Sports

UAPB SHOWS PROGRESS IN ‘08-‘09

By Josh Tinker/COMMERCIAL SPORTS EDITOR
Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:04 PM CDT

Skip Perkins has a plan. As the second-year athletic director at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Perkins has made it his mission to turn around an athletic department that has been seemingly dormant for much of its time in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff athletic director Skip Perkins, shown above shortly after he was hired in July 2007, has changed many aspects of the athletic department since his hire. This past season, UAPB finished sixth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference all-sports standings, its highest finish since rejoining the conference in 1997. PINE BLUFF COMMERCIAL/RALPH FITZGERALD.

If the 2008-2009 athletic year is any indication, Perkins is well on his way to having that plan pan out.

After UAPB teams combined for only three winning records in the past decade, five teams finished with more wins than losses in SWAC play this season. For these efforts, UAPB finished sixth in the Commissioners Cup, a point-based system that awards the top athletic department in the SWAC each season.

“When Skip came in, he knew he had a plan and an idea of where he wanted his athletic department to go and what he wanted it to be in a certain amount of time,” said UAPB softball coach Tim Munn, who, in his first season, more than tripled the team’s win total from the previous season. “He’s put those plans into place, and I think we’re seeing the fruition of that.”

That plan has included several new faces around the UAPB campus. In less than two years on the job, Perkins has replaced five coaches. Gone are former softball coach Jalana Brown, who finished 3-38 in her lone season at UAPB, and former women’s basketball coach Danny Evans, who underachieved with a 10-8 record in SWAC play last season.

In Brown’s place is Munn, who’s 10 wins last season are the most in program history. In his one season as leader of the UAPB softball program, Munn already has a higher winning percentage than any of his predecessors. Meanwhile, Evans’ replacement will likely be named next week, Perkins said.

Other coaching changes brought on by Perkins were the hiring of football coach Monte Coleman, baseball coach Michael Bumpers and basketball coach George Ivory.

Each move seems to have paid off. Bumpers, who was coaching under an interim basis when Perkins was hired in June of 2007, was hired on a fulltime basis. He led his team to a 21-23 record, including a 13-11 record in the SWAC, this season after winning only 10 games the season before when he also worked as a recruiter for the university.

Though Roberto Mazza was hired as soccer coach before Perkins arrived, the A.D. takes credit for the signing since Mazza’s contract was not signed when Perkins came in.

“I claim him a little bit,” Perkins said.

And for good reason, as the Canadian-bred soccer coach led his team to the SWAC Tournament for the first time in program history in 2008.

Meanwhile, with little time to recruit, Ivory led his team to an 11-7 conference record and the No. 4 seed in the SWAC Tournament.

Perkins credits these coaches with UAPB’s improvement.

“We’ve got some good, energetic enthusiastic coaches,” he said. “They’re really passionate about what they do. They’ve worked hard. They really have. We’ve done more with less. We don’t let a lack of funds or resources be an excuse, because that’s all it is, an excuse. People have made lemonade with lemons for a long time.”

Other coaches earning Perkins’ praise are tennis coach Robert Cain, who led the men’s team to the SWAC Tournament finals before falling to Alcorn State, and cross country and track and field coach Curtis Pittman, who led the cross country team to the 2007 conference title, UAPB’s only since it rejoined the SWAC in 1997.

While Perkins praises the work of these coaches, he knows they couldn’t have done it alone.

He credits their student-athletes with their work in the classroom as well as on the athletic fields.

As a result, UAPB is in the process or rewarding these athletes with an update in facilities.

The first phase was completed last year with the J. Thomas May Fieldhouse located adjacent to Golden Lion Stadium. The next phase will be completed in March with the Torii Hunter Baseball, Softball and Little League Complex, which will house not only fields for both the UAPB baseball and softball teams, but also an indoor practice facility for all sports teams as well as Little League fields.

Bumpers said this facility will work as a recruiting tool for his program.

“We had two kids from California (come for a visit) that probably would have never come if not for the field,” Bumpers said. “It’s a whole new recruiting tool. (Recruits) want to see things happen. They ask, ‘Coach will I be able to (play) in it?’ It just lights them up. That’s what the kids want to see. In the years to come, it will be a lot better for UAPB baseball.”

Munn agreed.

“Even the idea is better than nothing at all,” Munn said.

“The kids know that in two years, or a year and a half or a year they’re going to be playing on a multi-million dollar facility that will be rivaled by none in the conference. That’s a big selling point.”

After the Hunter Complex is completed, Perkins said he wants to add an on-campus track and a new scoreboard to H.O. Clemmons Arena.

“What coach Pittman has done with no track is absolutely remarkable,” Perkins said. “He reminds me quite often, but he’s right. For what he’s doing with the facility he has, it’s remarkable. I don’t know how he does it, but he gets it done.”

With several new coaches, and new athletic facilities on the way, Perkins said he wants his athletic department ranked among the three best in the SWAC.

It’s a place Cain thinks is attainable.

“I think in the next two or three years we can be in the top three,” Cain said. “All these programs are on the upswing. We have a different swagger. If we keep moving in the direction we’re heading, I don’t see why we can’t be No. 1. That has to be your goal.”

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