After Coaching Turmoil, Lynwood High Girls Take Aim at Peninsula

The future looked bleak for Ellis Barfield, suspended from his job as the Lynwood High girls’ junior varsity basketball coach. But now, five months later, as coach of the girls’ varsity team, he is aiming for an undefeated season.

Barfield put his top-ranked, 24-0 team through a frenzied practice Tuesday. The Knights are preparing for their game at Peninsula High at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the second round of the Southern Section I-AA playoffs.

He was all business. When the players became careless in full-court drills, Barfield made them run wind sprints. “We’ve got to stay focused,” he said.

But before practice, Barfield’s mind had been on his meteoric rise from coaching exile.

“Everyone pulled together,” Barfield said. “Everyone was a little upset with the ordeal we went through, but I think it made us a better team.”

In September, Barfield, a walk-on junior varsity coach, was suspended for a year for violating Southern Section rules on coaching out of season. The suspension was prompted by an anonymous tip from a rival coach.

Embarrassed and confused, Barfield, 28, thought that his coaching days were over.

But an investigation by Lynwood Principal Mickey Cureton revealed that girls’ varsity Coach Maurice Roberson had ordered Barfield to coach Lynwood players in a spring tournament, a Southern Section violation. Roberson, who had a four-year record of 103-16, later acknowledged ordering Barfield to coach in the tournament. Roberson said in October that the violation was a misunderstanding of rules.

Cureton made an offer to Dean Crowley, associate commissioner of the Southern Section: Roberson would be forced to resign if Barfield were reinstated.

Roberson resigned Sept. 29.

“In the beginning, the players didn’t understand the situation with the suspension and with (Roberson’s resignation),” Barfield said. “We were wondering where we would go from that point on.”

Lynwood got a late start in November because Barfield’s suspension wasn’t lifted until after the first week of practice. The loss of Roberson also affected the team.

“He was a big part of the team,” Barfield said of Roberson, who now works for the Lynwood Recreation and Parks Department. “Some of the players had been with him for a while. I think it’s a natural feeling to be upset and hurt by what happened.”

Roberson, 57, was more like a father to many of the girls, team captain Tawana Grimes said.

“We loved him,” she said.

“Coach Ellis is more like a brother. You’ll be talking to him and he understands. Coach Roberson understood too, but more in a fatherly way.”

Guard-forward Timicha Kirby described Roberson as strict. “Not that Coach Ellis doesn’t demand the best,” she said. “He does, but in a different way.”

When Barfield returned to the gym Nov. 23, he worked to bolster team unity. He suggested that players work on projects outside of school to get to know one another. “We spent a lot of time together, doing fund-raising activities and other things,” he said. “We got pretty close, like a family.”

Described by Lynwood Vice Principal Chick Peterson as “a churchgoing, good community person,” Barfield has always held family values in high regard. An attempt to help his sister, Kim, a former Lynwood basketball player, led him into coaching.

Kim Barfield, now at Cal State Long Beach, suggested to her brother in 1987 that he coach in the Olympic Girls Development League in Carson, where she played off-season basketball. Ellis Barfield had played basketball at Lynwood in the early 1980s and then at Rio Hondo College. He was interested in helping young players develop.

Barfield volunteered for a job in the Olympic Development League and continued to frequent Lynwood practices.

“He showed a lot of interest and wanted to learn the game,” said Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s Coach Van Girard, who was a highly successful girls’ coach at Lynwood at the time. “He said he wanted to work on being a coach.”

Roberson took over at Lynwood in 1988 when Girard was hired at Dominguez Hills. That opened a door for Barfield, who became an assistant and later, coach of the junior varsity.

“By far, he’s one of the nicest young men you can ever have on a staff,” Peterson said. “He works well with everyone and gets along with everyone.”

When he took over the varsity this season, Barfield said, he thought that it was important to get every player involved in order to develop camaraderie. He told his players that they would get playing time if they showed up for practice and gave 100%.

That policy remains in force and has been the main reason the Knights are undefeated. In an 80-28 victory over visiting Fontana in the playoffs opener, 12 players scored.

Barfield likes his players to press on defense and run on offense, but “if we have to run a half-court game, we’ll pass the ball around and find the open person.”

At practice Tuesday, the Knights wore purple shirts with “Defense Wins” printed on them.

Guard Elana Adams leads the team, averaging 19 points, eight steals and six assists a game. Kirby averages 18.9 points, nine rebounds, three blocked shots and three assists.

Roberson, who has attended many Lynwood games this season, said he has been impressed with his former team. “I felt they were the best team in the state when we came back from last summer and I still don’t see anybody that can beat them,” he said. “(Barfield) is continuing what I wanted to do, maybe even more up-tempo.”

Now, Barfield has a chance to do what Roberson couldn’t: win a championship. But Lynwood must get by Peninsula (17-8), a team that defeated Lynwood in the Southern Section I-AA and state Division I title games.