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By Ben McCarty
News staff writer
June 4, 2008
It may not have come quite as fast as his promotion from floor
sweeper to JV coach, but Darrin Lingel is enjoying every minute
so far as the head varsity basketball coach at Horizon Christian
School after two years of assisting Ron Haynes.
When his son, Aaron, first showed interest in
playing at Horizon two years ago, Lingel did not want to have to
make the drive home to The Dalles and back to the school twice
in one day, so he volunteered to help with the team in any way
possible. That started with him sweeping gym floors, and then a
few days later Haynes asked him if he wanted to coach the JV
team.
Two years later, Lingel will be coaching many of
the players he saw through the JV program on the varsity squad.
“We’re going to keep doing what Ron Haynes was
doing and keep developing it,” Lingel said as he prepared to run
the team through practice on Monday as they readied for the
summer league opener Tuesday in Portland.
The team will have a different look next season
when Lingel takes the sidelines in the games that count.
Gone will be all-league players Bobby Cofrances
and Josh Larson, who counted for the bulk of the Hawks’ scoring
during the state playoff run last season. But Lingel will have
three returning starters in Jake Johnson, Adam Ohlson and Philip
Stenberg.
To make up for the scoring drop-off Lingel plans
to emphasize defenses, and get every bit of potential out of the
players on his rosters.
“When they leave for the summer each kid will
have an individual game plan to work on over the summer,” he
said. At the end of the summer league season, Lingel plans to
take measurements for each player such as their height, weight
and vertical leap and see how it measures at the start of winter
practice.
“We want to get the full potential out of every
player we have,” he said.
Wade Root and Paul Mansur will both return to the
Horizon sidelines next year as assistants to Lingel.
One of the first orders of business for Lingel
will be furthering the development of the Horizon Junior Hawks
youth programs.
Lingel wants to begin putting in the basic
varsity offensive sets at the junior high level so that when
players reach the high school program they will already have a
strong base of knowledge a and just need to work out the kinks.
Lingel will have some big shoes to fill next
season, but Horizon Athletic Director Oscar Stenberg is
confident that the school found the right person to replace
Haynes.
“When God takes someone away he puts someone
right back in,” he said.
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