Winger Points Way For Lake City Coach’s Teams Overachieve, Proving His Skeptics Wrong

Four years ago, Jim Winger accepted his first head basketball coaching position only after the first choice reneged.

Winger, then 26, was eager to prove he should have been the only choice.

Now, the track record supports Winger’s contention. In two years at Coeur d’Alene High and the last two at Lake City, Winger’s teams have captured two Inland Empire League titles, won three straight regional titles and qualified for state each season. His overall record is 65-32. No other IEL coach can match those accomplishments in that span.

Has Winger, who turns 31 in July, benefitted from a good run of players or a string of good fortune? Hardly. The primary reason for Winger’s success is simple: His teams have overachieved.

His first three teams overachieved more so than this year’s squad, which takes the best record of the four clubs (18-4) to the State A-1 tournament this week.

Winger’s teams have much in common with his high school playing days.

A 1984 CdA High graduate, Winger was the lone starter his senior year not to score in double figures (he scored nine per game). His best game, though, came in the state title contest, an 86-80 loss to Borah, when he had 23 points and 15 rebounds.

“I was an average player,” said Winger, an imposing sight today at 6-foot-4-1/2 and 240 pounds, modestly inflated from his playing days. “The one thing I will say is I played well in the big games. I thought I was a good role player. My teams have been a lot like that; they’ve showed the same qualities. They’ve played with a lot more heart than talent.”

Winger, the coach, has matured since his first season. He’s still fiery, but his bench decorum is probably the best evidence of his maturity - at least to the observers in the bleachers.

His varsity assistant, Dwight Wilson, can attest to Winger’s more controlled sideline demeanor.

“The first couple of years I was dodging jackets, buttons, foot stomps and elbows,” said Wilson, a longtime coach whose youngest son, Mike, started with Winger on the ‘84 CdA team.

This season, Winger has earned just one technical foul - for a planned outburst.

Winger has gained the respect of a rival IEL coach, Lewiston’s Dick Richel.

“I saw a lot of myself in his emotion and demeanor on the bench that I had in my first year,” Richel said. “I got 13 technicals my first year and realized I had to cool it a little bit.”

Winger’s practice plans often are as long as a grocery list. He’s meticulous when it comes to game preparation, leaving no details uncovered.

“His teams are always well prepared,” Richel said. “What I like to look at from a coaching standpoint is how hard do teams play on defense and how much effort do they put out. His teams are near the top in those categories every year.”

Winger is in charge of his program, top to bottom. From freshmen to varsity, he picks every player.

“And he knows the first and last name of every kid who plays clear down to the fifth- and sixth-grade levels,” Wilson said.

Winger believes in discipline. His coach, Dean Lundblad, had a big influence in that area, and Winger also witnessed it while attending North Idaho College and Gonzaga University. He frequently watched Rolly Williams’ practices at NIC and Dan Fitzgerald’s at GU.

“It’s not always a democracy when you’re a coach,” Winger said. “I subscribe more to 20-year-ago type thinking than the modern-day stuff.”

Richel heard a speaker at a clinic describe prep players of the 1990s.

“(The speaker) said kids will play hard for one of two reasons: The love of reward or the fear of punishment. (Winger) seems to be the master of both,” Richel said.

Said Winger: “I see nothing wrong with discipline. I probably didn’t reward my first team enough as I look back. That’s the one thing I’d change if I could go back. I think I got caught up with trying to prove myself so bad. … I really believe today kids want guidance and structure, not chaos.”

Winger has had what he affectionately calls “a whipping boy” on each of his teams. Asked if he could have played for himself today Winger didn’t hesitate when he said yes.

“I was a pretty good whipping boy when I played,” he said. “I would have been a whipping boy for myself, too.”

Dennis Travis, who played post at 6-foot-2 on Winger’s first team and was the lone starter over 6 foot, was Winger’s first “pet.”

“It’s a sign of appreciation in a weird way,” Winger said. “My goodness, I was unmerciful to (Travis) my first year. I liked him so much I wanted him to do things perfectly. I’m a little abrasive to the people I like the most.”

Travis and Winger are close friends today. They along with two or three other players off the first team spend a weekend golfing in Canada each summer.

“He was on my case all the time,” Travis recalled during a telephone interview from Arizona State University, where he’s studying business. “He had to motivate me in a certain way. It was certainly not anything personal. We’re just like best friends. He’ll back you up 110 percent until the end if you’re faithful and honest with him. I know if I needed something he’d be one of the first to offer help.”

Former CdA coach Don Haynes saw Winger’s potential when the understudy was a varsity assistant and sophomore coach in Haynes’ program for three years. That’s why Haynes recommended Winger as his replacement.

“This is an old-fashion opinion that isn’t in vogue now, but I think the truly great coaches, the ones I’ve been around, are driven. (Coaching) is not just an interlude in their life. If there’s a similarity between Jimmy and I, it’s we’re hungry to win, hungry to excel. We’re competitive,” Haynes said.

Winger jokes about why he got into teaching and coaching.

“I didn’t know if I could do anything else in life. I don’t know what a wrench looks like, I don’t know where the oil is in the car and I can’t add very well so I guess it left very few options.”

Winger is offended by the perception that some peers put coaching above teaching.

“Coaches get that reputation because coaching takes up so much time,” he said. “It’s been my experience that most coaches have been damn good teachers because that is what coaching is - teaching.”

Winger has just one goal: He wants one of his teams to win a state title.

That’s a possibility this week. LC opens Thursday against Meridian (15-9) at 2:15 p.m. PST at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena.

“The only thing I have to prove to myself is win a state title,” Winger said. “It’s going to happen, and hopefully sooner than later.”

Greene resigns

Two weeks after her team captured the State A-2 championship, Sally Greene has resigned as Moscow High School girls basketball coach.

It was Moscow’s fourth state championship under Greene in five years.

“I need a break,” said Greene, who said she may return to coaching in the future after pursuing an interest in athletic administration.

Her final team finished 23-1, winning 23 straight games after a season-opening loss to Lake City.

Behind Heather Owen (now at Stanford), Moscow won three straight titles from 1991-92. Last year, Moscow won the consolation title.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BOYS TOURNAMENTS Times PST Thursday’s games A-1 At Holt Arena, Pocatello Game 1: Highland (17-6) vs. Centennial (19-4), 12:45 p.m. Game 2: Lake City (18-4) vs. Meridian (15-9), 2:15 Game 3: Eagle (13-10) vs. Blackfoot (19-6), 5:30 Game 4: Rigby (18-6) vs. Capital (16-9), 7 A-2 At Reed Gym, Pocatello Game 1: Kellogg (19-4) vs. Jerome (15-9), 12:45 p.m. Game 2: Bishop Kelly (22-0) vs. Bear Lake (19-3), 2:15 Game 3: Moscow (18-3) vs. Marsh Valley (11-13), 5:30 Game 4: Shelley (16-6) vs. Vallivue (18-6), 7 A-3 At Skyline High School Idaho Falls Game 1: Teton (24-0) vs. Fruitland (18-6), 12:45 p.m. Game 2: Declo (16-6) vs. Malad (22-1), 2:15 Game 3: Potlatch (19-4) vs. Soda Springs (17-9), 5:30 Game 4: Homedale (17-6) vs. Grangeville (17-7), 7 A-4 At Hillcrest High School Idaho Falls Game 1: Lakeside (19-4) vs. Cascade (15-8), 12:45 p.m. Game 2: Highland-Craigmont (18-6) vs. Shoshone (21-4), 2:15 Game 3: North Gem (14-9) vs. Carey (19-7), 5:30 Game 4: Oakley (22-2) vs. Nampa Christian (22-1), 7.