Harriet Winchester has been a winner everywhere she’s been, and she’s expecting to continue that as she starts her coaching career at Wetumpka.
Winchester, a former Keith high school and Troy standout, has been hired to lead the Wetumpka girls basketball program. This is Winchester’s first head coaching job.
She served as a graduate assistant for the Faulkner women’s program last season as well as coached AAU basketball in the past. She’s even coached a few of the current Wetumpka girls on her AAU team.
“The feeling is really surreal,” Winchester said of taking over the program. “I am so excited because I know a lot of the girls and I have big expectations for this season. I’ve always wanted the opportunity to coach basketball and fortunately, I was able to get a job with girls I’m familiar with and that was the deciding factor. I also had a really great talk with coach Bear (Woods) and he convinced me that this was an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass.”
Wetumpka’s girls team went 9-12 last season and finished second in the area, but the Indians return some of their star players back to the team.
The two biggest returners are seniors Zariah Fannin and Khloe Harris.
Fannin averaged 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists as a junior last season as she played both as a guard and a forward. She was one of the most electric basketball players in the area and proved to be a scoring threat at any moment.
The Indians only graduated two girls from last year’s roster, so the bulk of the lineup is returning in 2022.
“I know that we are still growing, but we have some excellent shooters,” Winchester said. “We have some shooters who can spot up and shoot off the dribble. We have a very fast point guard who is going to get the ball from end to end within seconds and we have a couple of aggressive players who I hope to turn into leaders for the other players and make them go as well.”
With those players coming back, Winchester hopes to turn them around and get them back on the right track. She’s had a knack for winning in her career, and she plans to continue winning right away.
Winchester, in high school, was a state champion at Keith High School. She helped lead her team to the AHSAA Class 1A Final Four for three straight seasons and won the state championship during her junior year.
In college, she continue her winning ways at Troy. She made 67 starts across four years and played in 122 total games. During her four years, she averaged 6.1 points and 1.4 assists. She also help lead the team to 87 total wins, the most wins by a senior class in school history.
As a graduate assistant at Faulkner last season, she helped lead the Eagles to a 16-13 record and a 9-7 conference record.
“What I’m telling people is that win is in my last name,” Winchester said. “I plan on turning the program around at Wetumpka. Honestly, I plan on winning it all this year.”
To try and win it all, Winchester will try and incorporate a mixture of the offense she ran as a player at Troy and the offense she helped coach at Faulkner.
At Troy, the Trojans emphasized that every player could control and handle the ball, and every player could dribble the ball down the court at a fast pace. Faulkner didn’t focus so much on speed and handling, but ran a dynamic offense that focused around getting great shooters open on every offensive possession.
With the shooters and point guard that Wetumpka returns, Winchester believes they can mix both play styles into a dynamic and stellar offense.
“When we first jump into it, my main focus will be to make sure everybody on the team is a threat,” Winchester said. “I’m going to pull that from Troy and make sure everybody can handle the ball and get up and down the court fast as well as playing excellent defense. … I hope to bring that Troy’s sale of play and Faulkner’s style of play and combine that with Wetumpka’s players.”
