| Moneypenny
Named Blue Jays’ Interim Coach
6/6/2008 #1581 |
For the second time in less than a week, Junction City High School announced its new coach for the boys’ basketball program. Mark Moneypenny — an assistant coach with the Blue Jays for the past 10 years — was named interim head coach Wednesday after Daniel Smith rescinded his acceptance of the job on Monday.
Moneypenny was hired for a one-year term, after which school officials will open up the coaching position again.
“I’m very excited to have this opportunity,” Moneypenny said Thursday. “I know it’s a one-year interim deal. In my mind I’m not viewing it as a one-year interim deal. I’m viewing it as I’m head coach for this year and I plan on being head coach for future years.”
Whether Moneypenny’s term lasts years won’t be determined for a while. In the meantime, he plans to keep the Blue Jays’ camp dates the same, June 23 to June 27, and use that time to help players adjust to the transition.
“They’ve viewed me as an assistant coach before,” Moneypenny said. “It’s going to be a tough role for them picturing me as the head coach, I assume. I think, once I sit down and talk with the players ... it will be a pretty easy transition into next year.”
Moneypenny’s first order of business will be contacting players to schedule workouts as early as possible since the late hiring has already put the team behind.
Once his team finally hits the floor in late November, Moneypenny expects defense to remain a Junction City tradition.
“We’re probably going to run man-to-man defense with an added twist every now and then,” the interim coach said. “I don’t want to run man-to-man defense 100 percent of the time. I don’t feel that is a great thing to do. Sometimes you have to run a zone.”
Moneypenny will wait until after camp concludes to decide on what type of zone defense would best fit the athletes he has. For the time being, the new coach is also keeping his offensive philosophy under wraps as well.
“I don’t want to give too much away on offense since I’m a first-year head coach,” Moneypenny said. “I don’t want too many coaches to know exactly what I’m going to be doing. I have a pretty good idea (of what offense the Blue Jays will run), we’re going to be able to assess that more after team camp.”
By Greg Doering
The Daily Union
Junction City, KS
www.dailyu.com