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Coach predicts success for the
Panthers
Zahn leads list of NHS football
postseason honorees
GFU doesn't let close one slip away
| GFU
grad ushers in new era at OBCS |
Zach Hollin played for the Bruin men's basketball team
and takes over as the girls coach at Open Bible |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 Zach Hollin has done almost everything in basketball. He’s
played in grade school, middle school, high school and college. Now he’s taking over
as coach.
Hollin, who played for the George Fox University men’s basketball team
the last four seasons, graduated last year from the school with a degree in organizational
communications. Now he will communicate his basketball knowledge to the Open Bible
Christian School girls basketball team.
“I’ve been playing since I was 4, and now I’m passing my
knowledge on to other people,” he said.
Hollin played under a vocal Mark Vernon his freshman season before Vernon
resigned. Mark Sundquist, a more subtle and laid back coach than Vernon, was hired and
Hollin played under him for the next three seasons. Hollin said he’s taken a few
characteristics of each coach and combined them to produce a style of his own.
“Sundquist focused a lot on relationships with players and I think
that’s important because you need to have, to a certain point, a one-on-one personal
relationship,” Hollin said. “What I liked about Mark Vernon, he was more of a
disciplinarian. You hate it at the time, but it works. I think they both work and
they’re great styles of teaching.”
Hollin has worked at basketball camps during the summer. Two years ago,
Hollin was at a camp in Massachusetts where he coached a traveling high school varsity
boys team. But coaching boys and coaching girls is as different as day and night, he said.
“It’s an adjustment,” he said. “You have to be more
sensitive with girls. With guys, you can be harder on them. With girls, you’ve got to
be careful, especially about cutting back on the sarcasm because they will take it more
personally. But the girls work just as hard as the guys. I don’t have a problem with
them complaining and they want to practice.”
Hollin said one of the major differences he’s noticed from coaching boys
and girls is that girls don’t concentrate as much on their own statistics.
“The advantage with coaching girls is that they’re not as concerned
with individual players as far as getting points and who is the star,” he said.
“With guys, it’s just different and everyone wants to be the best. But this is a
real team atmosphere here and that’s what I really like.”
The Panthers have been practicing since Nov. 4 and things have gone well,
Hollin said, but there are a few players on the team who have never played organized
basketball prior to this season. One of them is 5-10 Shannon Wright.
“(Wright) is tall and she’s never played organized basketball
before this and I think she’ll be one of our better players,” Hollin said.
“She stays after practice, wanting to get better and working and she’s getting
better everyday.”
Hollin said junior point guard Molly Bieg will be a key for the Panthers this
season.
“She’s a smart player and she’s a good ballhandler and
she’s good at penetrating,” he said.
Last season the Panthers won two games. Hollin said the lack of fundamentals
was probably one of the main reasons for their two-win season last year.
“In the first week, I was going through teaching them screening and they
were asking if it was OK to make contact with the other person,” he said. “It
was little things like that, so we basically had to start from scratch, but they’re
getting it really well. I’m pleased with their progress.”
Hollin said the Panthers have picked up on the six different offenses he
wants the team to run this season.
“I thought I would get through to them one or two basic offenses, but
they understood it so quickly, so we’re definitely ahead of where I thought we would
be,” he said.
Hollin said one of the main focuses is on the team’s defense, especially
it’s man-to-man play.
“Last year, all they played was a zone,” he said. “They
didn’t even know man-to-man. They didn’t know denying or help weak side or being
one or two passes away. We do that everyday now and now they’re talking on defense
and understanding the principles.”
Jill Barram, who played on the George Fox University women’s team, is an
assistant coach for the team. Hollin and Barram have known each other since the
first-grade. In high school, the two played basketball at Salem Academy before attending
George Fox.
“We’ve been good friends since we were little kids,” Hollin
said. “We both want to get into coaching and this seemed like a good opportunity and
her being here is really good because she’s a girl and she can relate more to them.
She’s helped me on so much.”
The Panthers kick their season off Tuesday with a 5:30 p.m. game at Life
Christian. |
|
From Nov. 29,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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