Arkansas' Year In Review: #3 Springdale School District Hires New Head Coaches

December 30, 2014

By: Zac Bottoms
Arkansas Scouting Director

The #3 story of the year is Springdale School District hiring two new head coaches both with a lot of success at the collegiate level. This is a big story due to Springdale being the second largest school district in the state and two of sixteen 7A schools. This shows that schools throughout the state are starting to make a commitment to having successful baseball programs. Here is the story I ran on September 10^th, discussing both jobs with each coach Shon Doty, Springdale and Ron Bradley Springdale Har-Ber.

In early June, Springdale School District Athletic Director, Wayne Stehlik had two head coaching vacancies. No one could have ever seen the two hires he made coming. He made two absolute home run hires and landed two coaches with great pedigrees; Ron Bradley (Har-Ber) and Shon Doty (Springdale). Both these men left the college ranks to come back home where they started.

Ron Bradley, a native of West Fork returns to high school coaching after a ten year run at Rogers State University. In only a ten year span, he took the program from a start up to a NAIA World Series Runner up in 2012. While at RSU, he won over 200 games. Prior to Rogers State University, he coached high school baseball for 21 years amassing nearly 500 victories and 4 state titles (1 at West Fork, 2 at Claremore, OK and 1 Jenks HS, OK). He was inducted to the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003.

Shon Doty, an alumni of Springdale High School, returns home. He has spent the last 20 years as a collegiate pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at different programs across the country. These programs include: Arkansas Tech, University of Arkansas, Pratt CC, Indiana State University, UNC Wilmington, Old Dominion University and U of A Ft. Smith. Doty has coached over 40 MLB Draft picks in his time as a pitching coach. One of the biggest names being an American League MVP and Cy Young award winner, Justin Verlander.

Both coaches were nice enough to give me some time to discuss their transition. As they have handled themselves throughout their careers, both coaches were very upbeat and excited to return to Northwest Arkansas.

Ron Bradley stated, “Most of my career has been coaching high school athletes. I enjoyed my time building the program at Rogers State University. I felt that where I was in my career it was right to come back close to home and build on the foundation that has been laid at Har-Ber High School. Springdale School district is a great place to work and we have some talented young-men to work with.”

Shon Doty said, “I loved coaching college; from the recruiting to the relationships with the players, and seeing them succeed after they left my tutelage. But I am getting older, and sometimes I look back and see how much I missed with my kids and I don’t want to miss that with my grandkids. Besides spending time with my family, Springdale is home. I cut my teeth here in athletics. I hope that I can provide the guidance Coach Williams did for me when I was a student-athlete here.”

Both of these men may be coaching across town from each other, but they have a common goal, developing solid student-athletes. Doty put it best by saying," Coach Bradley and I have known each other a long time. Although we will be competing against each other on the field, we both have the same goal. That goal is building high school baseball in Springdale to the level it could and should be”.

Arkansas' Year In Review: #3 Springdale School District Hires New Head Coaches

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