Jamie Lusk had a successful run during his time at the helm in Clear Fork. He led the Westside girls basketball program to state championships in 2012 and ’14 as well as a runner-up finish in ’13.
He stepped down early into the 2018-19 season to spend more time with his family. Now he’s back, hoping to guide the Renegades to their former glory.
“My daughter now is 20 and she’s starting her own profession,” Lusk said. “My son started his freshman year this year and that’s the biggest reason that I left Westside the first time, to be able to spend more time with family. The job came back open and I was looking forward to trying to come back over and coach here again. I missed it the time that I was not here. I’ve always enjoyed coaching the high school girls and I’m just excited to be back and I like they gave me the opportunity to come back. Our principal let me come back and of course Darren (Thomas) was always been a big supporter of mine so I’m just happy to be back.”
Lusk steps back into the driver’s seat, taking over in a rebuild phase.
The Renegades haven’t made the state tournament since 2020 and have fallen a game short of playing in Charleston the last few years. Lusk’s first job is establishing a strong foundation.
“The girls we have right now are multi-sport athletes,” Lusk said. “They’re giving a lot of time to different sports and we’re just trying to get them to the point where they would want to put it in the extra time for basketball cause there’s some talent here and there’s some good athletic girls here. My goal as the coach is to try to build back up with the youth and we’re gonna be very, very young. We have one senior that didn’t play last year, but we’re mostly gonna be made up of a sophomores and freshmen. We’re looking at probably starting five sophomores right now and the first couple girls off the bench are gonna be freshman.
“We’re gonna go with the youth in there and in our school, a lot of the basketball talent is there right now. That’s where it starts, I mean you gotta build up from the girls that you know that are coming up through the system. Not only the girls in the ninth grade, but also our middle school girls that we really wanna start pushing. We want involvement with our middle school girls cause that’s where it starts. You gotta build excitement and enthusiasm with the younger ladies.”
Lusk has names in mind of the kids he feels will be impactful contributors to his team.
“Two of the girls played quite a bit last year,” Lusk said. “Sarah Lilly played a lot last year for them. She is extremely athletic and she plays really, really hard and is a very good defender. She’s one of those hard-nosed players that is not scared to stick her nose in and dive for a loose ball or take charges. She can shoot and that’s one of the girls looking to make some shot for us. And then our other guard point guard’s gonna be Kaylin Matney. She was the starting JV point guard, extremely quick and probably one of the best defenders I’ve ever had. She stays in front of the ball well, she moves her feet, her hands are very active and she’s very aggressive with the ball. She’ll take the ball the basket and get to the hole for us.
“I have another sophomore, well two. Karsyn Paynter played a lot of varsity last year. She was the other one that played quite a bit of varsity and she’s a very good post player that’s extremely strong and very aggressive. She will probably be our best rebounder and our best interior scorer so we’re looking for big things from Karsyn. We got another girl that grew three or four inches this summer in Paisley Shannon. She can shoot from 3 all the way in so she’s a really good shooter. She’s a good rebounder and one of our best softball pitchers we’ve had here in a long time so she’s another multi-sport athlete but she’s got a lot of potential. We’re looking for a whole lot from Paisley and our fifth starter right now is Sydney Lusk. She’s one of those glue type of players I mean, she’s very aggressive very strong. We can play her inside or out. Alaina Lester is our backup point guard and can play every guard spot. She’s talented and will only get better so we are looking for a big year from her.”
Lusk already sees a lot he likes in the foundation of this team and it starts with the continuity.
“I think a big strength of this team, which it should be you something every team can shoot for is team chemistry. They get along great and these girls like each other. As a coach, that’s a real big first step on trying to build a program – getting your girls to get along and to want to be successful for each other and know they’ve been very enthusiastic. At practice they cheer for each other and that’s something we really emphasize. You can get your teammates back, you can cheer for them and you encourage them. Even if they’re having a bad day or struggling, you encourage them to try to get better and these girls really have done a good job with that. They really support each other and team chemistry is by far our biggest strength.”
Lusk is transparent in that he believes this is a rebuild season, especially with powers such as James Monroe, Summers County and Wyoming East roaming through the region. That said, the expectation hasn’t changed.
“I go into every year no matter what expectations are gonna be here and say we want to get to the state tournament,” Lusk said. “We want to get a better every day and we want to get better every game. By the time tournament time comes around I think we can be a very dangerous team, but I like the attitudes and the work ethic. These girls have the talent. It’s just about bringing their confidence up to the level where they understand they can win. Cause they can win some games, we can put them the win column this season but we just gotta get them to understand they can do that. This is gonna be a confidence builder season. You know to work towards next year and the year after and in the future, so you know, we’re working towards making that state tournament and that’s always gonna be the expectation here. These girls will get so much experience. We always have the expectations of getting on the Charleston Coliseum floor and play in the state tournament.”
