Spring Hill High School Alum, Austin Kidd, was hired as the Senior Lady Bears Head Basketball Coach yesterday evening. Kidd began his career at Spring Hill High School in 2018 as the Assistant Coach for football, basketball and softball, working under Coaches Greg Smith, Tyler Welch and Roy Whatley. After learning from his mentors and fine-tuning his own style of coaching over the last two years, Kidd is excited to finally take his experience and put it to work on the court. “I feel very blessed. It’s an honor to get to start the next chapter in this program, put my stamp on it, and get my first head coaching position. I love the girls so much and really look forward to helping them achieve our goals,” Kidd said.
Following his graduation from Spring Hill High School in 2015, Kidd earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from Southern Arkansas University and is currently enrolled in classes to obtain a master’s degree in School Administration. But, along with his education, comes a wealth of experience and years of volunteering for Spring Hill Sports. Although Kidd has only “officially” been on the High School coaching staff for 2 years, he volunteered his personal time to coach youth football and basketball during his high school and college years.
Kidd says that he’s known since a very early age that he wanted to be a coach, “I’ve known I wanted to be a coach since about the 6th grade,” Kidd says, “I wanted to make an impact on young people. I love kids, helping to build them up and showing them what they can do. I wanted to be for them, what I needed when I was their age.” Fitting, since before his coaching career ever even began, you could always count on Kidd to be at the sidelines of every game, cheering the Bears or Lady Bears to victory.
School Spirit, the determination to win and the love of the game are what seems to drive him, “I’m super competitive, I love to compete and I strive to be the best,” Kidd said, but years of coaching mentors and role models are what have molded him, “The 2 previous coaches for this program have been very good role models for me. Coach Whatley has been a mentor for quite a while and has really helped me through some difficult times in my life. He’s taught me a lot about worth ethic and working through adversity and pain. Head Football Coach Greg Smith has been a great help in my development as a coach and is a great role model as well. Coach Laura Kidd has also made a huge impact on my life. While growing up, I watched her coach all of my cousins while achieving so much in her program and that is something I’ve always admired.”
As far as preparing for the 2020-2021 season, Kidd has already put things into motion for his team, “The girls have been doing basketball workouts on an app that I can monitor and adjust for about 4 weeks. We will continue to do that until we can get back together, hopefully in the summer, then, we’re going to put a big emphasis on basic fundamentals, lifting weights, and lots of conditioning,” Kidd said, “I believe you need to fit your style to the players you have, but we will be an up-tempo team. We will play extremely aggressive defense, press and create turnovers that will lead to baskets on the other end. We will be patient but also aggressive on offense.
In the end, it’s not about winning or losing for Kidd, he wants to see his girls succeed in everything they do and has intentions of setting the path for them to do just that, “My biggest goal and aspiration is for the girls to become great students, workers, wives, and mothers. I wanted to build a program that can do that for them,” Kidd said.
Spring Hill Boys Athletic Director, Coach Gregg Smith had nothing but praise for Kidd and seemed ecstatic with Kidd’s advancement saying, “I have worked with Austin for one year now and his love for the school, community and the students is second to none! He will work to build on the strong tradition of the Girls basketball program. As with any change of a head coach, it takes time for adjustment to happen, but he will embrace the challenge.”
Kidd will succeed Coach Roy Whatley, who was named as the Lady Bears head coach in 2014, a year after Coach Laura Kidd led the Lady Bears to Spring Hill’s very first State Championship. Kidd has been married to Anna Leigh Kidd for one year and when he isn’t coaching, they enjoy hiking and exploring the outdoors, walking their dogs, working in the garden, and spending time with family.
