Now that wait is over, Wiedower's time to lead is now

After 15 seasons as Joe Foley's right-hand man, Steve Wiedower is sliding over into the first chair as head coach of the Little Rock Women's Basketball program. While his quiet, calm demeanor may be familiar to many around the program, how the Greenbrier native and Arkansas State alum worked to take the reins may be lesser known.
 
Wiedower graduated from Greenbrier High School in Central Arkansas and went on to attend Oklahoma City University, where he played two seasons for legendary coach Abe Lemons, before transferring to Arkansas State University. At ASU, he was part of the 1986-87 team that faced Arkansas in the NIT.
 
"I really enjoyed my time at ASU and we had a good team my senior year," Wiedower said. "We played the Razorbacks in the NIT, the first time ASU had ever played Arkansas, and that was my last college game, in the old Barnhill Arena [currently the Arkansas volleyball facility]."
 
Wiedower averaged 12 points per game during his senior season in Jonesboro, with a knack for hitting the long range shot. He finished his senior season ranked among the Top 10 nationally in three-point shooting percentage, connecting on 73 of 146 attempts (50%). Wiedower also ranks among the best free throw shooters in ASU history, sinking 85 percent (128 of 151) during his two years in Jonesboro. His free throw percentage of 88.5 still ranks third in school single-season history.
 
From Jonesboro, he found his first coaching job at Morrillton Junior High, coaching both the ninth grade boys and girls and eventually wound up back in his hometown of Greenbrier, where Wiedower would eventually land the high school coaching job for both boys and girls, compiling a 229-111 record with five conference and district titles. He was named 5AA North Conference Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1992.
 
"I was coaching both teams so I was very busy," he said. "I'd go straight from coaching the senior girls game to coaching the senior boys, but I was young and had that kind of energy. I certainly enjoyed every bit of it."
 
Once he received his master's degree from Central Arkansas University in 2000, Wiedower tried his hand in administration, spending the next four years as an assistant principal in Greenbrier and Texarkana, Texas. But then he got a call from Foley.
 
"When he [Foley] was at Arkansas Tech he had recruited a few of my players at Greenbrier, so we knew each other well," Wiedower said. "He had spent some time in my gym looking at players and talking basketball, and I had been to his games often to watch former players. We built a relationship that led us to working together in Little Rock."
 
When the two arrived, the program at Little Rock was in dire need of a makeover. In fact, the program had only been active for four years before Foley's arrival, having been reinstated in 1999 after the school had dropped the sport from 1989-99. During the four years since its return, the program had a record of just 24-87, including a 5-23 record the year before Foley and Wiedower arrived.
 
"It was a lot of work, we had to build it from the ground up," Wiedower said. "We brought in a freshman class that was the foundation for what the program's future success was built on. Players like Jocelyn Love and Heather Morris, some of the girls from around the state of Arkansas that were part of that initial process."
 
Little Rock was better in each of its first three seasons under Foley and had its first winning season in program history (21-10) in 2007. The next season, the Trojans went 23-9 (14-0 at home) and made their first appearance in the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). A season later, the Trojans finished 26-7, earned the programs' first win over a ranked team and again advanced to the WNIT. But then, a unique opportunity presented itself.
 
Russellville High School offered Wiedower the chance to not only coach the high school girls program, but also his two youngest daughters – Kaylee and Kenzie – who were both basketball players for the Cyclones.
 
"We got all the way to the state finals when Kaylee was a senior [Kenzie was a sophomore] and having that time with them is something I will never regret," he said. "Those experiences, those times with my family are memories I'll always cherish. There's no way you can replace that."
 
In 2015, Wiedower returned to the staff at Little Rock, and that season the Trojans would put together the best campaign in program history, finishing with a 29-5 record that included a win over nationally-ranked LSU in Baton Rouge to open the season, a sweep of the Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament titles, plus a win over Texas A&M in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. That season was followed by four straight postseason trips (two WNIT, two NCAA) and three more conference titles. The program had come full circle.
 
"From where we had started many years ago to where we are now, it was a lot of work to get to this point," Wiedower said. "But the hardest thing isn't getting to the top, it's staying there, and that's what has really been impressive about what we've accomplished here is the sustained level of success. Coach Foley is one of those rare coaches who comes along that can build something great, then keep it great for a long period of time."
 
Now the proverbial ball is on Wiedower's court … that job of maintaining success is now his. The transition, however, was done in a way that he believes will benefit him in the immediate future, as well as the long run. Over the past few seasons, once talks of Foley retiring began, he started prepping Wiedower for this day, giving him more and more control over the day-to-day to ensure he'd be ready when the day came.
 
"It made it more of a natural transition and that's really helped a lot," he said. "I know there will be a lot more added to my plate, that's just the nature of moving up, but Coach Foley has helped prepare me as much as possible and I look forward to it."
But what about his coaching philosophy? Will it look any different from the "Foley Ball" era where hard-nosed defense was the priority? Wiedower doesn't think so.
 
"I like to run the transition game and shoot the ball a little more, but we won't be giving up anything on defense," he said. "We'll have that same mentality of wearing down opposing teams. To win championships you have to be solid defensively, and on those nights when shots aren't falling, you have to fall back on your defense."