Doniphan girls basketball coach Brad Phillips watches practice Monday, a week before making his debut as Donettes coach. Phillips takes over the program after Jimbo Blackwell stepped down after his 20th season. (Rob Tate/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By ROB TATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

DONIPHAN -- It will be a different feel to the girls basketball season at Doniphan this year. Longtime coach Jimbo Blackwell won't be pacing the sidelines this season and in his place comes a coach with plenty of experience coaching at the college level.

Hired in May, Brad Phillips is taking over this year, and Blackwell, who is still the athletic director and a teacher at Doniphan, will keep his eye on his former team, but knows they are in good hands.

"I think things will go well for him," Blackwell said. "He's from the college level and we're really fortunate to get him. I think it will go real well."

Part of the reason why Blackwell retired is he'll have more free time to enjoy watching his daughter, Jaysa, play at Missouri S&T this season.

Making the decision to leave was tough for Blackwell, who won 259 games in his 13 years at Doniphan.

"I'll be missing it a little," Blackwell said. "I'm sure when things get started, I will miss it even more."

Current senior Cassey Hart was heartbroken the day Blackwell left. Hart has known Blackwell a long time, even taking basketball pointers as far back as junior high.

"I actually cried," Hart said when she found out he retired. "He'd been my coach and you're used to one thing and then get told something different. It just breaks your heart."

Hart said that it was also tough having to change coaches her senior year.

"I didn't want it my senior year," Hart said. "I would've kept him here for one more."

One of Hart's favorite moments with Blackwell was a game last season. Not wanting to run up the score in the last minute of a game where the Donettes were up by 10, Blackwell wanted no 3s to be shot. But Hart found positioning in the corner and took open look and made it.

"He just yelled at me and said 'Cassey, if I would have had a pellet gun, I would've shot right then,'" Hart said with a laugh. "We still joke about it today. I made it, but he didn't want us shooting."

Phillips enters with a pretty good resume. He played basketball at Maynard, Ark., where he was a two-time All-Conference and district player. He also played in college at Crowley's Ridge College in Arkansas, Browne Mackie Junior College in Kansas and the former Ambassador University in Texas.

Coaching-wise, Phillips has held head coaching stints at Hannibal-LaGrange College as well as Jacksonville Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas.

Phillips made the decision to come to Doniphan because of his family.

"Just getting back close to home," Phillips said. "That was one of the reasons why I came. They have a great tradition here. If I got out of the college game, I wanted to get into a good high school situation."

Phillips thinks he is similar in a sense to Blackwell because he wants the best for his kids.

"Coaching is coaching, even if you're at the high school level or above," Phillips said. "I demand a lot of stuff that (Blackwell) does, hard work and stuff. Just the transition of them having a coach for so long, that's who they thought they were gonna have."

Hart noticed right away that Phillips had a similar coaching style to Blackwell.

"They both have a hard work ethic," Hart said. "You can't just come in here and mope around. You gotta work hard or you will sit the bench. It's as simple as that."

Phillips inherits a very young team that went to MSHSAA Class 3 District semifinals. The Donettes ended the season with a loss to Twin Rivers and lost three seniors from a team that went 15-13. The Donettes feature only two seniors this season in Hart and Kadie Civils.

"We're young," Phillips said. "We lost some kids that really helped us in the past. It's just the adjustment how the younger kids will adapt."

What didn't help the new coach with his surroundings was a week less of practice and Thanksgiving looming with a few days off this week.

"Being a new coach coming in, I'm trying to get everything in here with two weeks (of practice)," Phillips said. "Then you got Thanksgiving here where we practice for two days and then we're out two or three days then we play on Monday."

The Donettes open the season at 6 p.m. Monday against Sikeston.

Even though they didn't have school last week due to deer season, Phillips kept his girls busy every day.

Hart hopes that the hard work will pay off and the adjustments are made with the new coach in place.

"I think we will do really good," Hart said. "We'll win games we're suppose to win and win ones were weren't counted on winning because with the group we have, we work hard every day because we know people are always doubting us."