Williams takes over reins of Paxton girls' hoops
By WILL PARCHMAN
Northwest Florida Daily News
315-4484 | willp@nwfdailynews.com
Throughout his 24-year coaching career, Steve Williams has always considered himself adept in the art of team-building.
He's proud of a track record that includes various rebuilding jobs with high school programs in Tennessee that always ended in success.
So imagine his surprise when Williams, who was introduced as Paxton's new girls basketball head coach last month, walked into the Paxton gym for his first practice in June and was confronted with the five-time defending Class 1A champions.
Not that he's complaining, but this isn't quite the rebuilding job he's used to.
"The pressure comes within," said Williams, who will welcome back all but one starter from last year. "It doesn't matter where I've been, I think my trademark in Tennessee is that I've been a part of programs always rebuilding and I've always been successful at turning programs around. I'm looking forward to this situation because it's not rebuilding. They have basically everybody back."
Williams' background includes a stop at Northwest Florida State College as an assistant to Cheryl Rice in the mid-90s when the NWF State College women's basketball team went on a run of 77-23 over three years.
Most recently, Williams led the girls' basketball squad at Riverdale High in Murfreesboro, Tenn., to a 27-6 record in his fourth year there in another one of his successful rebuilding jobs.
"That part's tough, leaving those kids," Williams said. "But I think the positive of the kids at Paxton outweigh the negatives of leaving these kids."
Williams represents Paxton's first new girls' basketball coach in 18 years after stalwart Herb Haddock, who led the Bobcats to the state semifinals two seasons ago, stepped down at the end of the school year. Williams has been ferrying between his home just south of Franklin, Tenn., and Paxton over the past month, coming down about every 10 days and spending a few days getting acclimated with the area and his new roster. He will inherit assistant coach Josh Harrison and attempt to make it six district titles in a row this winter.
"We're excited about coming to the panhandle," Williams said. "We loved it down there before, it's just a matter of getting settled again and being part of the community."
Cross country coach Jackie Adams said that Williams' school-wide support is already obvious.
"One of the things that I've been impressed with is he's very big about supporting the entire school," Adams said. "He wants everybody to go to the games if the boys are playing ... He's just very supportive of the other programs."
Williams was able to facilitate the sale of his house - no given in this economic climate - which will be final on July 31, when he'll move his family to Paxton for good. In the meantime, Williams is boning up on the Florida rulebook and preparing to assume command of one of the area's most successful basketball programs.
"We're excited," Adams said. "There's going to be a lot of changes for all of us, but that's not necessarily a bad thing."
