round of the state playoffs, and neither team had a real inside post player, so there has been improvement with a mostly guard-oriented roster.
They still lack size inside the paint, but now many of those guards are seasoned seniors, so Nichols and his players believe this could be the year the program takes a big leap forward. Last year they were hoping for double-digit wins, but came up short. This season they expect to accomplish at least that, and hopefully much more.
“We have more numbers in the gym and we have a little more firepower [this year],” said Nichols during a recent interview. “We’ve had these kids for a couple of years now, so they’re accustomed to what we want to do. It’s just that we have four [players] out there right now on the football field that have played two years under us and are probably more capable of knowing what we want than these players that have just been under us one year. But just having that one year of experience is helping a bunch.”
Indeed, the strengths of this year’s team are many – strong guard play, a deeper bench, a lot of returning experience, and a high team IQ. Their biggest deficit remains a lack of overall size.
“This team is smart,” said the coach. “They won the academic championship last year. They had the highest [team] GPA of any 6A school in Arkansas. When you have those types of kids it’s easy to coach them. You don’t have to tell them but once, and they understand it.”
On paper, the Bulldogs have nearly their entire starting lineup returning from last season, including seniors Jordan Sheppard, Zane Harmon, Ronin Stewart, and junior Peyton Holt. Seniors Luke Johnson, Easton Barrett, and junior Josh Teeter also contributed at times off the bench last year.
Not only should these players be more seasoned and mature, but they are not the only tools in the coach’s toolbox, with a significant new arrival from Van Buren and some promising juniors and sophomores knocking on the door for playing time.
“I think it’s going to be more exciting, simply because we’ve got a better them than what we’ve had the last two years,” said Nichols. “I think it’s going to make for a lot more exciting basketball, I really do.”
The new kid in town is senior guard/forward Neil Rice, a transfer from Van Buren who actually moved to Greenwood last spring to get acclimated to his new surroundings. Why move to a new school so late in his high school career? According to Rice, it was a chance to play under better instruction.
“Better coaching. That’s what I was looking for when I moved,” said Rice. “Most of the coaches I’d been playing for never really gave me an opportunity to show [my talents].”
Coach Nichols agreed that Rice is already one of the best athletes on the team. “He’s about six feet and he’s strong. He’s been working on his shots, but I’m trying to get him to be a little more aggressive and drive to the hole, because of his strength. I think he’ll get fouled a lot.”
Rice fits into a similar mold as many of his Greenwood teammates. He’s a “tweener”, a cross between a guard and a small forward, and he will likely play both positions throughout the season, as will several others on the squad.
But Rice is quick enough, strong enough, and skilled enough to have a significant impact on this year’s team, even though the tallest players on the floor for Greenwood at any time will be about 6’3”.
Those two “giants” are seniors Zane Harmon and Easton Barrett, both of which are still in football. Harmon is a starting receiver and Barrett is the backup quarterback for the Bulldogs, who are playing for the 6A state championship this week. Nichols expects that most or all of those two-sport athletes will report for basketball practice early next week, though he isn’t insisting that they do so.
“We’re not going to push them,” he said. “I’ve always told them to take as long as [they] need. They’ve been through 14 games at that point, and their minds probably need some rest instead of coming in here and listening to me.
“But once they get in here, it’s going to be pretty busy with two tournaments in a row, then back-to-back games, and then another tournament in December. So [we’ve] got possibly 11 games right there. I’m just going to take it easy and work them in and go from there.”
The December schedule is loaded, as it is most every year, with Greenwood playing so deep into the high school football season. The Bulldogs have played just two games so far, beating Class 4A Waldron 73-68 at home two weeks ago, and losing 71-54 on the road at Class 7A Springdale this past Tuesday.
Their next challenge will be the Cyclone Classic in Russellville, December 6-8, featuring several talented teams including Subiaco, Hot Springs Lakeside, Van Buren, Mountain Home, Sylvan Hills, and Russellville.
“It will be a good test for us early,” said Nichols. “But I’m not really counting on [the football boys] at that point. Then we’ve got the H.B. Stewart tournament, and it’s tough this year. We’ve got a top-notch school from St. Louis that’s coming. We’ve got Providence Academy [from Rogers] coming, and undefeated County Line coming in.
“Then we’ve got Rogers at home and Rogers Heritage on the road. I’ve seen them play already this year, and they are both good teams. Rogers has a lot of height and Heritage has one of the top players in the state. Then we go to the Hot Springs tournament right after Christmas, and it’s got some good teams in it, including Benton, Lakeside, Sylvan Hills, [and others]. It’s going to be very competitive, and that’s right before conference play starts,” noted the coach.
As for conference play starting in January, Nichols is confident his team will fair much better this season than in the recent past. He agreed that this team is the most talented of the three teams he’s had at Greenwood. “It is,” he said without hesitation. “These kids have been under me now for three years, and they’ve learned my system and know what I expect. We’re just tweaking things to fit the personnel.”
As for the league competition, Nichols said, “I know Siloam Springs graduated four of their starters. Russellville is going to be tough because they were young last year. Farmington lost a lot of their starters. Harrison lost a lot, but they’re a basketball school and they’re going to be tough. I think Clarksville lost three of their starters, and Alma is going to be [good].
“But I think we’ve got a good chance of being a higher seed than we were last year,” he said, referring to the post-season brackets. “Then you look at the actual 6A conference, and Benton and El Dorado are going to be tough. Texarkana will be, but Sheridan lost a lot of seniors. I would love to have a home playoff game. That’s one of my personal goals.”
This will also be the last year of the blended 6A/5A conferences. The next Bulldogs’ head coach, whoever that is, will be playing in a new 5A classification with 32 teams divided into four eight-team conferences, combining most of the current 6A and 5A teams together for all sports except football.
Asked his opinion of the current conference arrangements, Nichols said, “We’re just going to try and win every game. But I also understand that only the 6A games [we] play are supposed to be counted, but I don’t know. Am I a fan of it? I don’t know. There’s probably some good and some bad, like everything else. We’re just going to deal with it.”
With football ending this weekend, Nichols and varsity assistant coach Chris Watson will have a full compliment of players very soon, but it may take some time to put together a starting lineup.
“I’m not sure until we get everybody in the gym, who’s going to be starting,” he said. “But we’ve got Jordan Sheppard and Ronin Stewart that started last year. We’ve got Zane Harmon, and we’re going to play him at all spots on the floor. Zane can be a point guard, and the next time down the floor he can be a post player.
“We’ve got Peyton Holt, who started last year. And we’ve got Neal Rice, and he can play a lot of positions also. We do have a lot of guards, but they are all aware that they will be playing different positions at different times,” said the coach.
“Easton [Barrett] and Luke Johnson came off the bench last year for us,” he continued. “As soon as they get through playing [football], they’ll come to the gym, if they’re not banged up, and we’ll start them on shooting drills just to try and get their eye back, and we’ll worry about their conditioning as we go.
“Luke played well this spring and summer. He’s one of those guys who’s going to get in there and battle for a rebound and put it back up and get fouled. Defensively, he going to give [us] everything he’s got. He’s just not [much of] an offensive threat,” said the coach.
“Easton will definitely play a post or forward for us. I just want him to be more aggressive on the offensive end. He does a good job defensively, and this summer in team camps he did a good job. So I’m looking for him to show me some good things this year.”
As for the newcomers or up-and-comers, Nichols said, “I feel sorry for the sophomores. They come in here and don’t know what to expect from us. So we get on them early and make it tough on them, and then we start easing up, and some of them are doing a really good job right now.
“Some juniors have really been coming on too,” said the coach. “James Christian is a junior that’s been doing well. Cameron Hampton is a sophomore that’s been [playing] well at the guard position. Connor O’Bryan is another senior that’s doing really well.
“We’ve got several guards that can do the job,” he said. “Not all of them will be ball handling guards. Some are going to be defensive guards, and some are going to be in there just to shoot the three for us. Connor and Cameron have been shooting the three really well. There will be times we just run offenses for them to shoot the ball.
“Connor didn’t play his sophomore year, and that put him way behind. But he’s come on this year and he’s getting better defensively. Before, he was just an offensive threat. But he’s been working hard in the weight room and on the defensive end, trying to get better, and he’s doing that. I’m not afraid to put Connor in the game. He shoots the three really well.”
Another junior who has already shown some potential in live action this season is Jack Gaston, who scored 13 points in the first half against Waldron. Gaston has been in the program since the seventh grade and could step up to a more important role this season.
Jack started for us the other night,” said the coach. “The way he shoots and the way he gets open, we don’t coach that. It’s just Jack’s way of doing things, and as long as he’s being successful at it, we’re going to let him go with it. We’re trying to let [the players] show us some of their individual stuff.
“Jack’s a little unorthodox in the way he does things, but he’s been successful at it, and I’m not going to change that. He can come off the bench or he could start for us. We won’t know [for sure] until we get everybody in the gym.”
Another junior who can help is Josh Teeter. “Josh came off the bench for us a bunch last year, but he got sick. He’s one of those [kids] who can play guard or forward also. But he lost a lot of weight and just never did get strong until the season was over. You could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t feeling good.”
But the rise or fall of this year’s team will rest on the shoulders of those returning starters from last season – Jordan Sheppard, Zane Harmon, Ronin Stewart, and Peyton Holt.
Of those four, Sheppard and Harmon are the biggest offensive threats, with either player capable of hitting 20 or even 30 points on a given night. Harmon really blossomed the second half of last season during conference play, and hopefully will pick up where he left off when he returns from football.
“The second round of the conference he just seemed to kick it in,” said Coach Nichols of Harmon’s emergence last season. “I think he’ll come in this year ready to go at the beginning, and that’s going to give us a big [lift] if he’ll do that. Zane is thinking “team first”, and he knows what his strengths are. If he can take the ball to the hole and score and get fouled, that’s what he’s going to do, and I think he’s smart enough to realize that.
“He’s about 6-3 now. If we start him out as a guard, and [the opposition] puts a guard on him, we’re probably going to post him up and get him the ball and say, ‘Go to work.’ I don’t know of a lot of guards as tall as [Zane] that will guard him. We’ll try to utilize our height with him, what little we’ve got,” said Nichols.
As for Jordan Sheppard, who transferred to Greenwood from Fort Smith Southside after his sophomore year, the coach is looking for continued improvement after a strong junior campaign.
“He led us in scoring last year, or he was second,” said the coach. “I know he led us in assists. He does a good job of getting rebounds for us too. What Jordan tries to do is get the ball to his teammates more, until he sees that he has to go score, whether it’s an outside shot or he drives to the hole.”
Ronin Stewart can score as well, in spurts, but his forte is defense. “Ronin knows his primary job is on the defensive end,” said his coach. “He can go score. He can shoot the three. He can take it to the hole and get fouled, but he does a really good job of finding the open post player. But that goes back to being a senior and knowing what to do.”
Peyton Holt moved to Greenwood as a freshman, and is a star receiver for the football team and the starting shortstop for the Diamond ‘Dogs, but he’s still working on his offensive game on the hardcourt. He is already an excellent ball handler and defensive player.
“This summer in team camps he shot the ball better from the outside that any time since I’ve had him,” said Nichols. “I hope that he can continue doing that. If he does, that will [help] us have a better year. But what I like about Peyton is he’s a strong guard, and when he starts playing defense [the opposition] can’t just push him around. He’s got good jumping ability [too].
“But he can be an offensive threat,” added the coach. “He can drive to the hole, if he doesn’t force it. Sometimes he gets in too big a hurry. But overall, Peyton is going to add to what we’re hoping to do this year. We’re going to try to push the ball down the floor and score quick, and with Peyton we ought to be able to do that.
“I’m looking forward to this year,” said Nichols. “I don’t think I’m going to disappoint myself. I think we’re going to have a pretty good year. Our goal last year was to get double-digit wins and make it to the state tournament. We didn’t get the double-digit wins, but we did make the state tournament. We went in the back door, but [we got there]. This year we hope to be knocking that door down.
“[Offensively], I don’t think we’re the type of team that can push the ball down the floor and just make something happen. It’s more of a controlled fast break, and if it’s not there, we’ve got to have the discipline to pull it out and run an offense. If we try to force shots, we’re going to be in trouble.
“We’re going to get some good shots if everybody does their job,” he continued. “If everybody sets a good screen and rolls to the hole, we’re going to get some good shots. Whether we make them is up to [the players]. Other than that, we’re really stressing defense. If you get really good at defense, it’s going to make some offensive things happen.”
Nichols agreed with the assessment that his team will be well-balanced offensively this season, able to score inside and outside. “We’ve not been very good offensively the last two years,” he admitted. “But I think you’re going to see a little better scoring this year.
“The neat thing is that I believe we’re going to be able to play a lot of kids. We’ve got sophomores that are pushing for playing time right now, and possibly even start. Whoever does well in practice is going to get the playing time.”
Switching to defense, the coach said, “The first year I was here we pretty much ran zone, but I’m just not a good zone coach. So we went to man-to-man last year with a little bit of zone, and I think we got better. This spring we started really putting pressure on the ball handler, and everybody else is just there to help. There’s a rotation to it, and it’s hard to explain, but once we get the ball handler to pick the ball up, we’re all rotating to different guys. It’s just old fashioned man-to-man defense.
“But there will be times we’re going to run zone,” he said. “Defense is just a lot of hard work, hustle, and determination, and we’re getting that from these kids right now. We just have to go over it and over it, and then it becomes a habit and its easy to do. It’s just going to take some playing time.”
Regarding the potential of this year’s team, the coach said, “I think realistically a 15-15 season would be considered a big improvement for us. Of course, we would love to have 20 wins, but we’ve got to play one game at a time. How it turns out is how it turns out. We just hope [for the best].”
Asked about the recent upgrades to H.B. Stewart Bulldog Arena, Nichols said, “Everything helps. People have always bragged on [our] arena. They can’t believe it looks this nice, being 20 years old. I just tell them that it’s the tender loving care it gets every day. And now you add the new floor and the two new scoreboards, people are going to be impressed. I think it’s a big step in the right direction.”
As for his life after basketball and coaching, Nichols didn’t hesitate to say, “I’ll be bass fishing and enjoying life.” The coach still lives in Poteau with his wife, Regina.