Female coach in male-dominated profession living childhood dream

By Kyle Sutherland

The Marked Tree boys basketball team just completed its third-consecutive trip to the state championship game at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs last Saturday. Though they fell just short of winning back-to-back titles, the runner-up finish was a milestone for the program as it marked not only the eighth trip to the championship round in school history, but the first time the Indians have ever made it three years in a row.

Marked Tree was led on that run by Barbara Wilburn: A soft-spoken, yet a ‘demand your best’ coach who has been in her position for more than a quarter of a century as a female in the male-dominated profession of boys basketball. Wilburn earned her current job around the turn of the century and six of the school’s eight all-time state championship appearances have been under her watch.

While her current position was one that she desired even before it happened, Wilburn realized from an early age mostly while playing pickup ball that she belonged in the boys game.

“I always knew that I was going to be coaching boys, I just knew it,” Wilburn said. “Even though it was not an ideal career for a female, and even now it is not something that you see a lot of females doing.

“When I was growing up playing basketball, I played with boys because that level was so much different. At that time the girls were usually not out at the park playing ball. For me, it was a special kind of connection and bond.”

Born and raised in Forrest City, Wilburn went on to play college basketball at Arkansas State and later overseas where she would be introduced to what would become her future. While in Belgium, Arkansas State booster and Marked Tree Elementary principal Kay Adams came along with the Arkansas State Women’s team and quizzed Wilburn on what her plans were following her college career. Wilburn was unsure.

“At the time I had needed more hours to complete my degree so I just simply told her that I was going to work,” Wilburn recalled.

Wilburn later returned home for the summer and reconnected with Adams.

“She said we needed to meet up because I have a job for you and I ended up going to work as a P.E. teacher for elementary. Then it just went from there.”

Without the overseas connection with Adams, it is very likely Wilburn’s exceptional career at Marked Tree – that has spanned over three decades in total from her initial hiring – does not happen.

“I really doubt that it would have happened because I did not even know where Marked Tree was,” she mentioned.

It was 1989 when Wilburn arrived at Marked Tree, but she did not start coaching until about six years later in the “mid-nineties.” Between teaching P.E. classes and shooting hoops in the gym, the rumblings that Wilburn should be coaching basketball began circling.

“They started letting me help out and eventually they just dropped it in my lap, like ‘Hey you do it’ type of thing,” she said.

After initially coaching the girls, Wilburn – as the case is with many coaches in smaller schools – was asked the following year to also be an assistant with the boys team under Steve Wilson. Being essentially the second in command of the boys team, Wilburn admitted her head coaching instincts kicked in at times.

“As an assistant coach there is only so much that you can say or do,” Wilburn said. “I would think how there were some things that I would do differently. I assisted [with the boys team] that one year, then the head coach got reassigned and they asked me if I wanted it.”

Wilburn still recalls her enthusiasm over a quarter of a century later.

“(I said) Shoot yeah I want it, I’ll take it!,” She recalled.

It did not take long for Wilburn’s impact to be felt. The Indians made a run to the state semifinals during her first season in 1999-2000, then won the program’s second state championship in the third-ever appearance in 2001.

For many, it is the first thing that sticks out when looking at Wilburn’s teams – a female coaching boys. But to her, she’s just doing what she feels she was born to do.

“There are a lot of times it just blows my mind because I do not really see what the big hoopla is about,” Wilburn said. “I am just doing something that I truly love doing, and a lot of people can not say they absolutely love what they do.”

The Indians finished as state runners-up twice in 2017 and 2018 before reeling off the most recent three-year run in Hot Springs on Arkansas prep basketball’s highest stage.

In the 2023 1A state final, Marked Tree was tied at 44 with 12 seconds remaining in the game playing unbeaten County Line. County Line ran a quick dump off play on the right wing and drove the lane for what would be the game-winning layup with two ticks left on the clock as Marked Tree made the three hour drive back home with broken hearts.

Wilburn brought essentially everyone back for the 2023-24 campaign and their season ended in the same place that it did the previous year, just this time with a gold trophy and feeling of triumph after Wilburn vowed the previous year that her team would be back. The Indians won their final 23 games of the season, capping it with a 66-43 1A state championship win over Nevada.

Marked Tree went back to state for the third-straight year last Saturday against rival Earle, a squad the Indians had recently defeated in the 1A-2 Regional Tournament’s semifinal round after falling to the Bulldogs twice during the regular season. Despite a late 11-0 run, the Indians came up short 48-44.

Over the past three seasons, Marked Tree boasts two runner-up finishes with one championship ring and compiled a 92-14 overall record in that span, including 28-7 this past season that just concluded.

When Wilburn thinks about making school history with three consecutive state final runs, the first thing she points to are the players on the floor. In particular, her 2025 class.

“I have to look at the makeup of the team,” she said. “Jonah Walker, Kenyon Carter, Isaiah Malone, Joshua Rand, Landon Lewis – those kids came to me in the ninth grade. They were the ones who set the footprint for this three years in a row. They immediately wanted to do something and worked extremely hard.

“I honestly believe this year they were not as hungry. I did not see that intense burn-up desire because I think they were full from last year. However, they still worked to get back there.”

Now that she has been coaching boys for more than 25 years, Wilburn has had the opportunity to mentor both children and relatives of former players. Just like the vision she had as a young girl who knew she would later lead young men.

“The feeling is just phenomenal,” she said. “Sometimes I just have to gather it all in because I absolutely love it.

“Just being able to step back for a moment and see the success, it is truly a blessing from the Lord that I have been able to do all of this.”

Cover photo by Tommy Land