After playing four years of college, Maurice Bowie decided to get into coaching.
Bowie was named the girls basketball coach at Lake at the end of the school year, taking over for veteran coach Eddie Wade who only coached the Lady Hornets for one season.
Then boys’ basketball coach Jon Darnell stepped down to take the boys job at Union. Lake then turned to Bowie to coach both teams and both junior high teams. Bowie previously taught at Newton but had limited involvement in the basketball teams.
“I need about 11 years to retire and wanted to do something different in teaching,” Bowie said. “What better place to teach than on the high school level developing kids on the basketball court.”
Bowie is a graduate of Morton High School and played two seasons at East Central before finishing his playing career at Arkansas-Little Rock.
Bowie said he has been working with the girls’ program since school finished and sees a lot of potential.
“It has been fun, the kids are really working hard,” Bowie said. “When they came and asked me about taking the job, I went and did some homework on the girls. They have responded well to what I have asked them to do. We are going to try and speed the game up. The first thing we have to do is get in shape. They haven’t done a lot of running or weights so that has to change.”
Bowie said the team is extremely young and he is spending the summer trying to change the culture.
“Again, the first thing we have to do is get in shape,” Bowie said. “Once we get in shape, it will allow us to do some things. And once you get stronger, it changes your mentality and how you view yourself and gives you some confidence. And hopefully, we can have some early success. Winning cures a lot of things so we need to win some games early. We have no seniors and one junior. We are loaded with ninth and 10th graders so we are still really young even though a lot of those kids played last year.”
On the boys’ side, Bowie’s job may be a little more difficult. The Hornets started summer games with Darnell, giving Bowie little time to work with the team.
“I know for a fact to run one program is hard enough,” Bowie said. “But to run two programs is even tougher. I know it will be a tough job but if we get the discipline in place, everything else will fall in line. I’m expecting to be successful. The administration told me they wanted a foundation in place and I think I can do that.”
Bowie said he has reached out to some friends who have been successful at coaching boys and girls.
“I have already talked to Coach (Crandal) Porter and Coach (Wert) Spivey and have gotten some advice from them,” Bowie said. “It’s something that takes a toll you and I think with some help, we can get it done.”
Bowie also sees some potential on the boys’ side as well.
“They have athletes, they are just young,” Bowie said. “I watched them last year against Newton and they can shoot the ball. They just didn’t have a lot of depth. I lost a couple of kids on the first day and maybe they will come back. We are going to press and going to try and speed the game up. So, I need some athletes to come out and just be athletes. The sooner they buy in, the better off they will be.”
