FORKS ¬– Scott Justus can’t stay away from the Forks High School gymnasium.
The former Spartan boys basketball coach, with a career record of 142-65, will be returning to the Forks bench for a third time in his coaching career this winter.
Except this time, he’ll be leading the girls.
“I’m ready to coach again,” Justus, who also coaches softball for Forks, said. “I have done two years of middle school for seventh and eighth grade varsity, and coaching softball for four years.
“Being with the girls, I’ve mellowed.”
Justus will take over a program that’s reached the state tournament twice in the last three years. The senior-laden squad narrowly missed its third straight trip last spring after winning the Evergreen Division of the Southwest Washington League.
Former head coach Ken Zellar stepped down from his position following the season, and the position remained vacant during the offseason until it was offered to Justus recently.
“It’s unfortunate that the girls didn’t play summer ball,” he said.
Justus, who coached his son at Forks, now gets the chance to coach his daughter, Alexa, during her final year in high school.
“The opportunity is there, and it’s my daughter’s last year,” he said. “She is very happy that I’m doing this.”
With three starters lost to graduation from that team, including leading scorer Madison Justus, the new coach knows he will be stepping into a challenge.
“We have to replace a lot,” Justus said. “We lost a ton of scoring. “We only have 16 points per game [back], and Alexa is 10 of those 16.”
Justus’ boys teams went to the state playoffs in five of the six seasons ¬– from 1998-2001 and 2003-06 — he served as head coach. That included a run of three straight appearances from 2004-06 that resulted in two eighth-place trophies.
Girls are young
Except for a couple of veterans, the current girls team will be inexperienced this season.
“They lack some fundamentals, so for the first month half the practice will be taken up by that,” Justus said.
“They haven’t been taught, or haven’t been taught correctly. We’re going to work our tails off rebounding the basketball. We’re going to focus on defense and rebounding and work on ball-handling.”
The new Spartans’ offense is going to run a lot of sets.
“The shot clock will be a new thing,” Justus said. “We’re going to try and do some experimental, quick-hitter type of stuff, two or three options, try and get 15-foot jumpers or less.
“Maybe I will find out if we can run, and have more set plays than the motion stuff.”
Justus is expecting a lot out of junior Kylea Jo Allen.
“She traveled with team to districts,” he said. “She is just greased lightning. She can just fly. Kylea is going to play some point guard for us, and she will have to do some stuff for us to be successful.”
