Caldwell named new Girls Basketball Coach at Harrison.

Written Sunday October 23rd at 10:10 AM

The Harrison Hawks will have a new Girls Basketball coach to start the season in Shavon Caldwell.

Caldwell comes to Farmington Hills Harrison from Detroit Cornerstone. She takes over the team from Stefan Wilson who previously took over for Al Walker last season on an interim basis. Wilson is focused on coaching the Boys Basketball team at Harrison and Walker is now an assistant at Stoney Creek.

Caldwell joins the list of new hires in Kevin Kopec at Orion, Rachel Bryer at Oxford, Phil Dawson at Avondale, and Michelle Marshall at Southfield Arts and Tech. The Adams job remains vacant for now.

Last season according to the MHSAA website Detroit Cornerstone finished at 8-8 losing to Madison Heights Madison 50-29 in the district final.

Caldwell will have a challenge with her new team this season coming over from a team that was in Class C to up to Class A. The Hawks program since Tim Micklash left has not been stable since he left. If Caldwell can stabilize the program and try to keep the momentum going then Harrison will be in good shape.

Harrison moved down from the Red to the White but the teams they will face are still formidable in Orion, Oxford, Bloomfield Hills, Royal Oak, and West Bloomfield. The Hawks are also in a tough district with West Bloomfield, North Farmington, Mercy, and Farmington at Farmington this season.

Caldwell comes over from a team that lost arguably their two best players to come out of Harrison in Kristen Nelson and Amber Stephans whom are both in college now. She will have to lean heavily this season on Olivia Perkins, Nyla Warren, and Teddi Pickens. Perkins whom is a multi sport athlete (plays Volleyball) will be the team's most experienced player. She wasn't healthy last season but expect her to bounce back and controlling the paint with her effort and determination. Pickens will be the team’s top shooter, she made her name well known last season with her three-point shooting against Stoney Creek. Warren is a warrior as well, virtually can play both the guard and forward spot when asked.

Thoughts:

This is an interesting hire for Harrison to bring in Caldwell from Detroit Cornerstone. Her team last season finished 500 and did win a district game taking out Detroit Community 48-38 last season.

The challenge from moving Class C to Class A is huge and this program is coming off losing two of their best players all time at Harrison in Kristen Nelson and Amber Stephens.

Also, what makes this tough is the Hawks moved down from the Red to the White and has to see teams like Orion, Bloomfield Hills, Royal Oak, Oxford, and West Bloomfield. The district is not easy either but that’s for later in the season.

The most important thing for her is stability especially with the team she has coming back. Last season the Hawks had a coaching change last February amidst it was a mess but these girls came through it and overcame their adversity. She will have a mentally tough team to work with that has been through a lot. If she can bring stability to a program that needs it after last season, then good things can happen for Harrison going forward.

Harrison opens up the season on December 7^th against Milford.

I want to thank Charles Perkins for giving me the information.

Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest updates on this developing story.