STAMPS HIRED AS ASSISTANT

Springdale High boys basketball coach Brad Stamps is headed home to coach at his alma mater after being hired Thursday as an assistant coach at Fayetteville. The hire is pending school board approval at its next meeting in July. Stamps replaces Tommy Deffebaugh, who was hired as an assistant on Arkansas women's basketball coach Jimmy Dykes' staff recently. Stamps, who compiled a 102-67 (.604) record in six years at Springdale, including guiding the program to the 2014 Class 7A state title game, is returning to Fayetteville to assist his mentor Kyle Adams. The move also makes Stamps the odds-on favorite to become Fayetteville's next head coach when Adams decides to retire, positioning himself to be promoted from within similar to how Fayetteville baseball assistant Scott Gallagher was named head coach following Vance Arnold's retirement this spring. "The decision has been weighing on me for a while, but the way I'd like to put it is it's almost like a pay-it-forward situation for me," Stamps said. "The guy who brought me into this coaching business, who gave me my first shot when I didn't know what I wanted to do, is calling on me to come home and be by his side for whatever time he has left. At the end of the day, my decision was ultimately put your ego aside, go be a servant and serve him and make sure you're doing whatever you can to make sure whatever time he has left is the best, not only for him but also a place that means so much to me." Stamps won a state championship as a player at Fayetteville in in 1987 before graduating in 1989. Adams coached Stamps at Woodland Junior High and later gave him his first coaching job as a Woodland volunteer coach in 1993. "He's just a special guy," Adams said. "For me, it's extra special having coached him, having helped him get into coaching a little bit. Having him sit on the bench beside me will be a thrill that first game." The transition figures to be smooth given that the duo has maintained a close bond while coaching against each other for the last few years. "Brad's invaluable in that he's been a head coach for 15 years," Adams said. "He's been in the fight and the wars. Being in the state finals two years ago against North Little Rock, he knows what it takes to get to the finals. And now he knows what it takes to win in the finals. Hopefully he's going to get us there this year. I know Tommy and I have laid some great groundwork along the way and hopefully Brad can take us over the top." Stamps did an admirable job turning around a Springdale program that had struggled after the school district split, prior to his arrival. The Bulldogs were 35-75 with one state tournament appearance since the split in the four years before he took over the program, but went to the state tournament in all six of his years while recording three top-three finishes in the 7A-West. Stamps informed his Springdale team of his decision Thursday morning. "You can go through this business for years and go to any coaching clinic and do anything like that, but there's nothing you'll ever learn or have somebody tell you that prepares you for when you have to stand in front of a group of kids and tell them that you're leaving," Stamps said. "That wasn't easy. It was very difficult." Stamps leaves the program two years after one of the best seasons in school history. The Bulldogs went 22-6 and made only the program's second state title appearance, and first since 1998. And the season produced the program's first conference title, No. 1 state tournament seed and 20-plus win season since 2000. The stretch from 2012 to 2014 marked the first time Springdale won 18 or more games in three consecutive seasons since 1998-2000. "When I took the job, I remember telling many people within five years we're going to be playing for the state championship," Stamps said. "And year five, we played in the state championship. ... I'm proud of where the program is today. I think it's going to be an attractive job for the next person that comes around. I feel like it's in a great place right now. Every year, we've put ourselves in a position to be a state contender, and I'm proud of that." Stamps has a career 179-107 (.626) record in 10 seasons as a head coach, including four years at Shiloh Christian, that program's most successful stretch. He was an assistant at Springdale Har-Ber for two years between coaching at Shiloh and Springdale.

STAMPS HIRED AS ASSISTANT

Photo Credit: NWADG

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