The surroundings nowadays are different for Becky Yarbrough.
After spending 33 years building a powerhouse program at Star City, Yarbrough is looking to do the same at Pulaski Academy. She took over as the Lady Bruins' head coach in April when Rick Treadway left to become the athletic director at Sheridan.
"It's been great," Yarbrough said Thursday when describing her time so far at Pulaski Academy. "It's just a renewed sense of energy for me, and it's because of these ladies and the rest of the team. It's just a new energy for me, something different. I've had some wonderful years at Star City in that royal blue, but I'm very excited with this navy blue and to be working with these girls.
"They have just made it so easy for me to transition."
Yarbrough didn't just talk about being energized when she spoke on Day 3 of the Big Miller High School Basketball Media Days at First Community Bank in Little Rock, she also looked the part.
The Woodlawn native has long been known for the intensity she exhibited during her tenure at Star City, but she consistently flashed smiles when speaking about the upcoming season. Yarbough won more than 900 games and a pair of state championships with the Lady Bulldogs. Her final team finished 24-6, including a victory over Pulaski Academy.
Now, she's in charge of the Lady Bruins, who are expected to have one of the better teams in Class 4A. She brought three of the group's top players in Sophia Boyd, Randi Stewart and Madison Sanders with her to media days, and all were in unison when detailing the positive impact Yarbrough has had on the team in just six months on the job.
"She's like our second mom away from home," Boyd said. "Just the relationship that we've built with her and how quickly we built that relationship is going to help us. If she gets on our butt, she's going to turn around and love us no matter what."
Sanders pointed to the strength and conditioning that Yarbrough has implemented as being a huge benefit to the Lady Bruins, who went 19-8 and reached the second round of the state tournament this past year. Stewart credited her for already knowing what each of her players bring.
"I think she knows our strengths and our weaknesses," she said. "She really pushes us hard on those weaknesses. She does really good with our strengths, too. ... just pushing us to our limits."
DUMAS BOYS/GIRLS
Joint success
There was a lot of winning going on at Dumas last season, and the boys and girls teams look poised to repeat that success this year based on what they bring to the table.
The Bobcat boys, who went 30-5 and lost to eventual Class 3A state champion Central Arkansas Christian by two points in the semifinals, welcome back three starters. The Lady Bobcats return four all-conference players from a team that was 28-7 and lost 67-62 to Mayflower in the quarterfinals.
"With anything that we do, we know the ultimate goal is to get to Hot Springs," said Bobcats Coach Larry Harris, who's guided his ballclub to the semifinal round in four of the last five years. "We have a standard at Dumas with our culture, and these guys know what's expected of us every year. We win, but we want to win the big one."
Lady Bobcats Coach Karen Broughton has been at Dumas for three years, but this will be her first at the helm. She, too, has set high expectations for her group, led by her daughter Kendri, a 5-11, all-state junior forward.
"We want to be sure that, first of all, we're playing elite defense and working hard every single day," said Karen Broughton, who's also Harris' fiancee. "But the long-term goals, we want to win conference back-to-back, district back-to-back. Regionals, we were a little short last year so we want to win regionals. But of course, we want to be in that last game in Hot Springs."
JONESBORO BOYS
Right on pace
Sixteen of Wes Swift's 31 years of coaching have been spent at Jonesboro, and he's rarely had a team that he considered to be behind schedule once a season began.
That changed this past season when the Golden Hurricane experienced an up-and-down campaign, but there was a reason for that.
"They are a lot further ahead than last year," Swift said when talking about the progress of this year's team. "We had five of our top nine play football last year, and we hadn't had that since I've been at Jonesboro. I did a poor job of figuring that out, but I said in January last year that we were six weeks behind where we normally are. We got to the state tournament, and everybody tried to dial in, and we actually did up our play and played a little better in the state tournament.
"But again, we were about four to six weeks behind. Now, I would say we're probably on schedule or ahead of schedule to where the past teams have been."
Last year was the first time since 2020 that Jonesboro didn't advance to at least the semifinals of the state tournament. The Hurricane won three straight state titles from 2021-23 but were beaten by Springdale Har-Ber in the second round last season.
Swift doesn't know what the year holds for his team, but their overall objective is the same as it's been since he first took the reins in 2009.
"Our job today is to be a little bit better than we were yesterday," he said. "That's what we we're trying to do. If you do that, you throw a little talent in there, and you come together near the end of the year, the wins and losses will take care of themselves."
LR CENTRAL BOYS/GIRLS
Same goals
Last season was historic for Little Rock Central basketball.
For the first time in the school's rich history, both the boys and girls teams played for and won state championships on the same weekend.
Despite a surplus of roster changes on both sides, the intent for each is to successfully defend those crowns.
"Our goals are still the same," said Lady Tigers Coach Marlon Williams, who lost seven seniors from his 2023-24 team that beat Conway in the Class 6A final. "We want to get to the big game just like everybody else in the state. The young ladies have been doing a great job of working hard in the offseason building the bodies, getting conditioning and skill development. ... The goals are still the same."
Regardless of this season being the first for Shelby Lewis as head coach, he's got a pretty good idea of what he wants to see out of the Tigers, who knocked off Bryant for the championship.
"I'm sure there is some pressure (to repeat), but we don't feel that," he said. "We want to play together, we want to play hard, we want to play fast. As long as we do those things, everything else will take care of itself."
BARTON GIRLS
Reaching higher
Ryan Koerdt did something in one season at Barton that hadn't been done in more than 40.
The Lady Bears reached the state tournament last season for the first time since 1982 and have a talented bunch back, starting with all-state guard in Da'Mya Wilson. He also added Jakyra Jackson, who was an all-state player at Helena-West Helena.
"I believe we ended up with 27 or 28 wins (last season)," Koerdt said. "We were fortunate enough to play Mount Vernon-Enola in the state tournament, and I say that because I think they beat us by a hundred or something. But our girls got to see what it takes, and it's a reference point for me every day.
"Our goals, I think are pretty simple. We want to win our conference, as you should every year because that's what you can kind of control on a night in, night out basis. Get in that regional tournament and hopefully win that first game, and then try to make a run at state. We definitely have the talent to do all those things."
MILLS GIRLS
New league, new tests
It's on to the next one for the Mills Lady Comets.
Coach Joe Gregory mentioned that he would've like to remain in the 4A-8 Conference where his team finished fourth a season ago, but the Lady Comets are making the move to the 4A-5-South for the 2024-26 cycle.
Regardless of the assignment, Gregory said he wants his youngsters to continue to build on the foundation they've already laid.
"I tell my team all the time anything worth having does not come easy," said Gregory, who led a once struggling Mills program to the regional tournament last season in just his third year at the school. "So we have to continuously put in that work, put in the grind every single day to get better."
As for playing in a new league, Gregory said it works out favorably for the Lady Comets.
"We were playing in the 4A-8, and our closest away game was like 45 minutes away and the farthest was close to three hours away," he said. "Now we're in the 4A-5-South, and I think our farthest game is Fountain Lake, which I think is about 45 minutes so (the conference travel) is definitely a lot better.
"I would have still loved to compete in the 4A-8 with my new team. However, we're in the 4A-5-South, we're here, we're ready."
TIP-INS
Lee Wimberley took a year off from coaching, but he'll return to the sidelines at Beebe. He'd previously coached at Manila for 11 years and compiled a 244-95 record, culminating in a state title during the 2022-23 season. He was tabbed to replace Devin Jones as head coach in April. ... Fayetteville had some shake-ups to its roster over the offseason, but the Bulldogs will have nine seniors on the team. All were in attendance at the media days. ... Trent Morgan is in his fifth season as Pulaski Academy's boys coach, but he said he's liked what he's seen out of his squad. The Bruins started three freshmen and two juniors last season and return 90% of the team. ... To continue a recurring theme at the event, Conway's Ben Lindsey, Bentonville's Kyle Pennington, Guy-Perkins' Eric Lewis and Hot Springs' Josh Hayes will be coaching at their respective schools for the first time this year. Also, on the girls' side, Harrison's Jackson Doshier and Guy-Perkins' Jeremy Carson will be in their debut seasons with new teams. All six were on hand to speak Wednesday. First-year coaches Markita Meyers (Little Rock Southwest girls), Tyler Waymon (Little Rock Christian boys) and Matt Williams (White Hall boys) spoke Thursday. ... Luke Tate was Nettleton's interim boys coach last season, but Bubba Deaton will be back in that seat this year.