by Jared Jensen
The Paducah Sun
May 22, 2025
Used with permission.
With 25 years of high school and college basketball experience under his belt, newly hired head coach of the Paducah Tilghman Lady Blue Tornado, Howard Dillard Jr. knows a thing or two about basketball. That statement becomes even more true on a local level, as many of those years consisted of assistant coaching roles at Graves County High School, Murray High School, Hickman County High School, Paducah Tilghman High School, and Fulton City High School.
Add his current experience with local AAU Summer teams and his knowledge of the western Kentucky basketball scene is even more in-depth.
“Knowing this area and knowing how these young ladies play, I wouldn’t say it’s a huge advantage for me, but I know how a lot of things young ladies think,” Dillard said.
And while he understands girls high school basketball, it’s been a while since he was regularly coaching in those ranks. His most recent coaching job has been at Dyersburg State Community College as the men’s head basketball coach for the last three years. And, he will be the first to admit that there will be some challenges in transitioning from college coaching, back to high school coaching.
“Speed, IQ, everything is different,” Coach Dillard said when discussing the differences between college and high school basketball. “It’s getting these young ladies to understand the difference between the two and get them to get to that point where they can think through these things. It’s been a while since I’ve been coaching at the high school level, so it’s going to be a big change for me as well.”
Dillard is taking over a Lady Tornado team that went 14-14 this past season that saw a big win over McCracken County High School. With just two seniors on that roster, there are a lot of girls available to come back and be taught by their new head coach.
And with those girls that will be coming back and any potential new additions, the first step for Coach Dillard is helping them reach a winning mentality.
“Getting them to have a winning-type mentality. From the moment they step on the floor they need to be all in,” Dillard said. “The tradition here at Paducah Tilghman goes way back, so getting that groundwork and getting them back to believing that we can win. And once they can get to that point and that frame of mind, can’t nothing stop them.”