Keeping in the Demon family: Warner Robins' new head girls basketball coach like the last one, Demon through and through

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com
 

          When Rebecca White joined the Warner Robins girls basketball staff as an assistant, she figured she’d be in that position for a little while.

          After all, Tracy Fendley spent nearly a decade in the same role under longtime head coach Tom Mobley before taking over after the 2014-2015 season. White then joined the staff of who was an assistant when she played for the Demons a decade earlier.

          So White was prepared for a similar stint as an assistant. As it turns out, she had to prepare for that promotion a lot quicker than her boss.

          White was promoted to head coach of the Warner Robins girls team last week to take over for Fendley, who resigned a few weeks earlier after being hired as Adapted Physical Education Specialist for Houston County.

          Fendley again fills mighty big shoes, those of Dr. Brenda Arnett, who had basically announced her retirement in December.

          Arnett coached softball at Warner Robins for 27 years, her alma mater, and won more than 4oo games and two slow-pitch state titles – in 1986 and 1997 – to go with six region titles.

          And Arnett has kept on winning, helping the Houston Sharks County sharks be the GHSA/AAASP (American Association of Adapted Sports Program) wheelchair state basketball standard-bearer, with six straight state titles and an unbeaten streak nearing 50 games.

          “Tracy’s gonna be a good one,” Warner Robins principal Chris McCook said. “Just really cares about kids. She just does a phenomenal job.

          “It’s different than (standard) P.E., doing that. Sixth period, that’s when they do adapted P.E. and she just lights up.”

          White wasn’t surprised with Fendley’s decision.

          “I just always figured it was always her passion,” White said. “I think it was kind of one of her dreams to take over that position.”

            Warner Robins went 65-17 in Fendley’s three seasons, rebuilding last season after a two-year run of 50-5.

          About the only time in White’s career she wasn’t part of winning was during her college career at Eastern Kentucky. She started for three years and was a regular all four years

          She earned a post-graduate scholarship from the NCAA and spent a year as a graduate assistant at EKU, then began her coaching and teaching career as a parapro at Huntington Middle School before spending a year at Central and then at Houston County.

          White was part of the recent run at Central during which the Chargers became a top-10 program.

          White brings less coaching experience to the job than Fendley did, but McCook saw White in action as the junior varsity head coach as well in varsity practices and games, plus coaching track and softball.        

          “It’s just watching her across the board in all three sports,” said McCook, a former coach. “I study a lot about coaches. It’s at the end of a ballgame. Last year, she won five or six ballgames in the last 30 seconds.

          “When you’re winning ballgames in the last minute, that comes down to coaching, and execution.”

          What White and McCook think will be the difference is White’s personality and philosophy. And for McCook, her pedigree was huge.

          “She’s got a big heart for this school and these kids,” said McCook, citing the connections of Fendley and White to Mobley, still around town as a SportsMic broadcaster and head of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle. “She brings that Demon pride and shows her pride in everything she does. She’s a good representative of the school, and the girls play for her.

          “I’ll take that over anything any day.”

          White believes Xs and Os are almost as important as relationships, which she believes is her strength, along with representing her alma mater.

          “I think it’s my pride that I have for the school, my passion that I have for this school, my dedidction I have for the school, the connection I have with the athletes,” she said. “I’m very connected to all of them.

          “I believe in building relationships first. I believe once you build a relationship with athletes, you’ll get them to work hard for you. I fyou have that rapport with them, and they know that you’ve going to have their back, they’re going to have your back.”