Take a quick glance down the Wyoming East boys basketball roster, you’ll find the name Cole Lambert.
On the eastern side of basketball-crazy Wyoming County, the young man wearing No. 12 is just simply known as “Cole Buckets.”
Friday afternoon, the once undersized guard that worked himself into first-team all-state player realized a lifelong dream.
Surrounded by family, coaches, teammates and friends, Cole Buckets signed a National Letter of Intent to become the newest member of the Concord University men’s basketball team.
“I woke up this morning and realized today was the day. It’s crazy how fast these four years (of high school) have flown by, but this is a dream come true,” Lambert said. “I have dreamed of playing college basketball since I was little. Being able to finally make it official and realize I have done it, feels good.”
Reaching the next level did not come easy for the Wyoming East guard, but there were signs in his younger days that Lambert was going to be a special player in future years.
“I used to go watch these guys in middle school,” Wyoming East head coach Derek Brooks said. “In seventh and eighth grade, you could already tell the kind of player he was going to be. In the county championship when he was in seventh grade, he was the smallest kid on the floor by four or five inches.”
In a tight game in the waning seconds, Lambert was put to the test in a raucous setting.
“They were up one with like 10 or 12 seconds to go,” Brooks said. “Oceana was probably the better team with some big kids and several good guards. Cole stepped up to the free throw line as what looked like a four-foot-seven seventh grader and knocked them both down. You could see the competitive fire in him as a kid.”
Assistant head coach Herbie Brooks, who is a Mullens basketball legend and former player for West Virginia University, talked about Lambert’s first year of high school basketball.
“When he came in he was a scrawny freshman, as many are. He got thrown into the fire against a very good state tournament team in the Shady Spring Tigers and he was rattled,” Herbie Brooks explained. “I make fun of him, and me and Derek talk about it a lot. At one point he got the ball and he threw it directly to the other team.”
While the initial experience was a tough one, the future Mountain Lion reacted in typical Lambert fashion.
“He withstood it and he didn’t put his head down,” Herbie Brooks said. “He went to work every day after that and he was in the weight room. You can look at his body now and see the transformation he has made. You can see what he has done on the court the last four years.”
“Each year he progressed and got better and better,” Herbie Brooks went on to say. “He has been nothing but an absolute joy and pleasure to have the last four years. We wish him nothing but continued success and the best of luck going forward with his career at Concord University.”
Lambert developed quickly into a big-time high school player and was a key factor in leading the Warriors to the Class AA state basketball tournament as a sophomore.
“All over, my sophomore year was my favorite. I earned a starting spot and we had a state tournament team with a lot of good players,” Lambert said. “They were older than me, but I had played with them my whole life. We went to The Greenbrier that year too. Sophomore year was great.”
Scoring nearly 900 points and dishing nearly 400 assists over his career, numbers alone do not tell the full story for Lambert.
“He is one of those kids that played many different roles for us,” Derek Brooks said.” Two years ago, he really didn’t have to score the ball for us. This year he had to be our predominant scorer and we leaned on him heavily to be successful.”
Knowing his role would be vastly different during his senior season, once again, Lambert put in the work to make his game better.
“He worked on his shot this summer and he was a completely different player,” Derek Brooks said. “This year he shot somewhere around 48-50 percent and probably over 40 percent from the three. Free throw line he was about 70-75 percent. Overall, he is just a great kid and a great competitor. It was an awesome ride and we will definitely miss him.”
The new role over his senior season also earned Lambert an increased level of specialized attention from opposing defenses.
“Cole knew what he was going to see this year. We didn’t know where the bulk of the scoring was going to come from. He stepped up and took on that role as a scorer and a facilitator,” Derek Brooks said. “He got everybody else their looks, as well as scoring for himself. We knew teams were going to send two or three players at him to take him out of the game. I still thought teams had a tough time containing them.”
Top level defenses also struggled to stop Lambert on the offensive end of the floor.
“Even Bluefield, who is one of the best defensive teams in the state, struggled with him. They had to send three at him to stop him,” Derek Brooks said. “That right there shows how much they respect his game and he handled all of that well.”
While the War Zone will always be his home, now Lambert moves to another location that he has had close ties with over the years.
“I have known (head) coach (Todd) May and (assistant) coach (Trent) Howard since I was little going to camps up there. Concord just felt like home,” Lambert said. “It is close and my family can come by anytime and watch. (Former Wyoming East teammate) Garrett (Mitchell) is up there and I know a couple of other players up there that I am close with. It just felt like the right place.”
Now the once scrawny kid with big dreams is ready to once again prove he is a force to be reckoned with, this time at the collegiate level.
“I am confident in myself. I believe I can play at that level,” Lambert said. “I know I have a lot of work to do. Now it is the beginning again. I am ready to face the challenge. I did it in high school, so I am ready to do it now.”
