John Williams back at Spring Arbor, building women’s basketball program

John Williams IV never ever seriously still left Spring Arbor. Even when he stepped away from his purpose as an assistant mentor with the womens basketball staff immediately after the 2017-18 time, he was however an assistant professor of instruction and Dean of the Faculty of Education and learning.

He remaining to choose around the Homer girls basketball plan, but SAU called him back and he felt he needed to go.

“I’m a Spring Arbor alumn. I adore this position. My spouse went here. My dad’s been training below above 30 decades,” Williams reported. “I really like Spring Arbor. Even when I was right here taking part in soccer, in the offseason I was a scholar assistant for the womens basketball system and I’d be on a scout group working other teams’ sets and defensive offers for the womens team to scrimmage off.”

To him, Spring Arbor is not a stepping stone to some thing bigger. The Cougars career is the a single he preferred.

“I’m not attempting to make it massive at Spring Arbor in a year or two or 3 and then go off to an even greater school,” he said. “I’m trying to retire from Spring Arbor and mentor below for 20, 25 years. This is where my family members life. This is what we enjoy. Just striving to make Spring Arbor womens basketball the premier Christian womens basketball plan, 1st in Michigan and then with any luck , in the midwest.”

He has by now gotten started off putting the method jointly at Spring Arbor. Alex Scott, a former Spring Arbor player who was an assistant mentor below Williams at Homer, joined him as an assistant mentor. Other associates of the coaching employees will be introduced quickly.

He is hitting the recruiting path and bringing in talent from the Jackson spot, this kind of as Leslie’s Emma Smieska and Stockbridge’s Gwen Rogozinski. Springport indigenous Alana Nelson transferred in from Northwood. In addition to those area talents, Williams went south of the stateline to convey in Gloria Miller from LaGrange, Indiana.

“The prior coaches in advance of me did a excellent task of recruiting as well,” Williams explained. “There are a couple diverse signees. Technically of the 26 gamers in our method, 13 will be new to Spring Arbor this upcoming year.”

Considering the fact that then he’s gotten to get the job done on up coming year’s recruiting course as properly, touring by his estimate 1,500 to 1,600 miles in the last few months with excursions prepared in the near potential to tournaments in Indianapolis and Louisville. Spring Arbor has also hosted open gyms on Thursdays for Cougar gamers as well as some others.

The Cougars below Williams will play up-tempo although working on a workforce-oriented strategy in the half-court docket offense.

“We’ll blend amongst a 4-out, a single-in and 5-out design the place we’ll do a whole lot of examine-and-respond, pass-minimize-move, and then assault the paint,” he said. “If you can get to the rim, wonderful, if not you are going to kick it opposite.”

Defensively he hopes for relentlessness, mixing in some zone but executing a whole lot of full-court docket stress.

“When we recruit, we tell folks we are recruiting canines,” he said. “We have to have someone that is legit completely ready to guard a large-degree athlete. In the Crossroads, I consider it is the very best womens basketball league in the nation in NAIA. There’s a whole lot of high-level D-II players, small-stage D-I, that transfer into our league, so we need gamers that can guard that level of athlete.”