Published: July 04, 2009 03:07 pm      

Wills: Head on

Prevost welcomes new challenge

If Arthur Prevost needed a reminder of what faces him in turning the Corsicana girls basketball program into one that competes for district titles, he only needed to stop for a moment and look around the practice gym on Wednesday.

Fourteen kids made it out for his camp for first through eighth graders. That’s right around the average roster for a varsity basketball team, give or take a player or two. It’s a good indicator of why the Lady Tigers haven’t made the playoffs since 1993.

“I always look at things half full,” Prevost said. “I appreciate the kids that came out. It’s a starting point. I’m excited to hold a camp here. It’s the first one they’ve had in a few years.

“The kid came out and I got to introduce them to basketball. I like talking it. I like coaching it.”

Prevost, 41, has taken on the task of turning the Lady Tigers’ program into a winner head on. He’s been to the Boys and Girls Club. He’s been to the YMCA. He’s taken his family to a predominantly black church and a white one too.

Prevost, who is black, doesn’t have a five-year plan for winning. He expects to win now. And to do that, he said he has to win over a community that — let’s face it — hasn’t exactly embraced girls basketball.

“People are going to know who Coach Prevost is,” Prevost said. “There not going to play for someone they don’t know. So I’m going to be everywhere. We’re not going to get kids to come out unless we recruit to the middle schools and the YMCA.”

Prevost and his family have already joined the Y. He goes on jogs every morning so people will see him. And then there’s his church outings.

“When I walked into Northside Baptist Church, a lot of heads turned to me and my family,” Prevost said.

The No. 1 obstacle Prevost faces is making Corsicana girls basketball representative of Corsicana. The 2008-’09 team was comprised of black and Hispanic players. Exiting coach Laura Walker-Holmes’ varsity roster fluctuated between eight to 10 players.

Walker-Holmes said when the 2009 graduating class was at Collins Middle School, some of the best players were white players.

“Audrey Cain could play basketball,” Walker-Holmes said. “McKenzie Jordan. Leeza Mitchell, the soccer player who scored all the goals, she was probably the best player in the whole class.”

Prevost said he’ll do anything that needs to be done to get the best girls athletes in Corsicana to play basketball, while working with the other girls coaches to make all the programs the best they can be.

“I’m a barrier breaker,” Prevost said. “I’m a risk taker. No one has to remind me who I am.

“I have to make people uncomfortable, at soccer games. At softball games. There’s not a place where Arthur Prevost won’t be.”

Prevost points to his previous stop, Schulenburg, where he coached for two years. Schulenburg is a football town much like Corsicana with three state championships.

The Shorthorns went 42-17 under Prevost and made the playoffs in 2008. “They talked girls basketball in our school,” he said.

Prevost, who played for Lee College and Lamar University, is overqualified to be coaching a program that hasn’t made the playoffs in 16 years. He was a college assistant at UTEP, Minnesota, TCU and Georgia Tech. Schulenburg was his first high school coaching job.

“He’s the one I wanted to have the job,” said Walker-Holmes, who recently took the head girls job at Class A Teneha.

Walker-Holmes played for Prevost at UT-El Paso.

“He’s really good,” Walker-Holmes said. “He’s one of the best teaching coaches that I’ve ever played for.”

Prevost, who grew up without a father, said he will instill work ethic and family in his program. Like his coaches were there for him, he will be there for his players.

In a 30-minute interview, Prevost provided a convincing argument — let’s say it aloud, he will win a district championship at Corsicana.

It will take a lot of work as long as the Lady Tigers are in the same district with Waco Midway, which won the 4A state title last year.

But last year’s Lady Tigers, with the best athletes at the school to go with Capricia Jones, Amari Dowell and Amber Ames, may have been the second best team in 16-4A. They finished in fifth place.

So Prevost knows what he has to do.

“I want to coach the best kids at Corsicana High School,” Prevost said. “We have them here.”

And from there?

“I want to make teams prepare to have to beat us,” he said. “We’re not going to be the same old Corsicana. We’re going to be the new and invigorated one.



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