Pittman guides Gravette ladies

Players find groove after long volleyball season

Gravette coach William Pittman directs his players on Jan. 10 during the Lady Lions' game at Farmington High.
Gravette coach William Pittman directs his players on Jan. 10 during the Lady Lions' game at Farmington High.

— In the final stages of his search to find a new girls’ basketball coach, Gravette athletic director Norman Mitchell placed a call to longtime Huntsville coach Charlie Berry.

Mitchell was already impressed with Will Pittman’s resume, which included head coaching stops at County Line and Hampton before his arrival at Huntsville as an assistant coach and administrator.

“Coach Berry spoke very highly of him,” Mitchell said. “I was told he takes good care of his kids and does what is best for the kids.”

That sealed the deal and Pittman was hired last August to replace Duane Thomas as the Lady Lions coach.

Pittman came to Huntsville after he and his wife Melissa decided they wanted to make Northwest Arkansas their home. He was not looking to leave Huntsville but decided to take a look at the opening.

“Gravette was having some success and coach Thomas was doing a good job with them the last two years,” Pittman said. “Gravette is a good area; they have a good administration and a good athletic director. There were just a lot of good things about the job.”

But timing wasn’t one of them. Summer offseason was all but over when Pittman was hired. He did get in a few fullsquad practices, but when school started, many of his players went to play volleyball.

Gravette made the Class 4A state volleyball tournament and that delayed season preparations even more.

“I had five of six in offseason when school started and I got to develop some relationships with them,” Pittman said. “But I didn’t see most of them until volleyball was over and it is going to take a while to develop relationships. And, I have a different style of coaching.

“It takes a while for them to get used to me and for me to get used to them.”

Gravette won its first state tournament game in more than a decade last season and the Lady Lions return several players from that team, including Shyanne Nichols.

Gravette (6-8, 2-3 4A-1) had a late three-point lead at Farmington on Tuesday, but lost 56-50.

“This is a great group of kids and they are working harder and harder everyday,” Pittman said. “They are buying in more and more and working in the right direction each day.”

Mitchell also has a long coaching resume and he too sees improvement from the team.

“It’s starting to gel right now,” Mitchell said. “You can tell from the last couple of games that things are starting to gel.”

Pittman said he learned a lot being an assistant under Berry and being around Huntsville boys coach Jim Stafford.

“It was a great experience,” Pittman said. “To work with coach Berry and coach Stafford was good because they are both legends. Coach Berry let his assistants coach and I learned a lot.”

Now, Pittman is back in the first chair on the bench.

Sports, Pages 10 on 01/18/2012