The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs are back on the hardcourt under a new head coach after a tumultuous off-season. The GHS girls opened their 2024-25 regular season last Thursday at home against the Lady Purple Dogs of Fayetteville, a contest won by the talented visitors, 62-60. It was the first game for newly appointed head coach Ryan Casalman who took the reins just two months ago after James Halitzka suddenly resigned due to poor health.
Halitzka was hired last spring to replace legendary head coach Clay Reeves, winner of 11 state championships during his career, eight of them at Greenwood, including the last three in a row. In addition to the unexpected coaching carousel, the Lady Bulldogs also said goodbye to three talented senior starters, all of whom have moved on to play college basketball. Also, when Coach Halitzka left, he took daughter Jacy with him, a sophomore projected to be a starter at Greenwood.
In September, Coach Casalman talked with the Dog Pound about his changing responsibilities. “I coached girls for 13 years at a basketball-rich school,” he said Casalman during the interview, referring to his time as head coach of the Lady Indians of County Line High School. “The County Line girls have been successful at the state level [in the past], and we had success throughout my time there. Then I had the opportunity to come to Greenwood and coach ninth-grade boys and had no inclination or desire to be the head girls’ coach.” But that all changed when Coach Halitzka resigned.
“I’m a lucky guy to be able to step into [this] office and coach these girls,” he added back then. “We lost some players, but we’ve still got talent in this gym. It’s a storied program statewide and Coach Reeves was the best girls coach I’ve ever been around. But give us a season to feel things out and see where it goes from there.” Whatever happens, Casalman knows that Coach Reeves won’t be far away should he have questions or need guidance in any way.
The new head coach continued, “They hired him my fourth or fifth year here, so I was essentially Coach Reeves’ assistant for that summer. I went to team camps with them, and I’ve known Coach Reeves probably longer than that. We’ve talked regularly, even when I was at County Line. He said I could call him any time. We are friends and I kind of expected him to do that.
“I want our girls to be comfortable, and me having a similar philosophy as Coach Reeves helps. I like to play fast offensively, and we like to be aggressive defensively, and that’s what he was all about. I would never hesitate to call Coach Reeves. We are different coaches, but our philosophy is very similar,” said Casalman.
“We lost three college basketball players off our team from last season,” he added. “But I’m just trying to get a feel for them and let them understand where I’m coming from. We’ve got two starters back with Izzy Smith and Kylah Pearcy, who are both really good players. Pate Jones is a senior who played minutes last year on that championship team. She would have started at a lot of other places. Then we have Ashlin Rose at the post. She gives us good size and she’s a year older and a year better. The cupboard is not bare. We’ve got a chance to be successful this year.”
Other returning players with experience who could vie for starting positions include Journey Clements, Jenna Honkala, and Piper Pitts, not to mention last year’s sophomore class and a new crop of freshmen moving up to the varsity level this season. “I’m not Coach Reeves or Coach Halitzka, but I have high expectations for these girls. I’m going to coach them hard and love then hard. There may be some tweaks here or there, but it’s going to be a good mixture, I hope.”
Casalman also talked about the role of assistant coach Ryan Lensing, who has been through a similar situation before when Coach Reeves stepped away during the 2018-19 season for health reasons. That was Lensing’s first year as a coach, but now as a seasoned veteran he took charge and conducted practice during the interim period before the new coach was named.
“He had them by himself,” said Casalman. “Coach [Amy] Hardy and Coach [Lundon] Lensing from ninth grade were here with them. But Ryan did a great job for the spot he was put in. He handled it like a champion. I told them all, it’s us. It’s not just me. It’s Greenwood’s program and I just want to put my stamp on it, but I’m going to give Ryan a lot more responsibility than he’s had in the past. The transition has been about as seamless as it can be, and it’s only because of him and the girls. He’s a vital part of what we’re trying to do. I don’t know what I would do without him.”
Against Fayetteville, Kylah Pearcy scored the first GHS basket of the season on a runout. The Lady Bulldogs later led 8-5 in the first quarter before the visitors rallied to lead 16-13 after eight minutes. Greenwood narrowly won the second stanza, 13-12, and trailed by two points at the half, 28-26. But the Lady Purple Dogs created some separation in the third quarter, winning the period by seven points, 22-15, and led by nine at the buzzer, 50-41.
The hometown girls then closed the contest with a strong offensive showing over the last eight minutes, winning the period, 19-12, coming up just two points short of forcing overtime. “We had an opportunity to win the game,” said Coach Casalman, who was very pleased with his team’s efforts while also noting areas that need improvement. Starting the season against Fayetteville has been part of Greenwood’s tradition of facing strong teams in non-conference play to prepare themselves for the postseason, something Coach Casalman understands and appreciates.
Junior Kylah Pearcy led Greenwood in scoring with 20 points, followed by senior Izzy Smith with 17 points. Pearcy didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from the floor (4/13) but hit 10 of her 14 free throw attempts. Smith hit six of her 13 shots, including a trio of three-pointers. Pearcy also led the team in rebounding with 11 rebounds and five assists. Smith had seven rebounds and two assists while handling her point guard duties.
Besides Pearcy and Smith, the other GHS starters were junior Ashlin Rose and seniors Piper Pitts and Pate Jones. Rose had nine points in the contest and three rebounds. Jones had eight points, four rebounds, and two assists while Pitts had three points, four rebounds and four assists. Junior Journey Clements also came off the bench to score three points. Pearcy and Pitts had three steals each and three Lady Bulldogs fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter – Pearcy, Rose, and Clements. Greenwood also committed 18 turnovers.
The GHS ladies are playing this week in the Lake Hamilton Classic, winning their opener Tuesday against Nashville, 63-61. They will continue play on Thursday (Lake Hamilton) and Saturday (Searcy) as the new season gets into full swing. Details of Tuesday’s win and the other tournament games will be available in a forthcoming article next week along with the results of next Tuesday’s matchup with Little Rock Central on the road before Thanksgiving.
In an interview earlier this week, Coach Casalman talked in greater depth about his team after spending the last several weeks getting to know them better. He talked about his five starters and other players who could contribute this season to another deep playoff run. He also talked about a newly revamped conference slate and the top competition for the league title.
As for the season opener against Fayetteville, Casalman said of the narrow loss, “It was encouraging, but at the same time frustrating. We only lost by two points but saw a thousand different things we can do to get better. We gave up 24 offensive rebounds, made 18 turnovers, shot nine of 30 from the three-point line, and yet we were right there [at the end]. Fayetteville is good and we’ll see them again in a couple of weeks. I’m anxious to see how both teams improve.”
Regarding his brief time as the Lady Bulldogs’ head coach, he said, “The first couple weeks I felt like I was about 2½ months behind, but I’m catching up. The girls have never been behind, but there are some things that I think need to be different and they are picking up on those really well. It’s going to take a little time, but it’s not anything world changing. It’s minuscule things we’re going to do differently, because I liked the way they played last year. They played fearless and free and that’s when we play our best basketball.”
Asked about his starters that includes three seniors and two juniors, Coach Casalman said, “I want to have an established starting five, yet there’s always a chance for somebody else to move into the top five. But until something happens, we’re probably going to stick with this one, but you never know. They included seniors Piper Pitts, Pate Jones, and Izzy Smith, plus juniors Kylah Pearcy and Ashlin Rose, all of which return with some varsity experience from previous seasons.
Izzy Smith and Kylah Pearcy are the most experienced, having played together on the last two state title teams at Greenwood. Smith is the team’s primary ball handler at point guard while Pearcy is the team’s returning top scorer and the daughter of assistant coach Dexter Pearcy. Smith also averaged double figures in scoring as a junior and will be expected to do even more as a senior and team leader.
Casalman said of Smith, “She’s a great ballhandler and a great stand still shooter. She can really shoot the ball from the perimeter. She also gets to the rim and finishes really well for a girl her size. The way she gets the ball from one end of the court to the other is unbelievable. It makes it really hard for us to be pressed. I love how hard she plays. I love her attitude. I think she’s a fighter.
“Kylah is very knowledgeable,” he continued. “She’s very skilled and very athletic. She’s a really good player and as committed and bought in as any kid I’ve ever coached. It’s fun to talk to her because she talks like a coach, because that’s what she’s been around.” Without her offense the Lady Bulldogs aren’t going far this season, but it’s on defense that she can make an additional contribution.
“Defensively, we’re playing Kylah in the middle of the 1-3-1 this year, which she never did last year,” revealed the coach. “When you’ve got somebody that athletic in the middle of the zone, there are some big plays to be made.” But that change also puts the junior playmaker in a position to pick up more fouls, something that plagued her at time last season.
“That’s a fine line, because we don’t want to take her aggressiveness away,” said her coach. “I think that’s why she makes the plays she makes. But she’s got to understand how important she is to us on the floor. It’s kind of rare to have two like Izzy and Kylah, and I feel just as comfortable with the ball in each of their hands as I do the other. But I think both give us something different.”
Turning his attention to the rest of the starting five, Casalman said, “Pate Jones played some meaningful minutes last year. I think she’s shooting the ball well right now and she will continue to do that because she works on it. She can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim and shoot the three-pointer. There’s been days in practice when she hasn’t missed a perimeter shot. She’s another senior that’s been through the fire.” Jones was typically the first player off the bench for Coach Reeves last season.
“Piper Pitts is a lefty shooter and a defensive demon,” he said. “She plays so hard all the time, and when she gets going with that left-handed stroke, she hits shots. Ashlin Rose is a unique kind of player. She’s about six feet tall, but I don’t call her a post player. She is a six-footer who plays in the middle of our zone or on the wing. She’s more of a finesse type player than a back-to-the-basket girl. She can also shoot the three and it’s hard to guard her.
“Then we have [junior] Journey Clements and [senior] Keelie Dolan coming off the bench, plus sophomore Halle Fox that’s pushing for time. She had a real good junior varsity game [against Fayetteville]. If she keeps coming, we will have a pretty good rotation there. I feel like any of them can play in certain situations and I feel comfortable putting them in a game.
“Other than Pate Jones, those other three played very limited varsity minutes last year – Clements, Pitts, and Rose. But they hit some big shots [against Fayetteville] late in the game, and that was encouraging. We’ve just got to build on that. Those three are going to have opportunities because everybody is going to guard Kylah and Izzy. So they’re going to have to knock down shots and be a threat.”
In conclusion, Casalman was asked about the other members of the 5A West, including newcomer Farmington, which figures to compete for the league title along with Mountain Home and Greenwood. “Farmington and Mountain Home are really good,” he said. “Our league got a lot tougher with Farmington coming in. Mountain Home returns everybody but one, and they picked up a good player from Harrison, making them even better.
“Alma had a good group of young players last year and Siloam Springs had two ninth grade guards that started for them last year. Everybody is getting better. We lost three college players, but I believe we still have the talent to compete in our league. I think we’re going to be really competitive, and I wouldn’t count us out at the end of the year.” Other conference members include Russellville, Van Buren, and Harrison. Last season the Lady Bulldogs lost one league contest on the road at Mountain Home.