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Women's coach brings experience
New Fort Scott Community College women's basketball coach Jeff Tadtman wasn't given a choice when it came to leaving his previous position. He wasn't fired; the job was taken away from him when Oklahoma's educational budget cuts forced his former school, Carl Albert State College, to eliminate both of its basketball programs.
"I was going into my 14th year at Carl Albert when they shut the program down," Tadtman said. "The education cuts in Oklahoma were massive and our school chose to close down men and women's basketball. I wasn't actively pursuing anything. It was just a curve ball thrown to me in my life, so I'm appreciative to get this opportunity."
Tadtman and two of his players at CASC have found their way here. Tadtman has coached in the conference before, heading Independence's women from 1993-96. He's been involved in coaching in some form since 1984.
The staff and administration at FSCC have made his transition to his new job easy, he said Wednesday morning.
"It's been terrific," Tadtman said. "People are great to work with. They've been very helpful in my transition. The campus community is supportive of athletics from the president on down. It makes for a terrific work environment."
There are four transfers but every other player on the roster was either a returning player or someone previous head coach Katie Reihmann had recruited.
"Probably the fact that there were nine kids either here returning or signed by the previous coach who I'd never met, never seen play; they were just here," he said. "That's unique in itself. That's not an issue, it was just unique in the transition."
The last time Tadtman coached in the Jayhawk Conference, all the basketball teams played Division I, the divisions were East and West and your team had to beat out 18 others for the one berth in the national tournament. But not only have there been changes in recent seasons, such as programs playing in Division II and the Division I schools combining into a single division, the anticipation of changes to come in the next couple of years due to the recent decision to line up Jayhawk Conference roster and scholarship limits to align with those of the NJCAA, which are higher in both Division I and Division II.
"Right now, we're in a flux and things are changing as we speak," Tadtman said. "We're about to see a big change, obviously. Some of it's the same but some has had a big change. I can't predict how these new changes are going to affect everyone."
Fort Scott's returning sophomores are guards Lillie Holtgrave (5' 3", Effingham), Jordyn Danzer (5' 5", Springfield, Mo.), Tabor Spurling (5' 9", Frontenac) and forward Carly Bohannon (5' 11", Lansing). Transfer sophomores are Natalia Ready (5' 10", Little Rock, Ark.) and Chasity Moore (5' 10", Pine Bluff, Ark.), both coming with Tadtman from Carl Albert, and Yazmin Batch (5' 8", Little Rock), who comes over from Crowder College (Mo.).
Freshmen are Rachel Newquist (5' 7", Effingham), Sydney Russell (5' 7", Pittsburg Colgan), Denisha Owens (5' 7", Kansas City, Kan., Schlagle), Shanessia Walters (6' 1", Vian, Okla.), Jada Robinson (5' 8", Pine Bluff, Ark.), Sarah Kelley (6' 1", Houston, Mo.) and Kaitlyn Graves (6' 0", Lamar, MO.).
Holtgrave and Batch bring different qualities to the point guard position. Holtgrave, who started 11 games, averaged 7.2 points per game, 1.3 assists and 1.3 steals. Batch averaged 2.5 points and 1.5 rebounds in 24 games for Crowder. Danzer is a third option at the point.
"They bring different things to the table," Tadtman said. "Lillie has some quickness. Yasmine's a bigger point guard and they both can shoot it. We like Jordyn shooting the ball, so she'll be more of a 2."
Tadtman groups shooting guards and small forwards together as he uses many of the same players in both spots. Danzer averaged 7.7 points, 3.1 assists and 2.6 boards last season. Ready, an All-Region II player last year at Carl Albert, averaged 9.8 points and 3.5 rebounds. She had 79 steals and 49 assists in 28 games, 17 of which were starts. Spurling averaged 4.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists last season. Russell and Owens can also play those positions.
"Ready is going to be kind of our go-to player," Tadtman said. "She's very athletic, really can score the ball and run. She's a difficult match-up for people. Tabor had a good fall for us. She can shoot it and she had a high motor, which I really like."
Moore, who averaged 3.4 points and 5.8 rebounds last season, appears to be in line for the starting job at power forward. Newquist, who redshirted at Washburn University last season after suffering a knee injury her senior year of high school, is also a candidate for the job.
"Chasity is a very physical player," Tadtman said. "She's a rebounding machine. We've kind of moved her out on the perimeter, so she's adjusting to being a 'stretch 4' now.
"I've been really, really pleased with Rachel. She's come along really nicely. She doesn't mind mixing it up, either."
Bohannon, Kelley and Graves are vying for playing time at the post. Bohannon averaged 4.5 points and 3.2 rebounds for the 'Hounds last season in 15 games.
"Carly is able to be a force with her athletic ability," Tadtman says. "She really likes to run the floor, which I appreciate. She's really coachable and wants to get better. She'll be a big part of our success.
"Sarah is very talented who I'm very excited about. If she was 6' 3" or 6' 4", she'd have gone D-I. She has legit back-to-the-basket post moved. You're going to see a lot out of her. Kaitlyn is a physical post, good size, and has shown quite a bit of improvement. She gives us good depth at that spot considering how small we are."
Rebounding and defense are the foundations Tadtman wants to build upon.
"Coaching 101 is pretty standard across the board and that's that you want to defend at a very high level," he said. "You can have bad offensive nights but your defense should always give you a chance. If you don't have a team committed to rebounding and defending, it's going to make it tough. So I think that's our top priority.
"You'd like to play at a, I'll say fast pace because if you can get early opportunities in offense, transition opportunities, that's good. I also want to be able to execute in the half-court. With the shot clock, if you run something quick and don't get it, you only have about 10 seconds."
The Greyhounds were picked to finish in last place in the five-team Jayhawk Conference-Division II. Last season, Fort Scott was fourth at 2-6 with both wins coming over Labette and 15-16 overall, which was the Greyhounds' best season since recording the same mark in 2008-09. Highland, which tied for third with Kansas City Kansas last season, was the coaches' pick to win the division followed by defending national champion KCK. Johnson County was tabbed third and Labette fourth.
"That stuff doesn't affect me very much," Tadtman said. "The league is going to be good. Highland might be the best team in the country and you have the returning national champ in KCK and Johnson's always in the top 10. I saw Labette and they're way better than they were last year, so it might be an appropriate place to put us for the time being. We're an unknown commodity. The girls found that out and they were kind of making more noise about it than I am."
Fort Scott's season begins Wednesday night with a home game against the University of St. Mary's JV at 5:30 p.m. in Arnold Arena. A men's contest against the Southwestern JV will follow.