MSUB’s Coach Woodin presents during Wall of Honor ceremony at O’Dea High School

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Birgitta Gray O: (406) 896-5917 E: birgitta.gray@msubillings.edu October 22, 2016 MSUB’s Coach Woodin presents during Wall of Honor ceremony at O’Dea High School MSUB Women’s Basketball on Facebook | MSUB Women’s Basketball on ISSUU | O’Dea Wall of Honor

MSUB women’s basketball head coach Kevin Woodin (far right) with the 1992-93 O’Dea High School boy’s basketball team.

MSUB women’s basketball head coach Kevin Woodin participates during a celebration honoring the 1992-93 O’Dea High School boy’s basketball team.

SEATTLE. – Thursday, Oct. 20, was a special day for MSUB women’s basketball head coach Kevin Woodin. The all-time leader in wins (210) for the Yellowjacket women’s program revisited his coaching roots, travelling to Seattle, Wash., to introduce the 1992-93 boy’s basketball team at O’Dea High School during their induction onto the Athletic Wall of Honor.

Fresh out of university with an undergraduate degree from Carroll College, Woodin was offered his first professional teaching and coaching opportunity at O’Dea High School in downtown Seattle, Wash. The position was for a freshmen basketball coach and head tennis coach at the 475 student enrollment all-boys academy. Woodin accepted the offer made by Principal Brother Greg O’Donnell and director of athletics Monte Kohler, moving to Seattle in the summer of 1987. Both Kohler and Woodin were graduates of Carroll College with Kohler being a native of Missoula, Mont.

At O’Dea High School, Woodin taught mathematics from 1987-94, being honored as the school’s most outstanding teacher for the 1992-93 school year. During his time at O’Dea, Woodin became the head golf coach, winning the school’s first three Metro League golf championships from 1990-93. Also during his tenure, Woodin moved up the basketball coaching ladder from freshmen to sophomore to junior varsity to assistant varsity for the Fighting Irish under the program’s leader, head coach Phil Lumpkin. Lumpkin played college basketball at Miami University in Ohio before making the leap to a professional career in the NBA playing for the Portland Trail Blazers and the Phoenix Suns. In 1991, Lumpkin began his coaching career at O’Dea where the team advanced to seven state finals, winning five titles. Lumpkin died in 2009, and in his honor the O’Dea High School basketball court was renamed the Phil Lumpkin Court.

“Both Monte Kohler and Phil Lumpkin had major influences on my career in coaching,” Woodin commented on two of his main mentors. “Monte was and still is an outstanding high school football coach and director of athletics. From him, I learned the value of organization, attention to detail, and hard work. Monte was involved in every aspect of his program, but yet found time to develop relationships with his players which are things I try to do with my teams.”

In Lumpkin, Woodin found his first head coaching advisor and mentor. “Phil taught me the values of consistency and discipline in coaching. He believed in me and allowed me to have a direct impact on his varsity team through defensive coordinating, scouting, post positon work, and out of bounds situations. He was a tough, but fair coach who developed teams that played the game the right way on both ends of the court. I learned a lot from Phil and still use many of his drills and plays today.”

With Lumpkin having passed in 2009, Woodin was asked to step-in and speak during the ceremonies honoring the 199293 team at O’Dea. “I was honored to talk to the O’Dea community at their school assembly and Wall of Honor event about the 1992-93 state championship team. It was an emotional day filled with great fellowship. Although we still mourn Phil’s death, he was definitely in our hearts and thoughts.”

O’Dea High School, known for its rich basketball tradition, had been to six state championship games, but prior to 1993 had never won a Class AA state title. Earlier in the season, O’Dea lost its game to rival Garfield High School 56-37. On a roll since the defeat, the Fighting Irish entered the state title game against the Bulldogs with something to prove. After 32 minutes in the Tacoma Dome, O’Dea High School penetrated the championship bubble, defeating Garfield, 59-55, in an upset win for the state trophy.

Looking back at the 1992-93 season, Woodin sees an up-down-up season that resulted in one of the biggest upsets in Washington state AA basketball championships. “The 1992-93 O’Dea basketball season was magical. We started out 7-0, but then struggled in the middle of the season. We actually only took fourth place in our league and barely qualified for the district playoffs. We got hot down the stretch though, winning 13 of our final 14 games and many were very close.

Nationally-ranked Garfield High School had defeated us very easily in two earlier season matchups.”

Squeaking into the state tournament, O’Dea began to move up the bracket, ultimately advancing closer to the prize with a trio of close victories. “At the state tourney, O’Dea won three very close games to advance to the state title game against Garfield,” Woodin said. “Garfield was the prohibitive favorites, but we did believe if we could keep the game close, we had a chance. We changed a few things scheme-wise for the title game and the game remained close the entire way. O’Dea finally took the lead with about a minute left and I can still feel the roar of the large O’Dea Tacoma Dome crowd. To this date, many people consider O’Dea’s win over Garfield to be one of the greatest upsets in Washington high school prep history. Being part of that team was very special to me and getting to talk on behalf of our team and Phil this week was both very humbling and emotional.”

Three notable players from the 1993 championship team went on to have collegiate and professional athletic careers.

Ryan Williams, the leading scorer for the Fighting Irish, played basketball for NCAA Division I San Diego, finishing his collegiate career with the Toros in 1999. Williams is still listed as holding four all-time records for the Toros in freethrows and defensive rebounds. Chris Johnson entered into a collegiate career as a cornerback for the football team at Stanford, competing in a game at the Rose Bowl. Jayson Bass was drafted in the fifth round of the 1993 MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers.

Biannually since 1998, there have been 32 inductions to the O’Dea Athletic Wall of Honor. Notable inductees include Charles Greene, an Olympic gold medalist, Clint Richardson, a member of the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers NBA championship team, and Fred Couples, a PGA Master’s champion and former world’s No. 1.

During the celebration for the 2016 inductees, Woodin provided a speech during a school-wide assembly, and at the formal induction ceremony that evening. Eight members of the 1992-93 team and two student managers were on hand to accept the honor.

After his tenure at O’Dea High School, Woodin accepted a teaching and coaching position at West High School in Billings from 1994-2004 before turning his attention to the collegiate sphere, becoming the head women’s basketball coach at Montana State Billings in 2004. Under his guidance, the Yellowjacket program has captured two Heartland Conference regular season titles, one Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular season title, and one conference tournament championship.

Coach Woodin has captured four Coach of the Year Honors in his twelve seasons at the helm of the Yellowjacket program. During the 2004-05 season, he was named the NCAA Division II Independent Coach of the Year, he was the 2006-07 Heartland Coach of the Year, and was named the GNAC Women's Basketball Coach of the Year for the 2013-14 and 2015-16 seasons. Last year, Woodin became the winningest women’s basketball coach at MSU Billings, leading the Yellowjackets to the NCAA Division II national tournament for the second time in three seasons.

The 2016-17 MSU Billings women’s basketball team kicks off their preseason schedule with an exhibition game at Rocky Mountain College on Halloween at 7 p.m. The Yellowjackets' first regular-season game is against UC San Diego, on Nov. 11 at 8:30 p.m. Mountain time in San Marcos, Calif.

Kevin Woodin is the winningest women’s basketball coach in MSUB history with more than 200 coaching wins.

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