The Camden Fairview Lady Cardinals basketball program has found a new leader in former El Dorado Lady Wildcats assistant coach Whitney Frazier.
Frazier will lead the Lady Cardinals as head coach during the 2022-2023 season, which follows a great season in 2021-2022.
Frazier is leaving her alma mater, El Dorado High School, where she spent last season working as a primary assistant coach for the Lady Cats. The Lady Wildcats finished last season with an overall record of 17-7 (10-4 in 5A South Conference play).
Frazier said she’s received a positive response from the Lady Cardinals and Camden community since being named head coach.
“I’m really excited. I meet the girls tomorrow. I’m excited to tell them about how we’re gonna change the culture. I’m excited to tell about my expectations for a team and also for parents too,” she said.
“I’m just excited for them as a whole team to get ready to change. I know they are ready for change too and I know they are excited.
“I’ve been getting a lot of calls and texts about how excited they are too, which is very good because they are going to give me their all. They are ready to show me what they got, ready to show me they are ready to be better. That’s a great environment to be in.”
Under the leadership of head coach Ashlee Curtis and the assistance of coaches Frazier and Allison Young, the Lady Wildcats focused their attention on the development of their talents after accounting for an overall record of 8-14 (5-5 in conference play) in the 2020-2021 season.
El Dorado saw a significant rebound that helped pushed their program in the right direction.
Frazier said she feels confident in her ability to coach and lead girls to play high-level high school basketball and she is ready to take the next step as a head coach. Frazier will be a head coach for the first-time in her coaching career with Camden Fairview.
“I wholeheartedly have embraced the coaching philosophy of ‘embracing success on and off the court.’ As a coach, my job is to make a player better on the court and help them tap into their full potential,” Frazier said.
“Being a coach is like being a parent. It’s like raising them as a kid and accepting them with all their flaws and allowing them to see their strengths and advancing those while assisting them in finding ways to enhance the skills that are their weaknesses. Learning how to coach them is an essential part of cultivating them.”
Frazier has always been a winner on the court.
In her senior year at El Dorado, Frazier led the Lady Wildcats to their first Class 6A state title, as they accumulated an overall record of 28-3. Frazier was an explosive guard on both ends of the court for the Lady Wildcats, averaging 24.2 points per game along with 8.7 rebounds, 3.5 steals and three assists in her senior season.
She was named to the All-Conference and All-State teams in her last two seasons in high school.
Her skills earned her a collegiate opportunity as she went on to enroll at Louisiana Tech University. Frazier would become a star player for the Lady Techsters and one of top players in Conference USA.
In her junior year in the 2013-2014 season, Frazier averaged 16.2 points per game, shooting a field-goal percentage of 45.1% with 9.8 rebounds per game, two assists per game and 1.5 steals per game.
Frazier started in 120 of the 126 games she played for Louisiana Tech, including a consecutive streak of 99 games that dated back to her freshman season. She averaged 12.9 points per game, shooting a field-goal percentage of 44.6% as well as averaging 6.8 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists per game and 1.4 steals per game for the Lady Techsters.
Finally, she was a second-team All-Conference player in her junior season and a first-team All-Conference player in her senior season.
She went on to play international basketball in the Women’s EuroLeague in Finland (Kouvot) and Iceland (Haukar). It was in Europe where Frazier got her first taste of coaching as she coached children the sport of basketball.
This past season was Frazier’s first year as a coach in a school system, and her experience and knowledge of basketball was a huge asset to El Dorado. After one season of helping develop the team, she is more than excited to create and develop her own team at Camden Fairview, she said.
Frazier takes over a Lady Cardinals team that finished the 2021-2022 season with an overall record of 15-9 (9-5 in 4A-8 region play). The Lady Cardinals will be returning their top two most consistent scorers in forwards Karmen Johnson and Amiyah Davis, who were two of the most tenacious three-point shooters in the conference last season. They will return some high-caliber paint scorers in forward Jalya Marks and guard Ja’Kyree Spencer.
“I expect this team to be faster. We will play four out and one in, especially having the new 35-second shot clock. I expect them to play very fast and a lot of pressing,” she said. “I’m going to bring a lot of energy to the girls; they will feed off my passion and they will bring more energy onto the floor and to the fans.”
Even though this next school year will be the first time Frazier will come into a season as a head coach, her playing experience, coaching philosophy and desire build her players will be what drives the Lady Cardinals moving forward. Frazier has proven to be a winner in the sport of basketball; now she’s ready to prove it again, this time as a head coach.