Along with having multiple players from the historic 2021-22 Three Rivers women's basketball team moving on to four-year colleges, a member of the coaching staff will be climbing the ladder.

Marissa Webb will be an assistant women's basketball coach at the University of Arkansas-Monticello.

"I'm very proud and excited for Coach Webb," Three Rivers women's basketball head coach Alex Wiggs said. "The thing about this business is that you don't hold onto good assistant coaches for very long and I'm glad that she's stepping up the ladder."

UAM is a NCAA Division II school in the Great American Conference.

"The opportunity presented itself and it was too good to pass up," said Webb, the Raiders' assistant coach for the past two seasons.

The staff at UAM are also excited to have someone as successful as Webb to join their staff.

"I am so excited that Coach Webb will be joining us," UAM head women's basketball coach David Midlick said in a statement. "I was impressed with her even before I began looking for a coach to join me. She is a proven recruiter and floor coach."

During Webb's tenure at Three Rivers, the Raiders have gone 52-2 with two appearances in the NJCAA National Tournament.

"It was the hardest decision I had to leave Three Rivers and Poplar Bluff," said Webb, a Poplar Bluff native.

"Whenever I visit a new community, Poplar Bluff is the standard I compare it to. I feel so fortunate to go to high school there and attend Three Rivers and come back to coach. But now I can be that reference for them when I'm recruiting knowing they have great athletes wanting to go to a four-year university."

The Blossoms are going through a rebuild with the team going 0-28 last season. In April, UAM hired Midlick as the head coach after he was an assistant at Southeast Missouri State.

"I've known Coach Midlick for a while and he's worked with some of my mentors," Webb said. "They always spoke very highly of him so I'm excited that I get to work with him."

Three Rivers has already begun the search for a new assistant coach for the women’s basketball program.

"Our goal will be the same as always, which is to win and get back to the national tournament," Wiggs said.

Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic