Alma senior Shep Newcomb makes transition to playing point guard, and for a new team

If there’s one thing that Shep Newcomb really likes about his senior basketball season at Alma, it’s proving the doubters wrong.

“As a team, we have over-performed in other people’s eyes,” Newcomb said. “We were confident that we were better than people said we were. For example, in the conference preseason rankings, we were picked to be the seventh seed out of eight teams, and right now we are sitting at the two seed.”

Newcomb also gives credit to first-year head coach Cody Vaught for helping the Airedales get in position to contend for the 5A-West championship. But Newcomb knows Vaught very well, having played for the coach at Ozark Catholic in Tontitown before transferring to Alma in the offseason after Vaught was named the Airedales’ coach.

“He has coached me all four years of high school and that has been the biggest impact in my life,” Newcomb said of Vaught. “I truly believe he is one of the best coaches in the state and does a great job. Every school he has gone to, he has had major success. The most important thing is he is a great person. I have learned as much about life from him as I have learned basketball-related things.”

Newcomb is undergoing another transition as a senior along with arriving at a new school. He has switched to point guard after having played shooting guard as a starter his sophomore and junior years for Vaught. Knowing he was going to be shifted to point guard, Newcomb spent the offseason working on techniques other than simply shooting the ball from the outside.

“I worked out a lot this summer on a lot of different skills,” he said. “I would the say the main thing is offensively, I have become more of a driver instead of just strictly a shooter; I feel like I can get to the rim on anybody in the state when in past years, I was primarily just a perimeter shooter.”

As of mid-February, Newcomb was shooting 52% from the field and 37% from 3-point range while making 84% of his free-throw attempts. He has made nearly 50 3’s this season and has more than 320 career triples. In addition, Newcomb was averaging more than 22 points a game and has more than 2,500 career points.

“I’m really happy with how I have played; I feel as confident as I ever have in my ability to score the ball and make the right read on offense,” he said. “I think physically I’m still improving, but I’m as strong as I’ve ever been.”

A personal highlight for Newcomb so far in his lone season at Alma was scoring 35 points in a victory against arch-rival Van Buren. Newcomb mentioned he took up basketball because it was the sport his parents allowed him to play. It ended up being the only sport Newcomb has played since he was five years old.

“When I played it, I just really enjoyed it and I decided I was going to take it serious,” he said. “I like the things it can teach you about life. It can teach you how to work hard, (gaining) humility and many other things, and it can also be an outlet for things you are trying with in life. If I ever have a problem, I know I can count on one thing and that’s basketball.”

But basketball is far from Newcomb’s only obsession. Something else he enjoys doing is following the stock market.

“(I like to) look at stocks and learn about them,” Newcomb said. “I also like to spend time with friends and family.”

He’s hoping to get to continue playing basketball after his senior season ends but has yet to decide where he wants to go.

Another vivid basketball memory Newcomb has is winning a state tournament game his sophomore season. He’s hoping to experience the same thing should the Airedales qualify for the upcoming Class 5A tournament.

“My goals for the rest of the season is to just remain consistent,” Newcomb said. “We have had a lot of success this year and we want to make state and upset some teams while we’re there. My end goal is to get paid to play basketball at some point, and hopefully for a career.”