Girls’ basketball: Millikan’s coach learned lessons as role player

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Lorene Morgan remembers all those games of riding the bench. Maybe playing a few minutes here, a few minutes there, or maybe not playing at all. Mostly, she was watching.

Nearly 30 years ago, Morgan suited up for one of the top basketball teams in the nation, Long Beach State, and played behind one of the top stars in the nation, LaTaunya Pollard. Those days of bench-sitting taught Morgan something -- humility.

‘It teaches you about yourself, how you need to be more team-oriented,’ she said. ‘It also teaches you that the game is not about you.’

Morgan, now the coach of the Millikan girls’ basketball team, said her days as a role player has helped her identify with current-day bench-sitters. ‘Sometimes, I need to teach a player that her role might be more valuable in practice than in a game,’ Morgan said. ‘That’s something I learned because I did a lot of sitting.’

And she’s also learned to be one of the top coaches in the state. Her Rams (19-3, 7-1) are The Times’ second-ranked team in the Southland.

-- Anthony Stitt

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