Lady Cats Hire Harris As New Coach

El Dorado announced the hiring of Bobby Harris as the new girls head basketball coach. Harris replaces Brad Slatton, who resigned to take over the program at Prairie Grove.

Harris brings 16 years of coaching experience. He served the last four seasons at Henderson State University as assistant coach under David Thigpen. Harris was the defensive coach for the Lady Reddies and was in charge of recruiting. He was head coach at DeQueen HS and Witt Springs HS before serving as assistant under Rick Treadway at Sheridan HS. He was the head junior high coach at Sheridan from 1991-95.

Harris is enthusiastic about the job as he takes over a program that went 17-9, finished third in the AAAAA-South and advanced to the Class AAAAA State Tournament.

"We're real pleased to have Coach Harris as girls basketball coach at El Dorado," said athletic director Derrill Smith. "He brings to us a lot of experience from junior hig, high school and the college level to the program. We're just hoping the kids can adjust to him quickly and we can keep things going. Some people are thinking we'll be down. We're hoping we can just reload."

Harris has already practiced with the team several times and took the Lady Cats to Harding University in Searcy for team camp.

"I was very impressed with the new facilities, new dressing rooms, new coaches office," said Harris. "It shows they've put a lot of money into basketball. Coach Slatton and the success he had laid a foundation to build on."

El Dorado graduated seven seniors from last year's team and lost all five starters, including junior point guard Kristian Tester, Slatton's daughter. Harris isn't looking to start all over, however.

"They feel like they set a foundation for the program," said Harris. "We want to take that next step. They don't want to be seen as a flash in the pan. We want to reach the state tournament. They loved going to the state tournament last year. We want to repeat that. They want to accomplish some things."

Harris said he will enlist the community's support for the program and said he has already heard positive comments around the town. His plan is to get the program going from the pee wee level all the way to the senior varsity.

"We've got to get more kids involved," he said. "I'm going to ask the coaches to do the same thing in the seventh and eighth grade that we're doing in varsity. I want to see more freshmen out. I'm not a six or seven player coach. I'm a 12-13-14-15 player coach. I use everybody. If you practice hard, you're going to get the playing time."

Harris said when he headed up Sheridan's junior high program he had 70 girls in the seventh grade his first year and had 115 girls in the seventh grade his last year. He's also a believer in spring and summer basketball. Harris coached teams to the BCI Final Four five different times, taking third in the nation four times.

"We will have a program here in southwest Arkansas," he said, referring to AAU type basketball.

"I'm enthusiastic," he said. "I've always believed if you work hard, good things will happen."