Cody Vaught ready to lead boys’ basketball program at Alma

Cody Vaught, who was recently hired as Alma’s new boys basketball coach, didn’t begin his coaching career with that sport. He started out as a softball and volleyball assistant in West Fork.

But Vaught played a number of sports attending high school in Clarksville, and even played tennis while attending the University of the Ozarks there, so he was able to adapt to whatever sport generally consumed his time.

“It just so happened that the sport that was the most successful at that moment (in West Fork) was basketball, and so I asked the basketball coach if I could just voluntarily help out, because their program was so successful,” Vaught said. “And I think that had a little bit to do with me kind of liking coaching basketball, because it was real successful at West Fork. And you know, it’s fun to be around winning, and so I did (coach basketball).”

Vaught spent three seasons as an assistant at West Fork before taking over the junior high boys program at Ozark, which is near his original hometown of Altus. He got his first head coaching job at Hector and then returned to West Fork to take over the program there. In 2018, Vaught took over as coach of a brand-new school, Ozark Catholic, in Tontitown, adjacent to Springdale.

“This school kept calling me, trying to get me to take their athletic director slash basketball job,” he said. “They knew I was a devout Catholic. I kept saying no, and they wore me down; they started coming to my games. They started doing all the little stuff that you do when you really want someone you know.

“And after about saying no four times, they finally convinced me to at least go talk to them. And my wife and I were getting married at the time, and they convinced me, after a while, to take a leap of faith, and I went, took that job at Ozark Catholic, and there were only 22 kids there in the high school.”

From those humble beginnings, Vaught helped lead the fledgling program to success, particularly over the past two seasons when Ozark Catholic went a combined 71-14.

But someone from Vaught’s past wanted to lure him to Alma, which had an opening when Dominic Lincoln left after four seasons to take over at Nettleton in northeast Arkansas.

“Mr. (Jerrod) Burns (Alma’s athletic director) was my principal at Ozark, and unbeknownst to me, he had told the high school principal that when I left, that if there was ever an opportunity, he was going to try to hire me if he ever had a position,” Vaught said. “He was true to his word, and he called me when it was open. And now, I’m at Alma.”

But there were other reasons Vaught wanted to take the Airedales’ job. He and his wife Kimberly, have three young children and wanted to see them grow up in a school district that went from kindergarten to 12th grade and have the opportunity to play multiple sports.

“We both want them to get to play multiple sports, so we knew Alma was that,” Vaught said. “And then lastly, and very importantly to me, I wanted to be somewhere where I knew they cared about whether we won, and they would do everything in their power to help, not just basketball, all sports, because I love all sports, just help all sports be extremely successful and all that.”

Vaught is equally eager to put his own stamp on the Airedales’ program.

“It is on solid ground, and it’s on solid ground because (former longtime Alma coach) Stan Flenor was an amazing coach, period, and then Coach Lincoln did a great job, too,” Vaught said. “I don’t know him as well, but I know he did a good job, but Stan gets a lot of credit, and so do the kids that played for him.

“So my goal is that when they leave the program after being with me, that they’re better men, period. And that’s really my ultimate goal. It’s not to win championships, although I’ll tell you, I’m about as competitive as anybody you’ll ever meet.”

Vaught said his new team, including the players and assistant coaches that have stayed on with the program, have been very receptive.

“They’ve been very polite and kind, and so I feel welcome, and that means a lot because my wife’s lived in Fayetteville since 2011 and I’ve lived in Fayetteville since 2014 and this is a big life change for us, and they have made it easier,” Vaught said.