A new attitude in El Dorado?

While digging up stats for my All-Area section, which will be coming out on Monday, by the way, I stopped into the El Dorado coaches' office. With coaches Corey Smith and Henry Harrell and student teacher Coach Hooks, there was a lot of good-natured ribbing, mostly at my expense.
They asked me about the All-Area Team and who would be on it. When they thought they'd guessed the selections, they proceeded to tell me how horrible those girls were as players.
Smith even insinuated one of the All-Area girls couldn't even play on his great 10-15 El Dorado squad.
Anyway, I'm not sure how serious the remarks were but I'm treating them as jokes.
Smith then asked my opinion on how the Lady Wildcats would do against Camden Fairvew next year. I took this as a serious question and gave a serious answer. He seemed genuinely upset when I predicted a pair of relatively-easy wins for the Lady Cardinals.
I like Coach Smith. Without a doubt, El Dorado has more young talent coming up in the next couple of years than at any time during my tenure in Union County. The Lady Wildcats are clearly headed in the right direction and Smith and Harrell deserve some of the credit.
To be honest, I'm already trying to figure out which bandwagon I want to jump on as both Parkers Chapel and El Dorado have seasons in the sun coming up.
My biggest problem with El Dorado in the recent past has been the attitude. Not necessarily of the players but of the administration and coaches.
Years ago, El Dorado hosted a junior high tournament. They invited Strong, which had a pair of seventh graders named Jasmine Canser and Destinee Rogers and an eighth grader named Maranda Parker. Strong crushed the Lady Wildcats' freshmen girls to the point of embarrassment.
Guess what happened next?
El Dorado didn't want to have anything else to do with Strong and the tournament was dropped.
I couldn't believe they were actually embarrassed they had lost to that team, even after Strong put an even bigger whooping on Camden Fairview.
Any "real" program would've been trying to get three or four games with that kind of a team. Do you think the girls at Fort Smith Northside have ever not scheduled an opponent because they were afraid to lose? What about Mountain Home? Or Conway?
After that, the Lady Wildcats would load up on a bus and drive to Springdale so they could find some "good competition." Meanwhile, the best competition they could find was 30 minutes away.
You can't build a winning program if you're scared to play good people. "Real" basketball powers don't look at classification. They look at talent. If you're not smart enough to recognize talent when you see it, you'll never be able to beat it.
That was a different regime. Hopefully, a new coach and a new athletic director will have a new attitude that doesn't look at the size of an opponent but focuses on the way they play. Hopefully, the Lady Wildcats will seek out the best competition, whether that's in Sheridan, Camden or Cutter Morning Star.
There are people in El Dorado who look down their nose at Fairview because some of their players are from Strong. Game recognizes game. If you don't recognize game, that means you've got NO game.
I have no problem being honest with coaches. I don't think losing to Fairview next year is anything to be ashamed about. If the Lady Wildcats beat them, I'll be surprised and happy at the same time. I don't think it will happen but I've been wrong before.
Perhaps they will have a better shot if they look at the Lady Cardinals as one of the best teams in the state and gear up their own games in preparation, rather than seeing them as those girls from Strong, who couldn't possible be very good because they're from a small school.