Introduction of the New Coach
Oregon City Girls’ Basketball has a new coach and a new direction for this team.
Coach Kevin Baumbach has never been a head coach for a high school team before, but he has been the assistant coach at Mountain Side High School for the boys Varsity team and coached throughout the West Linn youth program.
Baumbach said, “I am aiming for a relentless, aggressive, defensive team who takes care of the ball, plays together, makes good passes, and has good shot selection.”
Style of Basketball History
Oregon City Girls Basketball has run the same offense since 1992, with 3 consecutive national championships in 1995,1996, and 1997, and they also had 10 state championships from 1992-2004. The offense was a 4-out-1-in with the guards/wings handing off to the guards/wings at the elbows, a player shading above the 3-point line, and a post going from block to block looking for post-ups, dump-downs, and to step in if their defender leaves. As different classes filtered through the program, Oregon City Girls Basketball had less and less post players on the team, even though the offense was focused on the post players.
Junior Ryleih Cantu said, “Oregon City’s offense wasn’t fit for our team’s skills last year, we have fast and shifty guards with only a couple of small post players so the offense failed in situations when the post just plugged up the key”.
The defense used in previous years was a 1-2-2 full-court press to apply as much pressure as possible to get easy steals and layups. If the press failed, it would drop to a half-court match with ball pressure immediately at half-court.
Cantu said, “As for our defense, last year was pretty good. It matched our strengths as quick guards to cause chaos at the top of the press and left our guards in the back to get easy steals”.
New Style of Basketball
Now Oregon City is going to be running a 4 out 1 in with our “post”/strongest or tallest player on the nail. The point guard gives a handoff to the wing, and the post sets a screen right after to attack downhill into the paint with 2 shooters spotting up on the opposite side of the court.
Sophomore Senoia Lugo said, “I think that this new offense will help our players get downhill more without clogging the paint.”
The defense Oregon City will be running mainly now is a 2-2-1 press that seems close to the last one, but the extra player at the front of the press is now moved to the back. This back player’s job is to focus primarily on talking to the two from rows and telling them when to cover middle or to drop back.
Senior Allie Carns said, “Our defense this year will help our back rows get more steals, which was a big issue last year; It was always lobbed over our head for an easy bucket for them.”
Last Year Vs. This Year
The Oregon City girls’ basketball team is excited and ready for the season to come. A fresh start for these girls is all they needed to fall back in love with the sport and team.
“I am always excited for practices and working on my game now,” Carns said, “I feel like our team is coming up on something really good for this season.”
