Bottoms, young Alma assistants helping to form tight team bo
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
ALMA — When Alma girls basketball coach Chanlee Bottoms began to assemble her first-ever coaching staff, she wanted a mixture of personalities to infuse love, direction, and continuity within a program that has struggled to compete in a top-heavy conference that, over the past 25 years, has produced 16 state champions — including an unheralded eight straight state champs between 1999-2007).
First-year Alma assistants Garrett King and Allie Arnold may not yet be familiar with the history of the 5A-West, but their work ethic and thirst for knowledge were exactly what Bottoms was looking for.
“Coach Chan said my most important job is to be a kid magnet, and that’s what she refers to it as,” explains Arnold, a 2016 Greenland graduate. “I take that role with pride. I love kids of all ages. When we have camps in the summer, I get to hang out and love on the little ones, and then when it comes to the junior high and high school kids, it’s an even better relationship because you get with them every single day. I’m young, so we get along well.”
“She (Arnold) bonded well with us. She’s kind of like a safe spot for us to go to if we’re having a bad day,” senior guard Makinley McCartt explained. “She always knows what to say to us to make us feel better.”
“We’re working well (together),” King said of Arnold. “Whenever she got here, I think it was big for the girls. Having another female on staff was beneficial, and being the only guy on staff, I think it’s working out, too. I’m here to help the girls out; I want to be another role model for them.”
First-year Alma girls basketball coach Chanlee Bottoms (jacket) and assistant coaches, from left to right, Garrett King and Allie Arnold, are connected as one.
Like her boss, Arnold shares a common thread with the affable Bottoms, a 20005 Alma grad who helped lead the school on a remarkable state championship run. Like Bottoms, Arnold, too, played point guard for Alan Barton’s Greenland Lady Pirates 2015 state title team.
“It’s funny because Chan is older than me and King, but we don’t feel that way - we’re all so young,” Arnold said. “We’re very different personalities but we also mesh well and get along and have a good time.”
“It is different having someone as young as Allie is; I love her,” senior guard Kylie Poole explained. “They've (Arnold and King) adapted very well. We’re like one big family.”
Barton called Arnold and her former Greenland teammates McKayla Redmond, and Kim Crown “a three-headed monster.” Arnold helped lead the Pirates to back-to-back championship appearances. Barton also opened Arnold’s eyes when it came to coaching.
“When I was in high school, our high school team, boys and girls, were required to coach a little league team,” Arnold said. “It was a city league, pretty much, Greenland versus Greenland, but it was fun, and I always wanted to continue my game after I was done playing.”
Four-sport athlete
Like Arnold, a two-sport collegiate athlete (basketball and track) at East Texas Baptist, King grew up around athletics. Garrett King was the face of the Pea Ridge Blackhawks’ program while in high school, even competing in two sports (golf and football) at the same time.
“I played football, basketball, baseball, and golf,” King said. “I did it all, and I enjoyed it.”
King didn’t just grow up playing sports, he grew up in it. His dad John E. King won 533 games and coached 15 of his 31 teams to conference championships, including a remarkable 1989 state championship run just two years after former Pea Ridge Superintendent Bill Alverez nearly suspended the program over financial issues.
“My favorite, for sure, was baseball, just because I had my dad as a coach and got to be around him and learn about baseball,” explains King, a 2017 PHS graduate. “I tried to keep everything straight when I was playing sports, and for the most part, I think I did good.”
Seven years later, King is compiling a scouting report for Bottoms.
“His attention to detail, for someone as young as he is, is unmatched,” Bottoms said.
“Being on this staff, I’m still growing as a young coach” King said. “We’re all accountable for each other. If there’s something that needs to be fixed, we’ll fix it, and if there’s something we need to discuss, we’ll discuss it. Right now we continue to grow each day. Not everything’s perfect, and we’re trying to get it situated.”
Right place, right time
Great success doesn’t come without a little luck, or with being in the right place at the right time. Bottoms’ high school coach, Madelyn Flenor helped mold her into one of the top players in the state. Bottoms played for legendary Westark/UAFS coach Louis Whorton and spent time coaching in Florida and Texas before coming back to Fort Smith to join former UAFS (current University of Texas assistant) Elena Lovato’s staff for a couple of years.
Joining five-time state champion coach Daryl Fimple’s North Little Rock staff (2018-21) was the icing on the cake
Right place, right time.
“Coach Fimple taught me to compete on a different level. Daily practices were about competing, and to translate that from North Little Rock to here is probably the biggest thing that I learned from him,” Bottoms said. “Every day in practice, we would do shell drills and I’m like, ‘Why are we doing this?’
“It was repetition on how to compete every single day.”
“When I hired Coach Bottoms, I knew her strengths were her ability to connect with kids, her love for kids, her scouting of opponents, the ability to teach scouts and run effective practices,” Fimple said. “She was also the best individual instructor of fundamentals that I have ever come across.”
5A-West
Bottoms spent two seasons as Codey Mann's assistant before being elevated to head coach last spring. And, though there are some potentially good players on the horizon, the day-to-day grind in the 5A-West can be daunting.
Bottoms’ first season as head coach included a three-game winning streak in December. The team has also struggled on the road, losing by 29 points to former Conway assistant LaShanta Johnson’s Russellville squad, and by 49 this week to Greenwood.
There will be better days, of course.
“The junior high is off to a great start,” Bottoms said. “Coach (Angela) Rushing and Coach (Hailey) Ostrander do a great job with our younger program. Of course, we’re all there for the practices, so that helps out.
“I think Alma’s future is very, very bright.”
“Coach Bottoms’ attention to detail, ability to hold kids accountable and discipline will establish a winning culture,” Fimple said. “(But) culture does not happen overnight. It takes years of help to establish a winning culture and maintaining it with quality assistants is a process that takes time and patience. Everyone wants a microwave way of getting things done fast. Winning is extremely hard and not easy to do.
“Coach Bottoms being able to hire a staff is something a lot of first-year head coaches do not have the luxury of being able to do. Young coaches, of course, benefit from the building of a program with their connection to kids.”
Photo Courtesy of the River Valley Democrat-Gazette.