Area Coaches Find New Jobs With Different Schools

Lance Downing saw an opportunity to further enhance his coaching talents, and he took it.

It’s the main reason he recently accepted a position to join Bentonville’s baseball coaching staff after a five-year run in a similar role at Rogers Heritage.

“This is now a new part of my development as a coach,” Downing said Wednesday afternoon. “I had a great run over at Heritage and enjoyed learning under Coach (Keith) Kilgore. I had been a head coach at a smaller school before I came to Heritage, and the reason I did that was to help my development.

“I’m moving into a great situation at Bentonville. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Downing will spend much of his time with his attention on the Tigers’ freshman baseball players, something Bentonville hadn’t had in previous years. He will also get to work some with head coach Todd Abbott and the varsity players when time and space allows.

“We’ve got some good numbers in freshman baseball,” athletic director Scott Passmore said. “What we’ve been doing for several years was have a volunteer coach or one of the other assistant coaches oversee the freshmen, but we felt it was time to go ahead and get a quality coach for that group.”

Downing is one of four new hires by Bentonville’s athletic department concerning its ninth-grade and high school teams during the offseason, and Passmore didn’t have to go too far to find them. Rod Washington left Shiloh Christian to join the Tigers’ football staff to fill the departure caused when Barry Lunney Jr. went to Arkansas.

Brian Ross, meanwhile, resigned as Rogers High’s assistant basketball coach to become Bentonville Black’s new head coach and replace Brian Ward, who took a similar spot at the new Fulbright Junior High. The fourth addition was Brandon Lynch, who left Berryville to be named the Tigers’ new assistant softball coach.

“We were very fortunate that we had some solid applicants for our openings,” Passmore said. “I was excited about the pool of applicants we received this year.”

Fayetteville also used someone with local ties to fill a vacancy earlier this month when it hired Bryant Davis, formerly an assistant with Bentonville Gold’s ninth-grade football team, as its new offensive line coach. He replaces Mark White, who will remain at Fayetteville in a teaching capacity.

There are still some vacancies that local schools hope to fill soon. Passmore said Bentonville still needs to hire an assistant coach for its Gold ninth-grade football team, while Rogers assistant superintendent Dr. Roger Hill said Heritage has to find a boys soccer coach and an assistant baseball coach.

Meanwhile, Springdale athletic director Wayne Stehlik said he is on the verge of filling two vacancies — the head boys basketball position at Central Junior High and the girls assistant basketball position at Springdale High. Those two hirings are waiting the contracts to be finalized, while the district continues its search for a head cross country and an assistant boys track coach.

Siloam Springs, which earlier filled its girls basketball coaching vacancy by hiring former Gentry coach Tim Rippy, still has an opening for a ninth-grade volleyball coach.