Beasley posts 500th win over weekend

Beasley posts 500th win over weekend

Marion head coach reflective after milestone

Sports Editor While winning the 2016 River City Tournament over two days in two cities was exciting enough for anyone associated with the Marion Lady Patriots, that run was capitalized by a milestone for their head coach, as well.

Lisa Beasley, in her 21st season as head coach, all of which came at Marion, won her 500th game as a varsity coach on Friday evening when the Lady Pats dispatched DeSoto Central.

Those wins were earned in varsity competition only, and include victories as a head coach of Marion’s 7th grade teams, junior high teams and high school teams.

“It’s definitely rewarding, I guess you’d say,” Beasley said. “Especially doing it here at Marion.

You know, we struggled a bit our first year here, and seeing where we’ve gone since those days and today, is pretty exciting.”

Beasley was the first, and has been the only, head coach in Marion volleyball history. Her junior high team won its first district title in 1997, just one season after going 0-12 overall and 0-8 in the league.

In 2000, Marion made the first state tournament in the school’s history and the 2001 Lady Patriots captured its first conference title with a 9-1 record.

Marion also won Class 6A state titles in 2010, 2011 and 2015, while posting runner-up finishes in 2006, 2009 and 2014.

“When I got the job, I knew that I wanted to make Marion a respected program throughout the state of Arkansas,” Beasley explained. “Not just in our area, but the whole state.

I’m happy that we’ve done it here, and that’s been pretty fulfilling.”

Marion has made it to the Class 6A state semifinals every season since 2008, punctuated with those three state championships.

Beasley launched the Marion volleyball program fresh out of college in the fall of 1996, and the Lady Pats posted their first winning record in 2000.

“I do consider this my program, it’s my baby, you know? Knowing that I did it all here, knowing where we were at first, and where we are now, it’s really pretty humbling. It definitely make it more special,” the coach says of her time at Marion, with the program that she birthed. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

For the first six seasons, Beasley coached every level, getting help only from a friend that was volunteering. That was when assistant coach Shayla Williams joined Beasley’s staff, where she has stayed for 16 or 17 years. Lucy Sislo joined in 2005 as the junior high head coach, a post that she still holds to this day.

2004 marked the last year that Beasley’s was Marion’s 7th grade head coach, and 2005 was the last year that she coached the junior high team.

“We’ve had some great teams, some better kids, and it was pretty cool when some former players called and texted over the weekend and said congrats. After the game on Friday, the girls surprised me with a bag of Hershey’s kisses,” Beasley said of the scene following the St. Benedict win in Bartlett last Friday.

Following the tournament championship over the weekend, Beasley’s win total rests at 505 wins (Marion has a home match scheduled against Jonesboro on Tuesday), in her 21st season. That’s an average of just over 24 wins per year.

So which games stick out in the coach’s mind the most?

“We had so many showdowns with Nettleton when we were in the 4A conference. It always seemed to be the last match of the year, whether it was at our place or theirs. A lot of times the conference championship was on the line,” Beasley said of her former, and now current, league rivals.

“I guess the first one was in our second year we upset some people in the district tournament. A big win there was beating the 3A state champion Harrisburg in the tournament at their place. We turned around and lost to Trumann in the final, and if we’d won then we’d have made the state tournament and after the game a man in the stands told me, ‘I don’t know if it’s more fun to watch you or your kids,’ as I’m just drenched with sweat. The junior high team not winning a game and then coming right back the next year and being conference champs was a big moment too. We beat Fort Smith Southside in the Conway Tournament in 2006 in the semifinals. At that time, and still today, Southside is one of the elite programs in the state of Arkansas, so I’m not sure I’ll ever forget that.”

Beasley didn’t just remember the wins, however.

“Honestly, one I may remember the most is the 2006 loss in the final (to Jonesboro),” she says.

“Everyone always tells me ‘Well, what’s the big deal?

Y’all won three.’ Yeah, but it should have been four, because we were so so close. We’ve seen a lot of good ones, and we’ve seen some bad ones too.”

By Chuck Livingston