South Plains Men

The SAC Tournament, after quarterfinal games on campus sites Feb. 23, will finish up at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City Feb. 27-28. The NAIA Championship opening round happens March 7-8 at host sites throughout the country,

Sowers gets dream job with Texans

By DAVE WOHLFARTH

When Hayden Sowers undertook his first coaching job as a grad assistant for the University of Mississippi men’s basketball team, he soon hatched a personal goal: to become a college head coach.

After several stops – including last year at South Plains – as an assistant basketball coach, Sowers has reached that goal. He is beginning his first year as a head coach.

He replaced longtime Coach Steve Green as the Texans’ boss. Green, who notched his 700th career college coaching victory last season, decided to move to Texas Tech as an assistant to Coach Mark Adams.

“Every young coach has a dream to one day be a head coach, and I’ve been preparing for this moment since I was a graduate assistant at Ole Miss,” Sowers said in a South Plains press release. “It’s a great honor to get an opportunity to be the head coach at one of the top junior colleges in the country.”

Sowers grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, famous as Elvis Presley’s hometown. Presley lived in Tupelo until he was 13, when his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he launched his singing career.

Sowers played ball at Tupelo High School, but after graduation he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where he says he was just a “regular student.”

He earned his bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and served as a grad assistant for Coach Andy Kennedy at Ole Miss. He later (2020) added a master’s from William Carey University, majoring in interscholastic athletic administration. Sounds like more preparation toward being a head coach. Sowers was an assistant at Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, for two seasons, then moved back to Mississippi to be an aide at Pearl River Community College. In his four years at Pearl River, the Wildcats went 90-11 and had earned the top seed with a 28-0 record in the 2020 NJCAA national tournament, but it was canceled because of COVID-19.

Now, at 30, he has landed his dream job.

Three starters returning is unusual

He has an early advantage. Three players, including two starters,

Coach Hayden Sowers Ismail Habib is a South Plains College 6-0 freshman guard from Chicago. (SPC Sports Information photo)

from last year’s 21-12 Texan team have returned as sophomores.

That’s a lot for a two-year school. For instance, the Texans had only one returnee last year, and he saw action in only nine games because of injuries.

“Anytime you bring back two or three guys, that’s a huge advantage,” Sowers said. “They understand how hard it is to win. They understand from Day 1 the mental approach you need to take to being a winning player.”

The two returnees who started 19 games or more are Malek Abdelgowad and Jaden Harris.

Abdelgowad, a 6-10 forward from Cairo, Egypt, made 21 starts and averaged 6.9 points and 6.2 rebounds last season. He earned honorable mention on the Western Junior College Athletic Conference all-league team.

Harris, a 6-4 guard from Atlanta, was in the starting lineup 19 times and finished last season with 6.7 ppg, 2.6 rpg.

The third returnee is 6-11 center Kalifa Sakho from Rouen, France. Sakho made 11 starts and contributed 6.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg. He was the team leader in blocks (1.8 per game). In addition to being an all-WJCAC honorable mention, he was named the conference’s defensive player of the year.

Sowers projects those three as starters this season. They may be joined by Ismail Habib, Elijah Tate and/or Christian Coleman.

Habib is a 6-0 freshman guard from Chicago; Tate a 6-4 sophomore guard from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Coleman is another Louisiana product, a 6-9 sophomore from Winnsboro. Coleman already is committed to play for Division I UAB in the future.

“He’s one of the better players in junior college basketball,” Sowers said.

With the 6-9 Coleman, 6-10 Abdelgowad and 6-11 Sakho, the Texans present a formidable inside force.

“We have good size,” Sowers said.

Then there’s Romaric Henderson, a 7-3 freshman center from Togo.

“He’s a good prospect,” Sowers said of the West African. “I look forward to coaching him.”

Even though the Texans have six foreign players on their team, Sowers maintains the communication is fine.

“English is the primary language of the players,” he said.

Size, athleticism, depth are strengths

Sowers lists size, athleticism and good depth as the Texans’ strengths.

“The problems we can create with our (press) defense,” he also said. “We have a bunch of guys who can contribute to winning a lot.”

As is the case with most coaches, he’s concerned about his players staying healthy.

He points to consistency as a key for the Texans’ success this season.

“Just consistency in our approach,” he said. “We need to understand it’s a long season and we can’t skip steps. We have to consistently make the right steps to reach our goals.”

South Plains finished second in the WJCAC last season with an

SOUTH PLAINS TEXANS SCHEDULE

Date Opponent

Time

Nov. 1 Victoria College 6 p.m. Nov. 6 Northern Oklahoma College-Enid @ University 4 p.m. of Central Oklahoma Nov. 7 Murray State College @ University of Central 4 p.m. Oklahoma Nov. 11 Jacksonville College @ Plano 12 p.m. Nov. 12 Lamar State College-Port Arthur @ Plano 10 a.m. Nov. 18 Otero College 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19 Dallas College North Lake 1 p.m. Nov. 25 Collin Community College @ Plano 7 p.m. Nov. 26 Hill College @ Plano 10 a.m. Dec. 2 Trinidad State College @ Roswell, N.M. TBA Dec. 3 Prep School @ Roswell, New Mexico TBA Dec. 27 Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout @ Mesa TBA Community College, Arizona Jan. 9 New Mexico Military Institute @ Roswell, N.M. 8:30 p.m. Jan. 12 Howard College @ Big Spring 7:30 p.m. Jan. 16 Frank Phillips College 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19 New Mexico Junior College @ Hobbs, N.M. 8:30 p.m. Jan. 23 Clarendon College 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26 Western Texas College @ Snyder 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 Odessa College 3:45 p.m. Jan. 30 Midland College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 New Mexico Military Institute 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 Howard College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13 Frank Phillips College @ Borger 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 New Mexico Junior College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 @ Clarendon College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 Western Texas College 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 @ Odessa College 7:30 p.m. Mar. 2 @ Midland College 7:30 p.m. Mar. 8 @ Region V Tournament TBA

South Plains Texans Roster Name, Ht., Pos., Class, Hometown

Ismail Habib, 6-0, G, Fr., Chicago, Illinois Jaden Harris, 6-4, G, Soph., Atlanta, Georgia Nikita Evdokimov, 6-6, F, Soph., Chekhov, Russia Jalen Scott, 6-3, G, Fr., Surprise, Arizona Bryson Ogletree, 6-4, G, Fr., Hampton, Georgia Elijah Tate, 6-4, G, Soph., Baton Rouge, Louisiana Jalen McDonald, 6-6, F, Fr., Raleigh, North Carolina Muon Reath, 6-6, F, Soph., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Christian Coleman, 6-9, F, Soph., Winnsboro, Louisiana Malek Abdelgowad, 6-10, F, Soph., Cario, Egypt Awer Awer, 6-6, F, Fr., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Chase Henderson, 5-9, G, Fr., Birdville, Texas Isaiah Howell, 6-8, F, Fr., Tampa, Florida Kalifa Sakho, 6-11, P, Soph., Rouen, France Romaric Henderson, 7-3, P, Fr., Togo, West Africa

Coach: Hayden Sowers Asst. Coaches: Adam Gulick, Trevor Van Tassel, Jonathan Jefferson 2021-2022 record: 21-12, 11-5

11-5 conference record. Sowers sees Howard, Midland, Odessa, Clarendon and Frank Phillips as league contenders this year.

“Top to bottom, it’s as good as there is in junior college,” he said. “The league has gotten a lot better.”

The Texans won nine of 10 games, including five of their last six conference assignments, last season, before they played in the NJCAA Sweet 16.

Sowers credits that late-season spurt to some offensive adjustments Green made in the offense, changing the use of his guards.

“Last year was a success, considering we had an entire new roster and we got to the Sweet 16,” Sowers said.

The Texans won the Region V championship with an 87-83 victory over Odessa, a WJCAC foe that had just beaten South Plains 85-81 a week earlier.

Then SPC spilled South Georgia Tech 88-80 as Kieves Turner scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the opening round of the NJCAA national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Kieves was held to 11 points as Kilgore College topped South Plains 56-48 in the Sweet 16 game.

Kieves undoubtedly was the star of last year’s team. Nicknamed “Deuce,” he probably would have been justified answering to “Trey.” He connected on 13 3-pointers and scored a school record 50 points in a 94-62 rout of Midland in the Texans’ final game at the Texan Dome. That broke the record of 46 set by Henry Taylor in a 1975 game.

Earlier, Turner had scored 34, surpassing the 30-point mark for the third straight game, in a 95-63 rout of Western Texas College. He hit 11 of 14 shots from the floor that night.

Turner had begun the season slowly, nagged by injuries and a lack of confidence.

Sowers helped Turner regain his form.

“Just by getting his confidence back,” Sowers said. “He was injured early, and his confidence was down. He’s a good player, one of the best scorers I’ve ever been around.”

Turner, a 6-1 guard from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, led the Texans in scoring at 18.3 ppg as a freshman. He made 74 3-pointers, shooting 38.5 percent from long range. He shot 89.5 percent