This past May the Greenwood School Board approved the promotion of Greg Nichols to head coach of the Bulldogs. For the past three years Nichols has served as assistant coach to Brian Martin, who resigned in the spring to take the head job at Greene County Tech in Paragould. But while Nichols is charged with rebuilding the boys' basketball program at Greenwood, he is certainly no novice.

In fact, the first time the Bulldogs take the floor during the regular season this coming November, the "slightly" experienced Nichols will be making his 1,000th appearance on the bench as a head coach. Nichols already has 34 years under his belt with an overall record of 626-373. That's an outstanding winning percentage of 63%.

Most of his time (25 years) was spent coaching high school basketball in Oklahoma, but he also spent five years in Texas and four years at Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Oklahoma. His longest stint as a head coach was 17 years at Heavener, Oklahoma. As a teacher and coach, Nichols retired from the state of Oklahoma before starting a second career at Greenwood as an assistant under Martin.

It was that level of experience that set Nichols apart from the other candidates who were interviewed for the job, according to Greenwood Athletic Director Jerry Cecil. “It was, and the (School) Board thought so too,” said Cecil. “We talked to several qualified candidates. But the fact that he was here; he knew our kids; the kids really like him; and [his] previous success; all of those things factored in.”

Nichols, who is 60, but jokingly said that he feels like he's 49, was asked about his experience and success as a head coach in an interview conducted last month at H. B. Stewart Arena. He also explained his interest in coming to Greenwood and his overall love of coaching young people.

"I retired from Oklahoma," said Nichols. "But I just enjoy coaching. I love being around young men and working with them. And I wasn't going to retire until I found a job over here in Arkansas. That was my whole plan. I wasn't going to retire until I found something else."

I had a friend who was the principal at Hackett. He had left Spiro (OK) and come to Arkansas, and my wife is from the Poteau (OK) area. Her parents still live over there, and we didn't want to get too far away. So I just figured I would come to Arkansas instead of going back to Texas. When this job came open, I called Coach Martin and interviewed and everything worked out well.

"It's just a fabulous school," he continued. "The administration is top-notch. The teachers I've worked with in the junior high are phenomenal teachers. I brag on them all the time. Everywhere you go around Arkansas or Eastern Oklahoma, Greenwood always pops up as a top school. And when you get an opportunity to work at a school like that, you're going to jump at the chance. I don't know if there's another school that I could even compare Greenwood with, because of the way everything is run here and the way that the teachers work."

Nichols has been married to wife, Regina, for 32 years, and they have one grown child, Brent. "He got his Master's degree and he's something in marketing with Choctaw Casino," said the coach of his son. Regina Nichols is also a retired educator from Heavener (OK) schools.

Nichols' teaching responsibilities had not yet been formerly defined at the time of the interview, but he has taught physical education and health the previous three years at Greenwood, and expects to take over Coach Martin's P.E. classes this coming fall.

“I’m very excited about it,” said Nichols of the chance to take over the Greenwood program as head coach. “It doesn’t come along very often where you get to coach a 6A high school. It’s going to be a big challenge,” he added. “We’ve got a few juniors and quite a few sophomores, so that’s a good situation to start rebuilding. We’ll work into it."

Greenwood has one more year left to compete in the tough 7A/6A-Central with Class 7A schools Conway, Bryant, Little Rock Catholic, and Van Buren, along with Class 6A schools Russellville, Siloam Springs and Alma. Greenwood was 4-19 overall and 1-13 in league play this past season, so that leaves a lot of room for improvement.

But in the next cycle of reclassification, which starts in 2016, Greenwood will move into a basketball conference with both 6A and 5A schools, which will likely include Siloam Springs, Russellville, Alma, Harrison, Farmington, Vilonia, and Greenbrier. The Arkansas Activities Association will announce the official conference realignments later this summer.

“If you look at that classification, Greenwood is the smallest 6A school,” Nichols said. “There’s not a lot of difference in the smallest 6A and the largest 5A. I think there will be an advantage in it being 6A/5A instead of 7A/6A. For travel reasons, I would want it to be 6A/5A."

Asked to define the qualities that have made him a successful head coach in the past, Nichols said, "I think the number one thing is just the rapport I have with high school and junior high kids. I show them respect and they show me respect. We get along great. One of my [jobs] was cafeteria duty each day in the junior high, and I always made a point of trying to talk to as many of them as possible.

"I would say that [my] number one thing is being able to relate to [those] kids. It doesn't make any difference if they are country kids, and love to fish and hunt. I can talk to them about that. Or if they are city kids that wear preppie clothes. I can talk to them about that," said Nichols.

Coaching is also something of a tradition for his family. "I have two (older) brothers that are both coaches, and I've been hanging around them since I was in the fifth grade. All three of us coached basketball. My oldest brother spent most of his time on the college level and then went into administration in Texas. My middle brother, who passed away about a year ago, coached in high school and most of his years were spent in South Garland, Texas," explained Nichols.

"At Thanksgiving and Christmas it was like a coaches' clinic," he said with a smile. "It was funny. All three of us always kept a notebook or marker board by our phone, so when we called each other we could draw up what we were talking about. I had two brothers that taught me well."

Asked if there would be any significant changes next fall related to the team, Nichols said, "If there are, it will be on the offensive side. I'm more of a defensive coach, and the last two team camps I pretty much stayed on the defensive end and worked with the kids there, because I think your offense will come. It pretty much comes down to your personnel – what you're going to do both offensively and defensively." The Bulldogs took part in team camps in June in Fayetteville and at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith.

"Coach Martin did what he had to do with the personnel that he had, and that's what we're going to do. We worked pretty much in these two camps on man-to-man [defense]. We showed a little bit of zone occasionally. Offensively, we will probably push the ball up the floor a little bit quicker, but that depends on our personnel. Again, my primary concern is the defensive end. It's going to take some time."

Nichols also spoke about his plans to expand the basketball program and reach out to younger kids. Just last year a youth basketball program was organized by Mona Jones, wife of GHS head football coach Rick Jones. Although the program is in its infancy and is not directly linked to the high school, teams are playing on the weekends and Nichols acknowledges that it will help his program in the long run. "To get it going, you've got to start when they're young," he said.

But Nichols has other long-range plans as well. "We're going to try to get some things going on campus in basketball besides just the little kids' individual camps. Instead of us having to go to a team camp, we've got all of these gyms on campus, plus East Hills. Why not utilize them right here?" he asked.

The coach also talked about the natural conflict between summer baseball tournaments and summer basketball camps, both of which usually occur on weekends. "Instead of having [camps] on Fridays and Saturdays, we're looking at having them on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and getting 24 to 30 teams in here. And then maybe in July we can have some type of a summer league.

"This year we're going to Ozark for a summer league. Every Tuesday night in July we get three games, so that's 12 games in July. By having it at night we're not interfering with the other sports [or summer jobs]. Playing in the summer just gives us a few more games together," he said.

Nichols also hopes to benefit by the arrival of a new player, Blaise Loman, over the summer. "He's 6-4 or 6-5," said the coach, "but he's had a cast on since he's been here. He's supposed to talk to me after this (AAA) dead period and tell me what the doctor said. He's going to be a senior. His dad was the baseball coach (at Cameron, OK) and is going into private business, so [Blaise] moved in with his mom over here." Still, the coach has yet to see the young man play. "Not at all," said Nichols.

Loman will join several returning players with limited varsity experience, though one or two would-be senior starters are not expected to return. Grant Morgan, a two-way starter on the football team and the younger brother of Arkansas Razorbacks' receiver Drew Morgan, could possibly graduate in December and wants to focus solely on football, hoping to earn a college scholarship.

"I don't think Grant is going to play," said Nichols. "He really thinks he needs to be preparing for football. I also haven't talked to Ryan Padilla, and he hasn't talked to me this summer, so I'm taking it for granted that he's not playing either." Both players have started at guard over the past two years.

"That leaves us with [senior forward/center] Dustin Lunsford (6'5") as a starter," said the coach. "We have [junior] Luke Hales who has started some games, and he is coming back." Lunsford, Hales, and Loman (if healthy) could form a pretty big front line for the Bulldogs, with Hales the shortest at 6'2", but Nichols will also have to find some new guards to handle the basketball out front.

"We've got several guards we've been working with, and we're trying to get some of them where they can handle [defensive] pressure and make good passes and dribble the ball. If we can get some of them to come through, we'll be alright. We're not going to be world beaters right off the bat, but hopefully we can win some games."

Nichols also talked about some changes to the basketball staff in the wake of Coach Martin's departure. "We moved Chris Watson up [to the varsity]. I've only known Chris this past year, but I thought he did a really good job with the junior high. The way that we coach is a lot alike. I thought it would be advantageous to move him up and everybody would be on the same page. Then we hired Michael Pitts to do the junior high. He's very knowledgeable in basketball and he's coached in Van Buren."

Nichols is also encouraged by the basketball talent in the pipeline, particularly in junior high. "We've got some good looking young men in eighth and ninth grades," he said. "And we've got a good sophomore class coming in. They are primarily all guards, except for one. We've got several good ones coming in, and we've had some young men who didn't play last year that are playing again. I know of three players who are coming back out that didn't play this past season.

Michael Panis and Dylan Montgomery, both juniors, are two of the three players in question. "They didn't do anything but baseball this past year, and both of them approached me and asked if they could come out." All three young men are expected to play this summer and could join the varsity program in the fall. "If they come out they need to commit," said the coach. "Right now we have 18 to 20 kids. Last year we had 16 kids out."

Asked about taking over the GHS program and his future plans at age 60, Nichols said, "I told them that if I didn't have it turned around to where they were a better team in three years, I would resign immediately. But if I turn it around and I keep enjoying what I'm doing and I stay healthy, I'm going to keep going, and they all seemed happy with that.

"The day that I quit enjoying coaching, I'm walking out," he added. "But I love it right now. It keeps me young. I'm going to do my best for three years, and try to make this team better than the way I found it. I am my own worst enemy. If I know I'm not doing a better job, I'm walking out."

In closing the interview, I asked the new head coach if he had anything to say to GHS basketball fans. "I would tell the fans to be patient," said Nichols, who is expecting to have a relatively inexperienced team with just two seniors, eight juniors, and seven sophomores on the roster. "Enjoy the hard work these kids will be putting in and be appreciative of how hard they play during the ballgame."