Some guys just know how to coach, regardless of the sport... Give them a team and they produce winners... Alvy Early is one of those guys...

Alvy Early has coached everything imaginable in a career that began in 1967, producing winners - and champions - in football, women’s basketball, tennis, track, cross country and now softball.

Early coached the UAM women’s basketball team for 21 seasons, guiding the Cotton Blossoms to 425 wins, 211 losses, 18 winning seasons, 11 seasons with at least 20 victories, and a runner-up finish in the 1990 NAIA national championship tournament.

In 1997, the same year he was named UAM’s Athletics Director, Early took over the reigns of the fledgling softball program, just one year after its inaugural season, and turned it into a perennial Gulf South Conference powerhouse. Early’s first team posted a 20-18-1 record, followed the
next season by a 31-15 finish, and improved to 39-17 in his third season.

In 2000, Early guided the Blossoms to the program’s first ever GSC-West Division championship with an overall record of 41-23-1. He and the Blossoms defended their title the next season with another title after going 37-13 overall and a 17-3 mark in league play.

The winning did not stop there. In 2002, the Blossoms created a three-peat with a 37-16 finish and another title. In 2003, Early led the Blossoms to a fourth consecutive GSC-West title and the program’s first ever appearance in the NCAA Regional Tournament, finishing the season 42-
12 overall and 18-4 in league play.

The next season, Early again led the Blossoms to championship, a fifth consecutive GSC-West title on the shoulders of a 19-5 league record.

The titles stopped momentarily in 2005, when Early and the re-building Blossoms finished 34-24 and earned the team’s eighth consecutive berth into the GSC championship tournament. The Blossoms pushed the streak to nine consecutive in 2006 with a 33-30 overall record.

In 2007, Early led the Blossoms to their best finish, a 46-20 season, including the team’s sixth GSC-West title as well as the team’s first ever win in the NCAA regional tournament with a 9-7 victory over Albany State in the opening round.

That season, Early and the Blossoms set new school records for wins, runs scored, runs batted in, doubles, triples and homeruns in a single season. Also, the team tied the NCAA Division II record with 98 homeruns throughout the year.

In 2008, Early kept the streak alive with the school’s 11th berth in the GSC Championship Tournament after posting a 23-13 record overall, including a 15-14 GSC mark.

The 2009 Cotton Blossoms were two regular-season league wins away from claiming their seventh GSC-West title, but a 38-16 overall finish and a 17-13 GSC record gave UAM its 12th berth into the GSC Tournament.

After 2009’s win total, Early has led the Cotton Blossoms to11 seasons of at least 30 wins.

Also in 2009, Early was named GSC-West Coach of the Year for the first time in his softball coaching career.

Throughout his 13-year career at the helm of the UAM softball program, Early has coached 40 All-GSC selections, 13 All-South Region selections, four All-America selections, five GSC-West Freshmen of the Year selections, four GSC-West Players of the Year, one GSC-West Pitcher of the Year selection and 39 All-Academic selections.

Early’s collegiate coaching career began in 1979 when he took over an already successful women’s basketball program at UAM and guided it to new heights.

Under Early’s guidance, the Blossoms played for the national championship in the finals of the 1990 NAIA National Tournament. In 1994-95, the Blossoms captured the final Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference Championship, then won the last AIC Championship Tournament over archrival
Arkansas Tech.

In 1996, Early pulled off one of the greatest achievements of his coaching career, guiding UAM to the GSC-West Division Championship in its first season as a member of the league and of the NCAA Division II.

During his 21 years as women’s basketball coach, Early produced 11 All-Americans, won the AIC Coach of the Year award four times and the NAIA District Coach of the Year twice.

A native of Fort Smith, Ark., Early grew up in Pahokee, Fla., and has been a part of the UAM family since the 1960’s. He attended UAM when the school was known as Arkansas A&M and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1967. He later earned a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas.

As a UAM student, Early earned three letters in football, baseball and tennis.

Early and his wife, Nancy, have three sons who are all coaches in Northwest Arkansas. Brian is an assistant football coach at Fayetteville High School, Preston is the head women’s basketball coach at Rogers High School and Kent is the head softball and boys golf coach at Bentonville High School.