VALLEY / VENTURA COUNTY SPORTS : HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL : Lampkin Can Coach, Teach Life Lessons

Some coaches pace the sideline, coaxing and cajoling. Others throw clipboards, ranting and raving.

Michelle Lampkin doesn’t have a style yet, an understandable reality for a 21-year-old in her first year of coaching.

It’s only a matter of time, however, until Lampkin, years beyond her age maturity-wise, makes an impression at Moorpark High.

A former outside hitter at Royal, Lampkin is anything but a rookie in the game of life, experiencing varying degrees of pain on and off the volleyball court.

Physically, her left knee hasn’t cooperated with the rest of her body, short-circuiting her playing career at UC Davis. The trouble began in 1995, her senior season at Royal, when she slipped on a wet spot on the court and dislocated her knee.

She injured herself again during two-a-day practices as a freshman at Davis, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. Two surgeries later, she was ready for her sophomore season. Or so she thought.

During warm-ups for the opener against Cal State Hayward, Lampkin collided with a teammate at the net. Her knee buckled and, worse, her teammate fell on it. This time, the diagnosis was a broken femur bone. Two more surgeries signaled the end of Lampkin’s playing career.

“They told me I could play, or stop and be able to walk when I was 30,” Lampkin said.

Lampkin has returned to coach Moorpark, a relatively inexperienced team that is not expected to challenge for the Marmonte League title.

On Sept. 30, she will coach against Bob Ferguson of Royal, her mentor and father figure while in high school.

Lampkin’s father, Richard, died of sickle cell anemia when she was 18 months old, leading to tough times financially for Lampkin and her mother, Doreene Morgan.

Mother and daughter lived with friends, jumping from house to house. For a while, they lived out of a car, Lampkin said.

“She had a tough upbringing,” said Ferguson. “She’s had to be mature above her age because of her family situation. I admire her for that.”

It’s easy to see why a gimpy knee has been the least of her worries.

“It’s a lot of drama that I’ve overcome,” Lampkin said. “But I think it’s made me stronger as a person.”

Lampkin might have little coaching experience, but Ferguson said her age shouldn’t be a factor.

“She’ll handle it with her maturity,” he said. “Not just the X’s and O’s. She’ll deal with all of the ins and outs of coaching.”

As she has in life.

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La Canada finally ended La Losing Streak.

The Spartans lost to local rival Flintridge Sacred Heart for five consecutive years until last week.

Led by 34 kills from Kelly Gaudino, La Canada won a five-game marathon that lasted more than three hours.

“It’s shown the girls how far they’ve come,” Coach Kevin Boyke said. “It’s kind of a nice reward for how hard we’ve been working the last month.”

The Spartans (3-0) added victories over Notre Dame and Thousand Oaks.

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It’s early enough that teams are still searching for consistency, some more frantically than others.

Such was the case last week for Royal, which was crunched by Harvard-Westlake in a nonleague match that lasted just more than an hour.

A few days later, the Highlanders reached the semifinals of the challenging Orange County tournament, beating Bishop Montgomery, Long Beach Poly and Capistrano Valley.

They lost to Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, but the defending Southern Section Division I-A champions might have found something along the way--themselves.

Opposite hitter Amanda Kiser was exceptional, pounding 49 kills in 74 attempts.

“She really looked like a big-leaguer out there,” said Ferguson, about Kiser’s performance against Capistrano Valley. “She was bullets against them. They [needed] helmets.”

Kari Van Fleet, a defensive specialist last season, also played well at outside hitter, delivering 30 kills in 57 attempts.

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Thousand Oaks also had a good showing in the Orange County tournament.

The Lancers, who dropped out of The Times’ regional rankings last week, qualified for the tournament playoffs. Although they were promptly eliminated by Capistrano Valley, they may have found a steady offensive threat.

Middle blocker Erica Mahan, a 5-foot-11 senior, had 22 kills and only two errors in 47 attempts, good for a .426 hitting percentage over nine games.

The tournament might have marked the arrival of Mahan, who wasn’t sure whether she could compete at a high level when she was promoted to the varsity as a sophomore two years ago.

“I was really against it,” she said. “It was completely menacing to me.”

Now she’s the menacing player.

The Top 10

Rankings of region volleyball teams

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RK LW School (League) Rec. 1 2 La Reina (Tri-Valley) 3-0 2 1 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 3-3 3 4 Royal (Marmonte) 6-3 4 5 Westlake (Marmonte) 2-0 5 6 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 3-0 6 7 Sylmar (Valley Mission) 2-0 7 NR Flint. Sacred Heart (Mission) 3-1 8 10 Oxnard (Channel) 3-0 9 9 Chatsworth (West Valley) 1-0 10 8 Notre Dame (Mission) 3-1

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