GENTRY — Girls basketball coach Tim Rippy saw all the work coaches Deon Birkes and Donnie Smith put in during the annual Pioneer Tipoff Classic in November.
Coaching two teams is tough - balancing two game plans, bouncing from one locker room to the next, one game to another and one gender to the other.
Birkes coaches all of the basketball teams at Lincoln, and Smith does the same at Decatur. All as in all the senior high teams, all the junior high teams and, in case that wasn’t enough, the seventh-graders, too.
Rippy didn’t envy those guys then. Now he is one of them.
Gentry boys basketball coach Conlan Efurd was removed as head coach last month after his team picked up four technical fouls and a flagrant foul during an embarrassing loss to rival Gravette. Rippy was Efurd’s assistant and vice versa, so placing Rippy over both teams seemed the quickest solution.
“With another game being a day and a half later, I don’t know if there was a lot of discussion,” Rippy said. “I think a decision had to be made. Since I was already in the practices, I thought basically it was a natural fit for me to fill in the rest of the year.”
Rippy has led both squads since Jan. 22 and learned on the fly how to balance multiple teams and both genders.
“We had back-to-back games two days after I found out I was going to be doing it,” Rippy said. “I’m sure our kids had a lot of questions on howthat would work, and to be honest, I didn’t have much time to think about it.”
Birkes found himself in a similar situation this year. Wolves coach Ulysess Ruley left the job in May, and in the span of a few months, Birkes went from being the girls coach to being the school’s athletic director and coaching all the basketball teams.
It took him a while to figure out how to lead two teams. He scribbled scouting reports for two different opponents on little scraps of paper. He had to decide if the same plays would work for both squads or if the personnel was too different. Time management is crucial to juggling this hectic schedule.
“You figure out five minutes here or five minutes there is better than no time,” Birkes said.
A Full Plate
Rippy’s schedule hasn’t changed much since he became the boys coach.
He was already in the Pioneers’ morning practice period. He was also coaching during the seventh-grade girls’ practice in the middle of the day and the varsity girls’ practice during the afternoon. He recently added the seventh-grade boys’ practice to his busy schedule, putting him in the gym for four of the school’s eight periods.
The biggest adjustment has been finding time to prepare practice and game plans. Rippy used to spend an hour on preparations for the Lady Pioneers.
“I haven’t had that luxury all the time preparing two,” he said. “I had to learn to get through that process a little quicker.”
Rippy watches film during lunch so he doesn’thave to bring as much home, while Birkes watches film while writing his practice plans.
“During lunch, a lot of times the TV’s on,” Birkes said. “In between classes, when kids are getting dressed or stretching. You have to multi-task. I’m working on practice plans while watching (game film). A lot of times, I’ll get there early or stay late to make a practice plan.”
Birkes helps coach both junior high and seventhgrade teams in addition to the varsity boys and girls. His practices cover five periods during the day, and he has lunch duty and athletic director responsibilities to squeeze in as well.
Game nights also prove challenging
Rippy has tried to keep his same routine since taking over both teams at Gentry, so he goes into the girls locker room before and after Lady Pioneer games. The boys team, which gets its pregame pep talk from Rippy at the end of that morning’s practice, starts to warm up without its coach.
“Those are logistical things that had to be figured out,” Rippy said. “That part of it was definitely different.”
Riding the highs and lows of winning or losing twice a night is also difficult.
“Unless you win both of them, you can’t be happy any night,” Birkes said. “You’re always trying to prepare for the next game. It’s a lot on your plate.
“It’s trying sometimes.”
Sharing the Load
Getting help from junior high coach Tim Rich and volunteer Pat Summers makes it a little easier on Birkes.
“If it wasn’t for those two guys, I’d be crazy right now,” Birkes said. “If you don’t have a good assistant, there’s no way you could get it done. If it was just me, it would be very, very exhausting.”
Birkes and Rich are the only paid basketballcoaches at Lincoln, covering grades 7-12. At Decatur, Smith has it all by himself.
Before a two-game set with Fort Smith Union Christian on Friday, Smith was also out on the floor an hour before the game running a wet mop over the gleaming wooden floor.
Summers does his share for Birkes - team laundry, breaking down film, figuring out statistics. While the laundry is spinning, the Lincoln coaches talk about game plans.
Smith said he does have a scorekeeper that sits on the bench for home games, but when the team hits the road for a lengthy trip, “It’s just me and the bus driver.”
The Gentry junior high coaches help Rippy in preparation and during games, but their practices are at the same time as the varsity squads. Rippy has found other help, though.
Former John Brown University coach John Sheehy comes to Lady Pioneer practices a couple times a week to work with the post players. Gentry teacher Daren Ward gives up his prep hour to help at the Pioneers’ morning practice and then joins the girls practice after school.
Athletic Director Brae Harper, a former coach at County Line, has also helped at practice and sits on the bench for the boys’ games.
“We’ve got three or four guys sitting over there I feel know what they’re doing,” Rippy said. “I don’t know if I could have handled it without all the help.”
Gentry and Lincoln won’t look into bringing in a new head coach until after the season.
Birkes, as the athletic director, will sit down with Lincoln’s principal and superintendent and decide what’s best for the players. Although it’s common for schools in Class 1A and 2A for the same person to coach multiple teams, it’s rare at the 3A and above level.
Rippy hasn’t heard any plans for next year, but doesn’t think he’ll be pulling double duty again.
“It’s not something I’m going to continue to do in the future,” he said. “I will finish the season, but it would definitely be a lot on my plate to continue that. I think it can be done in the right situation, but I don’t think I have a longterm future doing that.”
One-Man Staff
Smith knew what the job at Decatur entailed when he was hired two years ago from Lincoln. Still, the task of coaching as many as six teams in a week and four games in a night is daunting at times.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” Smith said. “There are a lot of differences in coaching boys and girls besides just the obvious. With the girls, there is a little more drama. I have to manage them a little bit differently.”
Smith said the biggest difference in coaching the two genders is that the girls are more open to instruction, while the boys tend to want to do things more their own way. On the nights he has four games, Smith jumps back and forth from girls to boys, back to girls, then back to boys.
Besides the obvious challenge of preparing six teams to play, Decatur also faces very lengthy road trips in the 2A-4 Conference. The closest leagueopponent to Decatur is Eureka Springs, a 2-hour bus ride. The remainder of the teams are located around the Fort Smith area and beyond.
During the middle of the season, Smith often had games six days a week with junior high on Mondays and Thursdays, senior high on Tuesdays and Fridays and seventh grade on Wednesdaysand Saturdays.
When asked if he ever goes home, Smith jokes, “I know where it is. I’ve been there a few times. I know where it’s at.”
Smith said the recent weather-related cancellations certainly made for a challenging schedule.
“We played about five straight games on the road,” Smith said. “That meant getting home about 2 a.m., then getting to school early the next morning.”
In addition to his coaching duties, Smith also teaches physical education classes, meaning he spends his entire school day in the gym, which he said he likes. He starts his day with girls basketball practices and ends his day with boys practices. In between there are junior high practices and P.E. classes.
As if his plate weren’t already overflowing, this week Smith will also be directing the 2A-4 District Tournament, which starts on Monday. The tournament, while certainly a large undertaking, will provide a nice financial boost for the Decatur program.
“This will help our athletic program financially, no question about it,” Smith said. “We are excited to host the tournament. This will mean a lot to our community.”
Chip Souza contributed to this report.
School News, Pages 6 on 02/17/2010