Dakedreon Lampkin, the girls basketball coach at Greenville High School, is under no illusions about how far his team still has to go.
“We are basically starting from scratch. We sat out all of last year because of Covid, and the year before that we had like eight seniors,” Lampkin said.
The Honeybees, no doubt, are set for an uphill climb when their season begins on Oct. 28 against Greenwood, but Lampkin, now in his seventh season coaching the team, does see some ingredients for success. It is some of the same ingredients he saw when he helped turn the program into one of the best in the state. In 2019, Lampkin led his Honeybees all the way to the state semifinals.
It begins with the leadership of his two seniors, Sierra Liggins and Ti’Alone Banks. Junior guard A’Niya Miller is also expected to play a key role for the Honeybees.
Lampkin sees talent in many of his younger players as well. It is a talent that he hopes to cultivate.
“You can’t plant a seed in the ground and then go outside the next day and see a tall tree like Jack in the Beanstalk,” the coach said. “It takes a long time for anything to happen. You have to water it, and take care of it and give it sunlight and just watch it grow. I can see flashes of this team right here. I can see flashes of what they can be.”
The Honeybees hope to make up for their lack of size with plenty of speed.
“We are going to be fast, and we are going to use that to our advantage. My main goal this year is to try and get better. I am not going to put a number on how many wins we can get. I just want to get better day by day.”
The Honeybees played only two games last season. It was the fewest number of games played by any team in the region.
“They are excited because we finally get to play again,” Lampkin said. “It was frustrating because we sat out while everyone else was playing. We were on the sidelines just looking. It was frustrating and hard to keep the kids focused.”
