White Hall to bring in coach, lineup

Fans who followed the White Hall boys’ basketball team last season will hardly recognize the Bulldogs this year.

New head coach Matt Williams will bring a new lineup into his debut season with most of last year’s key contributors gone.

Williams said he has had to replace roughly 85 percent of last year’s scoring.

“Jacoby Edwards is your most experienced guy coming back, and Ivan Armour from the football field, he’ll be back,” Williams said. “We expect both those guys to play major roles. AJ McCray, transfer from Conway, he’ll be an outstanding shooter for us. Brian Cal Jr. we feel like, even as a true freshman, will be one of the strongest point guards in the entire state.”

White Hall hired Williams, who was previously at Texarkana, in May to replace Josh Hayes, who left in April to coach at Hot Springs. Hayes took his son, Jai’Chaunn, with him, giving White Hall another player to replace after losing four to graduation.

Williams said Hayes helped make the transition go smoothly, and even tipped him off about how good Cal could be.

Cal said going from playing in junior high when Hayes was the varsity coach to playing under Williams in high school has been an adjustment, but he is excited for the season.

“When I first got here, it was hard to adapt to him,” Cal said. “But now, I’m cool with him and used to him all the time, so it’s really easy now.”

Williams said his Bulldogs will play in the half court. Defensively, they will get back in transition to set up a pack-line defense rather than press. The offense will go through Cal’s point guard play with hopes he can create opportunities for shooters such as McCray while allowing Edwards to get to the rim.

The Bulldogs won’t have much size this year and will rely mostly on freshmen and sophomores, but McCray said he still expects the Bulldogs to excel at scoring.

“We fast, too,” McCray said. “We not that big, so we all fast. We all athletic. We can shoot a little bit. We got good ball handlers. We got some athleticism. We got a lot of athleticism, actually.”

The Bulldogs reached the playoffs last season for the first time since 2015 under Hayes. They competed in the past two King Cotton Holiday Classics.

Williams will try to keep building on what Hayes built, and he gave Hayes credit for the work he did in his time with White Hall. He said his goal is for the Bulldogs to be an every-year playoff team, not just an occasional participant.

He scheduled a tough non-conference slate with opponents such as Morrilton, Mills University Studies and Watson Chapel to help prepare the Bulldogs for an always tough 5A South schedule.

Williams said he is a little worried about the team’s youth but said the team chemistry has been great. If this team can compete in the conference and contend for a playoff spot, he said he would consider that a successful first year.

“We feel like we’re talented enough to do it,” Williams said. “We just have to rebound the basketball and be physical.”