  We show that coherent optical manipulation of a single confined spin is
possible even in the absence of spin-orbit coupling. To this end, we consider
the non-Markovian dynamics of a single valence orbital hole spin that has
optically induced spin exchange coupling to a low temperature partially
polarized electron gas. We show that the fermionic nature of the reservoir
induces a coherent component to the hole spin dynamics that does not generate
entanglement with the reservoir modes. We analyze in detail the competition of
this reservoir-assisted coherent contribution with dissipative components
displaying markedly different behavior at different time scales and determine
the fidelity of optically controlled spin rotations.
