He’s wanted to be a head basketball coach and now he gets his chance in the same building. VanBeekum was announced as BLHS’s new girls basketball head coach late last week.

He was previously the girls and boys golf head coach at Ben Lomond, and the girls and boys basketball head coach at Highland Junior High, but this basketball season will be his first as a high school head coach.

“I’ve been an assistant long enough and felt like it’s my time to see what I can do with my own program, so I’ve been looking for an opportunity to put my name in the hat for a couple positions. And this one unexpectedly came open,” VanBeekum told the Standard-Examiner on Monday.

VanBeekum replaces Chelsye Saulsberry as the girls basketball head coach. Saulsberry was named interim girls basketball head coach in December 2018 and led the team the following four seasons. She’s going to coach the Scots’ new boys volleyball team this spring.

Ben Lomond’s girls basketball team is coming off a 12-11 season, its first winning season since 2009-10, and the Scots won a playoff game for the first time since 1999 by beating Union in the first round of the 3A playoffs. They’re expected to return at least two starters next year in guard Jazlynn Tinajero and forward Dory Jenson.

VanBeekum said he’s a defense-first type of coach.

“With the shot clock now, 35 seconds, we’ve just got to play tough defense for 35 seconds and I feel like we can hang or beat anybody by doing that,” he said. “I think if we make our defense a priority, I think we’re gonna put ourselves in a lot of situations to win some basketball games.”

VanBeekum has taught at Ben Lomond the last eight years. He started out teaching world history and has slowly migrated into teaching psychology.

“I love teaching at Ben Lomond, so the last thing I wanted to do was leave the school to be a coach. I’m a teacher first, coach second. So I didn’t want to leave the classroom to go to another school and be a coach,” VanBeekum said.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.