Clark ready to write new chapter with Horizon boys hoops
May 25, 2011 by Don Ketchum, AZPreps365
By Don Ketchum
A new chapter in boys’ basketball at Phoenix Horizon will unfold later this year as new coach Kipp Clark leads the Huskies onto the floor.
Clark, who will be in his 24th year of coaching, replaces Paul Long, who was dismissed after the 2010-11 season. Clark recently has been an assistant for head coach Randy Walker in the boys’ program at Anthem Boulder Creek and at Horizon when Walker was there in the early 2000's.
Clark isn’t about to wait to get the ball rolling.
He will hold a team camp beginning the week of May 30. The team also will participate in a summer league at Phoenix Sunnyslope and team camps in San Diego, at the University of Arizona and at Mesa Community College.
He has coached at a variety of levels. He has been a head coach in Maryland and at Phoenix North Canyon, Horizon’s fellow school in the Paradise Valley District. He has been an assistant at several colleges in the Midwest and was the women’s head coach at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix.
Clark has supervised a few workouts recently and was pleased with how they went.
“They were good,’’ he said. “Everybody is getting on the same page. They have to get used to how I run things, and that might take a little time, but we will get there. That’s what the summer is for.’’
Does he plan to mold his philosophy to the talent he has coming back, or lean more toward having the players adjust to what he wants to do?
“I really don’t pay attention to what they did last year,’’ he said. “We will run a lot of sets, but it won’t be a major adjustment.
“We will play a lot of man (-to-man defense) and mix in the zone. We will run a motion offense, emphasize movement. Probably one of the main things for us will be that no one guy is more important than the others. We are going to work within the team concept.’’
Having coached at North Canyon, he knows how tough the competition in the Desert Valley Region can be on a nightly basis.
“It will be tough to win every game because every game is a battle. But we are going to do our best,’’ Clark said. “If we continue to work hard and work together, we have an excellent chance of doing well. We are capable of having a good program.’’
