The Cleveland County School Board voted Monday night to name Chad Cope as the next head baseball coach of the Rison Wildcats. Cope, a native of Rison, has experienced success as a head baseball coach at Watson Chapel, Greenbrier, and North Little Rock before making the decision to return to Rison to coach his alma mater.
Cope spoke with Deltaplex News about the decision saying it was the “right time” to make the move.
Cope said that the current team is having success and that a big thing for Rison will be allowing kids to play multiple sports where they can experience success in those different sports.
He also said that he will work to help Rison baseball players have an opportunity to play at the collegiate level by helping them play summer baseball and by sending them to camps so they can be seen by college coaches.
Cope said that there are some things he has learned at his previous coaching stops that he can help him build a successful program at Rison.
Cope also said that a conversation with Rison Athletic Director Davy King sold him on taking the job when King promised him efforts would be made to help the program have success.
Cope will be on campus to meet the Rison baseball team next week. He told Deltaplex News that not only does he want to work on forming relationships with those players, he also wants to work on making improvements to the Rison baseball field.
