Last February, the Forest Grove Vikings girls basketball team finished strong. The Vikings final record was 9-13 and they finished 5-10 in conference play but they won two of their last three games, outscoring their opponents 131-111.
The team returns last season’s top-scorers seniors Becca Kelsay, Kristy VandeBergh, Valerie Bonglarno and Amoore Shutt. They got a boost from a couple of new players and a new coach, former Pacific basketball player, Dan Lumpkin.
“After I graduated, I coached in Tacoma,” Lumpkin, who graduated from Pacific in 2003, said. “Then decided to come back for my Masters in Education and [started coaching] here.”
He knows that the transition to a new coach and a new style of play won’t be easy.
“Coming in as a new coach isn’t easy,” he said. “There are new expectations and a new way of doing things. Often times there is a transition year. When I played in college, [we had] three new coaches in four years. I understand what its like to have a new coach.”
Lumpkin’s approach, like when he played, is going to revolve around the defensive side of the ball.
“Well, we have a lot of players coming back” Lumpkin said. “I like our defensive intensity, we’ve held teams to low scores. We have been pretty strong on the defensive side of the ball. The team is full of good athletes, we use that for half-court trapping which forces them to make bad passes and bad plays.”
Lumpkin is going to show a lot of man-to-man looks with full court pressure. He plans to utilize the girls athleticism and experience to keep the opposition uncomfortable. So far this season the Vikings are holding teams to just 35ppg – 12 fewer than this point last season.
But the Vikings play offense, too.
“We are going to run a lot of continuous motion offenses,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of [different ways to] enter into it.”
The motion offense is what it sounds like – constant movement. It utilizes quick player movements and often doesn’t feature a set playbook. The originator of “motion offense” is was Henry Iba at Oklahoma State but it was made most famous by Bob Knight at Indiana.
The Vikings are already off to a 3-2 start and looking to get back to the playoffs again – their last trip was in 2007.
“So far, we are looking pretty good,” Lumpkin said. “I think we are going to be better than last year, we have the talent and experience. We are 3-2 and won the Aloha tip off tournament last weekend.”
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