Longtime NLR coach Daryl Fimple happy to be at ATU
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
For Mandy and Daryl Fimple, the hardest part about leaving North Little Rock might have been leaving behind so many memories.
But the best part?
Learning that most of your Arkansas Tech women’s basketball players are coaches' kids. Yes, you read that right.
“We have a bunch of coaches' kids,” beams first-year Arkansas Tech women’s basketball coach Daryl Fimple. “You’ve got Katie (Fimple), the twins (Shalyn and Jessie Lyle), Abbi Grace (Cunningham), Laney (Marsh), Kennedi Scrivner, Kendri (Broughton), and Barbara (Perandini), including all three freshmen (Fimple, Marsh, and Broughton).”
“Our IQ is through the roof,” kids Katie. “It’s easy to play with them, because they’ve kind of been through what I’ve gone through in the past. This is one of the funnest teams I’ve been a part of.”
A 1993 Alma grad whose former high school coach, Stan Flenor, said “was so much more competitive than anybody else on the floor” during his Airedale playing days, Fimple won 668 high school basketball games while coaching at Lonoke and NLR, where he led the Charging Lady Wildcats to six state championships (2006, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2022, and 2026). Late last season, Fimple heard his name mentioned as a possible candidate for the Golden Suns coaching job.
“I knew about the job because he (Dave Wilbers) had announced his retirement before the season started,” Fimple said. “A bunch of people in Russellville called, and I said, ‘No, I’m not going to talk to them until the season ends. It was kind of God’s way of saying, ‘If it’s there at the end, then I’ll be involved.
“So, we won (state) on Saturday, and Abby (Davis), (the Arkansas Tech Athletic Director), called me on Monday and said, ‘Would you meet with me on Wednesday?'They brought me back in on Friday, and I got offered the job at lunch.”
Fimple said he talked to his wife Mandy, who gave her blessing as well. “She said if you don’t do this you’ll regret it,” Fimple said. “It’s home, and it’s where you started. That was the one yes, and Katie had already signed with Ouachita (Baptist), and she wanted to come to Tech, so that was the second thing, and the third thing was (Arkansas) Teacher Retirement.
“At Tech, you can stay in teacher retirement.”
“I feel like after the state championship, we were both like, ‘That was cool!’ And then I started hearing rumors that the Tech was coming open,” Katie explained. “He asked me, ‘Is it OK to go interview for that? I thought it would be a blessing to get to play four more years for him. God has opened so many doors.”
But first, Katie needed OBU to rescind her scholarship.
“They were great,” Katie said. “He (OBU coach Nick Long) has daughters, and he understands. We can’t say nothing but great things about Ouachita; they made it super easy for me.”
Daryl Fimple’s old mentor and legendary ATU women’s coach, Joe Foley, also encouraged his protégé to look at the job.
“That was all I needed,” Fimple said.
Meanwhile, as Flenor looked on during ATU’s scrimmage with Northeastern University this week at Charles B. Dyer Arena, he wasn’t surprised to see his former point guard coaching on the college level.
“He (Fimple) was running around and stealing the ball, and he looked like he owned the court,” recalled Flenor, the longtime Airedales’ coach who retired following the 2020-21 season. “And in a way, nothing’s changed. He was in a great mix of players coming through our program at the right time. And he’s the perfect coach to be where he is now.”
The Golden Suns open the season Nov. 9 against UAFS.