Bergman’s Maddi Holt makes her mark as the best shooter in Arkansas girls prep basketball history

By Steve Andrews | Photos by George Mitchell  

Bergman girls basketball coach James Halitzka begins every practice with each of his players shooting free throws until they miss one. If anyone is still alive after five minutes, he gathers the team around to watch the remaining player shoot on.

“About five years ago we had a game where our free-throw shooting really hurt us, so I just thought it was a good way for us to work on those,” Halitzka said. “And it seems to have worked.”

As the drill quickly became a tradition for the Lady Panthers, the staff began rewarding players with a T-shirt if they could make 25 straight. He then had to get a T-shirt denoting 50 straight and eventually, 75.

But most days it’s the same familiar face who remains at the line, as all-state point guard Maddi Holt may soon need a new closet for all the T-shirts she has collected. Last season she delayed one practice for more than 30 minutes, while sinking a record 105 consecutive free throws without a miss.

“Until that point, we never had a need for a 100-free-throw T-shirt, but now I promised that I would get her one made for graduation,” Halitzka said with a smile, noting that Holt has also topped 75 straight on a few other occasions. “It’s like she just gets in a zone. It’s amazing to watch.”

Holt has also laid claim to the state’s top four all-time longest consecutive in-game free-throw streaks, hitting 44 straight at one point last season, then adding another streak of 40. She also made 27 in a row as a sophomore, and during the 2022 Class 3-A state tournament, she converted 25 of 25 at the line, helping propel the Lady Panthers to the state championship. Her 90.7 percent success rate from the line last season is second on the all-time list.

“You want her on the line at the end of the game,” Halitzka said with a laugh.

Yet, the 5-foot-8 senior has not only established herself as one of the best free throw shooters in Arkansas history, but she has also proven to be the most prolific 3-point shooter to ever grace the court in this state.

She broke the state record for 3-point shooting efficiency as a junior last season, knocking down 48.4 percent of her long balls. She is now on pace to reset the record again this year, currently shooting at a 49.6 percent clip from beyond the arc.

Holt’s 407 career 3-pointers has already shattered the previous all-time record of 361, set by Quitman’s Nicki Hooten in 2019. With 133 triples already this season, she is just 36 makes away from setting the all-time single-season record.

“She does a phenomenal job of still getting her shots, no matter how much they key on her,” Halitzka said. “She can drive so effectively and has such a quick release, and people struggle to react to that.”

Holt has lived her entire life in Bergman – located in Boone County, just northeast of Harrison – and first picked up a basketball in fourth grade. Little did she know at the time how much impact she would have on the sport.

“It was rough when I started playing,” she recalled. “When I was going into middle school, fifth grade, we all met with the coach, and he was talking about all the running we would have to do. I remember getting home and saying, ‘Mom, there is no way I am going to do all that running to play basketball. And I’m not any good anyway.’ She said, ‘You don’t know that. Just stick it out and try it.’ So, I’m glad I did because she was actually right,”

The 37-year-old Halitzka began coaching his protégé on the 5th-grade Pee-Wee team. Being a small school, he and boys coach Bo Martin have the solo tasks o f coaching Bergman’s 5th through varsity teams. But it has given Halitzka the opportunity to help mold and transform Holt into one of the state’s best-ever talents.

“She’s one of a kind and great to have around our program,” he said. “She has progressed her game greatly and was a huge part of us winning the state championship last season.”

There is rarely a day that goes by without Holt spending time in the gym, working on her craft -- which usually includes bringing some of the younger players with her to help them improve.

“I’ve been blessed with having some really good gym-rats these past few years, with some good leadership,” Halitzka said. “But Maddie comes to the gym every day, even when we don’t have a game or practice – on her own, at night – and she is good about bringing others with her. I know if she is up there, she will also have at least two or three younger girls up there with her working out. She’s a really good leader, especially with the younger ones.”

Holt laughs and agrees that her life now revolves around basketball. “I’m actually at the gym about every Friday and Saturday night, because what else is there to do in Bergman?”

She does play a little tennis away from the gym, enough so that she and teammate Ruby Trammell – a Ouachita Baptist basketball commit -- finished second in the state in doubles last fall. But her primary focus remains on putting the ball through the net, not over it.

Her basketball game has steadily improved since that 5^th grade year, but her biggest growth on the court came during her freshman year, when due to a rash of injuries to some upper-classman teammates, Holt was thrust into the starting role at point guard.

“That summer before her 9^th grade year she was just killing everyone in junior high, at almost an unfair level,” Halitzka said, “So, I felt she was ready to move up.”

Holt was a little nervous taking on such a big role as the youngest player on the court, but soon embraced the opportunity.

“When Coach moved me up my freshman year, he said you have got to start leading us,” she said. “He said you have nothing to lose, so just go out there and be fearless. So, I did my best and my love for the game just got bigger and bigger.”

Halitzka quickly began relying on his young freshman to lead the team.

“She was going to be a key player for us that season, but she ended up being our go-to player, as only a freshman,” he said. “That really ended up helping her progress toward her future.”

She averaged 14.8 points as a freshman, then improved that to 17.1 points as a sophomore, while draining 121 from beyond the arc.

“Going into my sophomore year, he told me I really needed to work on my shooting, so that year I just started spending so much time in the gym working on my shot,” she said. “I started seeing some progress which just made me hungrier and hungrier to keep improving.”

She began getting some college interest after her freshman season, particularly from Harding University. The Bisons coaches had witnessed her skills during their summer camp, which Bergman attends each year.

Oddly, Holt never drew much interest from any major schools, such as Arkansas, and felt Harding was the best fit for her as student and an athlete. With two of her friends -- Aubree Isbell and Kendrick Bailey -- already on the roster, Holt committed and signed with the Bison last year. She plans to major in exercise science and eventually be a physical therapist.

“The coaches there have really welcomed me in, and I just love the atmosphere, and it’s not too far away from home,” she said. “I just feel like it’s the right fit for me.”

But before she makes that next jump, Holt and her current teammates still have unfinished business at Bergman (29-4, 11-1), who recently finished the regular season as the 3A-1 Conference’s top seed. The defending state champs will open the 2023 postseason Friday in West Fork, taking on Elkins at 4 p.m.

Whereas the Lady Panthers are much younger than they were during last season’s perfect 43-0 run to the state title, they still have one of the state’s best weapons on the court. And Holt plans to shoulder the load to help her team repeat atop the mountain.

“I really do like taking the initiative and leading my teammates,” she said. “This year has really been special to me, because I have gotten to lead a very young team. I know we have a lot of doubters this year, but I think this team has enough heart and guts to make it far once again.”

Halitzka knows the road will be a lot tougher this year, but still has confidence in his team and its fearless leader.

“Maddie is the type of player that wants the ball in her hands in those tough situations,” he said. “So, good, or bad, she’s going to come out swinging when it comes tournament time. I’ve had some good ones here, but she will probably go down as the best I have ever had.”