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New Hayti coach has Indians thriving at both ends
Thursday, January 23, 2025
First-year Hayti High School varsity boy's basketball coach Donald Webb watches his team compete recently against South Pemiscot at Hayti High School.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
When Donald Webb was a young man, he made the difficult decision to leave his comfort zone of Poplar Bluff nearly 30 years ago and enlist in the United States Navy.
“I got to see the world,” Webb said. “I did two (tours in the West Pacific), Japan, China, Hong Kong, Russia, South Korea, and Singapore.
“The first couple days of boot camp though, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
Attacking a challenge isn’t anything that Webb fears, and he’s doing the same thing this year, as he leads the Hayti High School varsity boy’s basketball program for the first time.
After 18 years of coaching youth on the summer circuit, Webb accepted the job of leading the Indians and his intellect and discipline are showing.
“I had a couple of friends here,” Webb said, “and they asked me about coaching school ball, but I had never really thought about that.
“I’m loving it.”
He should, because things have gone extremely well.
Hayti (9-2) is ranked 11th in the Class 2 poll and will visit Delta (7-7) today at 7:15 p.m. before hosting rival Caruthersville (8-8) on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“We’ve got shooters,” Webb explained of his team’s success this season.
The Indians are markedly improved at both ends of the floor from a season ago and are in the midst of their most successful season in five years.
“We can attack,” Webb said. “When we play together, and we get that ball moving, we are tough to beat.”
Hayti is averaging nearly 72 points per game, which is 12 more than a year ago, while Webb’s kids have lowered their defensive average by eight points per game from last season to 55 points per game allowed.
“We keep the ball moving and the floor spread,” Webb said, “and we have knock-down shooters.”
The scary aspect for opponents is that Hayti is going to be this good for a while. The Indians don’t have a senior on the roster and only have four juniors while the rest of Webb’s athletes are sophomores and freshmen.
Defensively, Webb explained that his team relies on each other.
“We really pressure you,” Webb said, “and we play good help-side defense.
“We want to speed (opponents) up and make them play faster than what they are used to.”
Webb, who teaches at the Hayti alternative school, said there is a huge difference in terms of preparation between coaching on the summer circuit and in high school. He actually has time to prepare his players for upcoming opponents now, as opposed to sometimes playing four or five games in a single day.
“In summer circuit ball,” Webb said, “you may be playing a team from another state and there is no video. You don’t scout.
“In high school ball, you know who you are playing. You can watch video and know everything that they do.”
Hayti hasn’t won more than 12 games in the past five seasons, but that mark more than likely will be topped this winter. The Indians have seven regular season games remaining, as well as competing in the Bootheel Conference Tournament and the postseason.
The Hayti and Delta girl's will face-off today prior to the boy's game.
The Indians will play Caruthersville girl's following the boy's game on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.