First-year Ouachita women’s basketball head coach Kiley Hill has announced the hiring of hall of fame player and coach Brandi Higginbotham as the program’s assistant coach.
Higginbotham joins the Tigers staff after a highly-decorated 29-year career as a coach and teacher at two different school districts in Arkansas – four years at Hamburg and 25 at Lake Hamilton.
Already inducted into the Lyon College Athletic Hall of Fame, class of 2007, as a standout basketball player from 1990-94, Higginbotham will also be inducted into the Lake Hamilton Athletic Hall of Fame this upcoming fall.
As a coach for the past three decades, Higginbotham coached basketball, softball, track, and golf, while teaching physical education and algebra.
Highlights of her hall of fame coaching career include leading Lake Hamilton to the 2009 Class 6A state championship in basketball and the 2000 Class 4A state championship in softball. She was selected as the Arkansas Activities Association Coach of the Year in 2000.
“I am extremely excited to work with a coach the caliber of Coach Hill and at a university with such a solid reputation for excellence,” said Higginbotham. “Getting the opportunity to coach a higher-level athlete and have an influence on the culture of college athletes after retiring from 29 years of coaching athletes from K-12th grade is a challenge I look forward to!”
“We are so fortunate to have Coach H join our program,” said Hill. “We were very intentional with our search, and Brandi checked all the criteria. Having known Brandi for well over 30 years, her character, knowledge, and infectious positive attitude is the epitome of the Ouachita way! Her life experiences along with her teaching and relationship building gifts are going to be super impactful as we continue to build on a culture of difference makers on the floor and in life.”
During her playing career at Lyon, then known as Arkansas College, Higginbotham was a three-time All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference performer and set two school records – the single-season assists record that held for 26 years and the three-pointers in a season record that held for 16 years.
Higginbotham and her husband Shawn have a daughter, Ginny, who is a student at Delta State University, and a son, Jack, who is an incoming freshman at Central Baptist College. Brandi graduated from Lyon College with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She later earned a master’s degree in math education from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.