UALR inks Forrest City’s Stewart, Mineral Area’s Fowler
Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007
FORREST CITY — With the stroke of a pen, Kelson Stewart and his high school teammates went from friends to foes.
Stewart, a 6-5 guard from Forrest City, was one of three players to sign national letters of intent to play basketball at UALR next year. Also signing was junior college guard John Fowler, a 6-4 wing who is from Blytheville and played at Park Hills (Mo. ) Mineral Area College.
Stewart’s Forrest City team lost in the Class 6 A state championship game to Jonesboro. Two of Stewart’s teammates signed NCAA Division I letters of intent in the fall — Marcus Britt to Louisiana Tech and Stephon Weaver to Arkansas State. Both schools are on UALR’s schedule twice next season, though Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton said Britt is now weighing his options after Louisiana Tech Coach Keith Richard and his staff were fired last week.
“The thing I love about Kelson is that he did not receive as much of the publicity early on in his career as the other two did, and everything he got he had to go out and earn,” Lofton said. “I think he is the best shooter of the three, and has more upside than the other two. I also think he will be the best college player of the group once he puts on 15 to 20 more pounds and gains some strength. He is going to be a player.”
Stewart led Forrest City at 19 points per game and could provide needed outside shooting for a Trojans team that shot 43 percent from the field and 32 percent from three-point range this season.
“I liked the coaching staff, the arena, the players and the atmosphere,” said Stewart, who said he chose UALR because assistant Coach Wes Flanigan was the first to start recruiting him. Ole Miss started heavily recruiting Stewart this spring. Arkansas State and Central Arkansas were also recruiting him.
“He’s an efficient shooter who played extremely well in big games. And he played for a phenomenal coach in Dwight Lofton. We know we’re getting a guy who has been coached,” Shields said. “The thing I like about him is that he has a long, rangy body that allows him to get his hands on a lot of balls from a defensive standpoint.”
Mineral Area assistant coach Chad Kish said Fowler is more than a “blue-collar guy. He’s more of a flannel-collar guy. He’s a combo guard with the ability to both score via the jump shot or drive.” Recruiting Web site www. jucojunction. com rates Fowler as the 65 th best junior college player available.
“Toughness is the first thing that comes to mind. He’s proven his desire to do whatever it takes to help his team win,” Shields said. “He played out of position this year and was extremely selfless.”
Fowler went from Blytheville to Bossier Parish Community College before transferring and sitting out at Mineral Area. At Blythville he averaged 21. 3 points, 8 rebounds and 3. 2 assists as the Chickasaws finished 25-4. At Mineral Area he played out of position as a small forward in the Cardinals’ fourguard attack. He frequently had to guard power forwards on opposing teams and had success.
“I’ve known Coach Flanigan since I was in the ninth grade and I felt comfortable there on my visit,” Fowler said. “I was ready to make the move.”
Out of high school he was recruited primarily by UALR, Arkansas State, Purdue, Murray State and Illinois State. He canceled a previously scheduled visit to Arkansas State and committed to the Trojans after visiting UALR last month. UALR has 14 scholarship players on its roster after the departure of guard Corey Johnson earlier in the week. UALR must have 13 scholarship players, in accordance with NCAA regulations, before classes begin in the fall.
ARKANSAS STATE MEN Ifeanyi Koggu, a 6-0 point guard from Tyler (Texas ) Junior College, became the fourth player to be added to Arkansas State’s 2007 signing class. Koggu led Tyler Junior College to an 18-12 record and the Region XIV Tournament quarterfinals last season. He averaged 8 points, 6. 9 assists and 4 rebounds for the Apaches. “Ifeanyi Koggu is a very good player, but an even better person,” Tyler Coach Mike Marquis said. “He is the reason why the other four sophomores on our team are signing scholarships at this level. He took care of our team and is a consummate team player.” Koggu joins Weaver, Jeremy Thomas of Jonesboro and Chris Malcolm of Orlando, Fla., as Arkansas State’s signees for 2006-2007.
CENTRAL ARKANSAS MEN Central Arkansas signed some much-needed height for its second season as a Division I team.
Wichita State transfer and Searcy native Chris Brown and Brian Marks, a Dodge City (Kan. ) Community College transfer originally from Las Vegas, both signed with the Conway school.
Brown, 6-8, 215, will sit out next season because he is transferring from another Division I school. He was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in 2006 from Arkansas before signing and playing four games with the Shockers last season.
Marks, a 6-9, 260-pound center, played at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas before spending the last two seasons at Dodge City (Kan. ) Community College. Marks helped lead the Conquistadors to two consecutive Jayhawk League titles and a regional semifinals berths, averaging seven points and six rebounds a game.
“We felt like this year we battled pretty well on the inside, but we were thin in numbers down low,” Central Arkansas Coach Rand Chappell said.
“It was critical for us to replace our tall guy,” Chappell said in reference to outgoing senior Fernando Johnson, who was the tallest player on the team at 6-9. “We felt like it was important in the short term to bring in somebody like Marks.”
The Bears will certainly rely on Marks to provide a threat down low, facing teams like Lamar — with the Cardinals ’ 7-1 center James Davis. “Our league is kind of unique that there’s some high-quality people in the post,” Chappell said. “It’s an awful lot to ask 6-7 guys to battle 7-0, 300-pound guys. Corpus Christi and others have very good numbers.”
UALR WOMEN The UALR women signed two players on Wednesday in Garland (Texas ) Lakeview Centennial guard Taisja Jones (5-10 ) and Gateway Tech (St. Louis ) guard Shamika Butler (5-7 ). “Shamika is a combo-type guard, very athletic and one of the top 10 players in St. Louis. And Taisja is going to play in the Texas [Girls Coaches Association ] All-Star Game. We feel like both will give us a lot of depth in our scoring to go with Anshel [Cooper ] and Kim [Sitzmann ],” UALR women’s Coach Joe Foley said. Jones averaged 20 points and 9 rebounds, while Butler averaged 20. 8 points, 9. 6 rebounds, 5. 2 steals and 4 assists. The UALR women are also expected to sign Dallas Kimball point guard Asriel Rolfe.
OTHER WOMEN Arkansas State’s women picked up two Arkansas high school signees — Makala Mc-Nair, a 5-10 guard from Alpena and Sherina Scott, a 6-2 post player form North Little Rock. McNair averaged 20. 4 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals during her career at Alpena.
Scott started in all 87 games she played for North Little Rock. She averaged 16 points a game this season and averaged 15. 5 points a game through her career. Scott also had a career average of 8. 5 rebounds, 1. 9 blocks and 1. 8 assists a game.
Scott was one of three seniors from North Little Rock’s 27-2 team that signed National Letters of Intent during ceremonies at the school’s gymnasium on Wednesday. The school also had a fourth athlete to sign a national letter of intent for volleyball.
Gabby Coleman, a 5-7 guard, signed with Ouachita Baptist; and Gabby Jones, a 6-4 post player, signed with Jackson State in Jackson, Miss. Brittany Larkin, a 5-10 outside hitter, signed a letter of intent to play volleyball for Jackson State.
“Anytime you have three quality kids who have been successful in your program and move on to the next level to play college basketball and earn a degree, besides maybe their parents, I’m probably the proudest person here,” North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said. “These three girls made a lot of sacrifices to get what they wanted. It’s kind of sad to see them go because we won’t get to see them as much anymore, but this is why we do this.”
Jones, who had played for Little Rock Parkview as a freshman and for Little Rock Mc-Clellan as a sophomore and junior, averaged 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks a game for North Little Rock.
Coleman averaged 16. 5 points a game during her senior season, while compiling a career average of 2. 8 steals and 5. 3 assists a game.
“We’ve had 10 seniors in the last two years and we’ve had six sign to college scholarships to play ball,” said Fimple, whose won the 7 A-Central Conference title and reached the state semifinals. “We’ve definitely had a lot of success in getting them to the next level.”
Larkin was an all-conference and all-state player for the Lady Charging Wildcats ’ volleyball team. She was also invited to play in the state allstar volleyball game in June.
Besides Coleman, Ouachita Baptist added two other signees — Maranda Parker, a 5-11 guard from Strong; and Lauren Kollmorgen, a 6-1 post player from Metro Christian Academy in Tulsa.
Parker averaged 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals for Strong. Kollmorgen averaged 11. 2 points and 6. 1 rebounds for the Oklahoma school.
John Brown University’s women picked up a signee in Staffica Bain, a 6-0 forward from Fayetteville Christian. Bain averaged 13 points and seven rebounds during her senior season with the Lady Eagles.
Chelsea Woods, a guard / forward from St. Joe High School, signed with North Arkansas College in Harrison. Woods averaged 21. 2 points and 11. 8 rebounds a game for the Lady Wildcats.
Democrat-Gazette staff writers Nick Walker and Tim Cooper contributed to this report.
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