Tough Times for Area Coaches

The third week of December wasn’t a particularly good one for area basketball coaches.

University of Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, you’ve surely heard, got caught up in a smidgen of controversy when it was reported three of his players modeled clothing and jewelry for a magazine spread. Problem was, the magazine “story” was really more of an advertisement for said clothing and jewelry stores.

That’s a big no-no, something that escaped the publisher of said magazine. On the bright side, all the silly squawking from said publisher probably resulted in more attention for the mag than its more typical spreads of Chardonnay-sippers and cheese-nibblers generate.

In the end, the stores who provided the goods – Baumans Studio NW, Walker Brothers, Soho Clothiers, Blakeman’s Fine Jewelry, Underwood’s Fine Jewelers and Romance Diamond Co. – also got some free pub.

Over in St. Paul, meanwhile, another hoops coach disproved the theory that any publicity is good publicity.

Tracy Jones, as reported in the Madison County Record, was suspended amidst an investigation into alleged inappropriate text messages with a then-17-year-old student. (Did Houston Nutt teach us nothing about the perils of texting?)

The story didn’t end there, however, as Yolanda Jones, the coach’s wife, quit her teaching position at the high school after learning of the suspension. After initially leaving her classroom, Jones reportedly returned to express her hopes that everyone involved would enjoy living in such a podunk town.