All-Arkansas Preps Coach Of The Year

Basic training works for Howard

Johnecia Howard drew on personal experience when choosing a middle name for her second child.

Anthony Success Howard was born on Mother's Day, roughly two months after Johnecia Howard coached eStem, an open-enrollment public charter school in downtown Little Rock, to the Class 3A state championship in girls basketball.

"Just based on this past year, and hopefully some insight into his future as well," Howard said of her son's unique middle name.

As for that past year, Howard, 32, led the Lady Mets to a 29-6 record, the 5-3A title and a state championship, a first for a charter school as a member of the Arkansas Activities Association.

Charter schools by law are public, taxpayer-supported schools that operate according to a contract, or charter, with the state and are exempted from some of the rules and laws that govern traditional public schools.

The school, which opened in 2008 in the old Arkansas Gazette building, doesn't have a gymnasium and only had eight players this past season.

"We don't have some of the basic things that you need to have a successful program," Howard said. "We don't have transportation; we have to charter buses. Every dime that we use to sustain our program comes through fund-raising.

"Kids that want to play at a high level typically are going to go to the places that have the bells and whistles. We don't have that."

Howard began coaching at eStem in 2010 following stints in the basketball support staff at Arkansas and Bradley.

Howard, who also is eStem's athletic director, led the Lady Mets to the Class 3A playoff semifinals in 2013, her first season as varsity coach.

"I am a hopeless optimist," Howard said. "I saw that we had a lot of kids with tremendous talent that wanted to play. We have an amazing support system in our parents. That was enough for me to say 'yes' to the job. Honestly, that's how we won this year."

In this case, eight was enough.

Howard said she toughened her team by practicing against males and successfully maneuvered a paper-thin roster by stressing conditioning -- her husband Demario is a personal trainer and nutritionist -- and smart play.

"I'm real big on the girls taking care of their bodies," said Howard, who was born in Lake Village. "They kind of dictated our style of play. Getting into foul trouble was definitely our Achilles' heel this year. It's just something they had to learn how to not do."

Sports on 06/08/2014

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