Meet Will Freedman

Talk about  a fast-climbing coaching career. New Lassen College Head Coach Will Freedman will be heading an NBA team soon if he keeps his current momentum up.

The former assistant took a chance, moving from the southern California high school coaching ranks to Lassen College a year ago and now he's running the show.

"I came here as a volunteer coach, not even knowing where I would live," Freedman recalled. "But I was going to school, learning how to be a junior college coach because I believed the more you sacrifice early on, the more you reap the benefits."

He continued, "I wanted to learn from Devin [Aye, who recently accepted the head coach position at Cosumnes River College]. He coached me when I played at Cal State East Bay. It was a very, very informative year because he allowed me to be hands-on, working on admissions and compliance. Devin let me be a fly on the wall with everything he could. He definitely groomed me."

Freedman was also part of a substantial turnaround. "Lassen won one game the year before Devin came here and last year we had 22 wins. People have now heard of the school. We're the biggest show in town. Fans pack the gym and our players get a spark from having so many people in the stands. There's something unique here, real cooperative environment, Our school president, Dr. Hall, used to coach basketball. I understand I have big shoes to fill with Devin leaving."  

So now being charge, what offensive and defensive systems will people see from Lassen? "A lot depends on the guys we can get but I want to keep our play fast, with the foundation being defense."

Freedman see the chance to attend and play at Lassen as "a chance to get out of the city and focus on basketball and school" which fits the needs of some basketballers. "You can put yourself in position to start over with good habits. People sometimes have to get out of their comfort zones."

Right now it looks like four returnees will be playing plus three former junior college talents joining up: 6-foot-8 Josh (Downey High) Allen formerly of Modesto Junior College, 5-foot-10 Damion (Cordova High) Trujillo who was at American River College earlier and 6-foot-2 Caleb Wood out of Galena High in Reno who formerly played at Monterey Peninsula College.

"We don't shy away from anybody," Freedman noted, "we had 19 pre-season games last season." Although no one thought all that much of it when the pairing was initially scheduled some time ago, Lassen will match up with Cosumnes River College in November in Susanville. "At the time, we didn't know Devin would be at CRC."

*** The student-athletes moving on from last year's Lassen team are:

* Sammy Allen III - Texas Permian Basin
* Leroy Anderson - Grace University (NAIA II)
* Abidjan "keme" Davis - Allen University
* Diondrey Holt Jr.- Cal State Dominguez Hills
* Wilson Markus - Grace University
* Juandrico Walker - Virginia Union University
* Marvin White - Southwestern Christian