One of the area’s most decorated girls basketball programs over the past decade has a new leader.
Eddie McFerrin, who spent the past eight seasons as an assistant coach for the women’s hoops programs at Edmonds Community College and Bellevue College, has been named the new head coach at Lynnwood High School, Royals athletics director Rob McMains confirmed Wednesday.
“For a long time I’ve been wanting to take over my own program,” said McFerrin. “That opportunity just sort of came this year to take over with the girls program at Lynnwood, and I sort of rose to the opportunity knowing the background and history of that program.”
McFerrin credits former Edmonds coach Ron Newton and current Bellevue coach Mel Stubblefield as mentors that prepared him to take over his own program.
The former community college assistant joins a team that made five straight state tournament appearances from 2013-2017 — including a Class 3A state title in 2015 and third-place finishes in 2014 and 2016 — but hasn’t returned since.
McFerrin said he’s “excited” to “bring that atmosphere back to the Royals that they used to have back in 2014, 2015.”
In order to get there, McFerrin said he’ll implement a defense-first approach.
“I believe that’s the way to win games,” he said. “That’s the way to create offense.”
McFerrin comes to Lynnwood with plenty of coaching experience at the youth level. He runs Fusion Elite Basketball, an Everett-based program that aims to provide coaching for at-risk youth.
“Our motto is keep them on the court and off the streets,” McFerrin said of Fusion Elite. “We want every kid that wants to display (their) talents be able to do that. Whether they can afford it or not, we make it happen.”
He’s also led boys and girls teams at Brier Terrace Middle School for the past three seasons.
Edmonds School District honors scholar-athletes with $20,000 in scholarships
Sixteen different students from the Edmonds School District received $1,250 scholarships in recognition of their achievements in athletics and in the classroom.
Edmonds-Woodway’s Emmanuel Boakye-Ansah, Kyra Hicks, Jadyn Waram and Jacob Willcox; Lynnwood’s Ruth Addisu, Sara Bouchard, Musa Camara and Sean Cambronero; Meadowdale’s Jamie Christiansen, Jacob Seals, Mason Vaughn and Brynn Webster; and Mountlake Terrace’s Jamie Bingaman, Dylan Breuer, Tymothy Harris and Isabel Ong all received the awards that were given through donations from community sponsors, coaches and school booster clubs.
All 16 winners sported a grade-point average of 3.6 or higher, with Hicks, Camara and Ong earning a 4.0.
King’s boys basketball standout lands UW offer
One of the top recruits from the state for the class of 2022 is officially on the radar of Mike Hopkins and the University of Washington men’s basketball program.
Tyler Linhardt, a 6-foot-7 forward from King’s High School, took to Twitter on Monday to announce he’d received an offer from the Pac-12 program.
After a great conversation with Coach Hopkins, I’m excited and blessed to have received a scholarship offer from the University of Washington! #GoDawgs 🐺☔️ pic.twitter.com/oeXCXe23VI
— ty (@tylerlinhardt1) June 15, 2020
Linhardt helped lead the Knights to the Class 1A state title this past season while posting an impressive stat line that earned the sophomore most valuable player honors at the state tournament. Linhardt averaged 21.8 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists over four games at the Yakima Valley SunDome. He was also named the 1A boys state player of the year by the Associated Press.
Linhardt also has offers from Eastern Washington and Boise State, according to 247sports.com.
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