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By BOB HAMMOND Boomerang Sports Editor
Wow, where has the time gone?
It seems like just yesterday that the Laramie Little League All-Stars were headed for the West Regional in San Bernardino, Calif., for the umpteenth time and the Laramie Colts were winning their third Mountain Collegiate Baseball League title.
But here we are … it’s the last week of the Wyoming high school football regular season and the University of Wyoming football Cowboys are into a bye week and more than half way through their 2009 schedule.
And believe it or not, the Wyoming men’s and women’s basketball teams are in a countdown mode for the beginning of the 2009-10 season.
The Cowgirls open exhibition play in less then two weeks (Nov. 2) with the Cowboys following five days later (Nov. 7).
It’s been awhile since Wyoming basketball fans have been able to look forward to a season and the future with some degree of anxious anticipation.
Cowgirl coach Joe Legerski has it going.
He’s beginning his seventh season at UW with a veteran staff that also includes associate head coach Gerald Mattinson, also in his seventh year, and a pair of fourth-year assistant coaches in Kristin Becker and Katie Kern.
Legerski will begin his seventh year with an overall record of 115-69 and a Mountain West Conference mark of 54-38.
It’s a women’s program that has produced five consecutive winning seasons, three of which had at least 21 wins or more, a WNIT championship and the school’s first NCAA appearance.
Meanwhile, Heath Schroyer begins his third year in a men’s program that he had to rebuild from the ground up.
His staff of associate head coach Fred Langley and assistant coaches Shaun Vandiver and Anthony Stewart have shared the growing pains of the Cowboy program with him.
In Schroyer’s first year, the Cowboys went 12-18 overall and just 5-11 in MWC play. In his second year, the ‘Pokes improved to 19-14 overall, to 7-9 in league play and took part in the CBI postseason tournament.
Wyoming had its annual Basketball Media Day on Tuesday in the Arena-Auditorium and it’s interesting how Legerski’s and Schroyer’s two programs mirror one another heading into a new season.
Three words can be used to describe both programs: young and talented.
The combined 2009-10 26 man/woman rosters include just one senior, six juniors and 19 freshmen and sophomores.
The cornerstone of this year’s Cowgirl team is the quartet of juniors Aubrey Vandiver and Hillary Carlson and sophomores Emma Langford and Kristen Scheffler.
Throw in other key returnees like juniors Jade Kennedy and Randi Richardson and sophomores Ashley Sickles, Brenna Freeze and Leah Fitzgerald, plus a trio of talented newcomers in freshmen Bec Campigli, Chaundra Sewell and Sara Wilson, and you have a lot of present potential to go along with an extremely bright future.
The big question — and it is a big one — facing Legerski heading into the season is the health of both Langford and Scheffler. Both have had a history of back problems that the UW training staff is trying to monitor.
The lone senior in either program and the only holdover from former coach Steve McClain’s old UW team is Cowboy forward Ryan Dermody.
Schroyer, like Legerski, also has a quartet of young veterans to begin a new season with in junior forward Djibril Thiam and the sophomore trio of forward Afam Muojeke, center Adam Waddell and swingman A.J. Davis.
The main difference between the two programs is that Schroyer will be relying on a number of newcomers, including sophomore transfers JayDee Luster and Boubacar Sylla, to pick up a lot of playing time immediately. Another player who fits into that area is sophomore guard Thomas Manzano, a JC transfer from Garn City (Kan.) CC.
Three talented freshmen — forwards Amath M’Baye and Daylen Harrison, and guard Desmar Jackson — also figure to see a good amount of playing time.
Another player who will eventually see playing time is sophomore point guard Arthur Bouëdo. He must sit the first 14 games of the season to satisfy the NCAA on rules of amateurism.
The key to the Cowboys’ season is three-fold: (1) how quick the newcomers pick up the system; (2) how they all understand and accept their roles; and (3) how fast the chemistry takes place.
It is also interesting to note that seven of the players in both programs are from foreign countries.
Legerski has always had good luck in recruiting Down Under and has three talented Australians on this year’s team — Kennedy (Cairns), Langford (Arthurton) and Campigli (Melbourne).
Meanwhile, Schroyer has a trio of players from France — Sylla (Paris), M’Baye (Auxerre) and Bouëdo (Aix en Provence) — and one from Senegal — Thiam.
The next couple of years are going to be fun for Wyoming basketball fans as they watch all this young talent come together.
Bob Hammond’s e-mail address is bobh@laramieboomerang.com
It seems like just yesterday that the Laramie Little League All-Stars were headed for the West Regional in San Bernardino, Calif., for the umpteenth time and the Laramie Colts were winning their third Mountain Collegiate Baseball League title.
But here we are … it’s the last week of the Wyoming high school football regular season and the University of Wyoming football Cowboys are into a bye week and more than half way through their 2009 schedule.
And believe it or not, the Wyoming men’s and women’s basketball teams are in a countdown mode for the beginning of the 2009-10 season.
The Cowgirls open exhibition play in less then two weeks (Nov. 2) with the Cowboys following five days later (Nov. 7).
It’s been awhile since Wyoming basketball fans have been able to look forward to a season and the future with some degree of anxious anticipation.
Cowgirl coach Joe Legerski has it going.
He’s beginning his seventh season at UW with a veteran staff that also includes associate head coach Gerald Mattinson, also in his seventh year, and a pair of fourth-year assistant coaches in Kristin Becker and Katie Kern.
Legerski will begin his seventh year with an overall record of 115-69 and a Mountain West Conference mark of 54-38.
It’s a women’s program that has produced five consecutive winning seasons, three of which had at least 21 wins or more, a WNIT championship and the school’s first NCAA appearance.
Meanwhile, Heath Schroyer begins his third year in a men’s program that he had to rebuild from the ground up.
His staff of associate head coach Fred Langley and assistant coaches Shaun Vandiver and Anthony Stewart have shared the growing pains of the Cowboy program with him.
In Schroyer’s first year, the Cowboys went 12-18 overall and just 5-11 in MWC play. In his second year, the ‘Pokes improved to 19-14 overall, to 7-9 in league play and took part in the CBI postseason tournament.
Wyoming had its annual Basketball Media Day on Tuesday in the Arena-Auditorium and it’s interesting how Legerski’s and Schroyer’s two programs mirror one another heading into a new season.
Three words can be used to describe both programs: young and talented.
The combined 2009-10 26 man/woman rosters include just one senior, six juniors and 19 freshmen and sophomores.
The cornerstone of this year’s Cowgirl team is the quartet of juniors Aubrey Vandiver and Hillary Carlson and sophomores Emma Langford and Kristen Scheffler.
Throw in other key returnees like juniors Jade Kennedy and Randi Richardson and sophomores Ashley Sickles, Brenna Freeze and Leah Fitzgerald, plus a trio of talented newcomers in freshmen Bec Campigli, Chaundra Sewell and Sara Wilson, and you have a lot of present potential to go along with an extremely bright future.
The big question — and it is a big one — facing Legerski heading into the season is the health of both Langford and Scheffler. Both have had a history of back problems that the UW training staff is trying to monitor.
The lone senior in either program and the only holdover from former coach Steve McClain’s old UW team is Cowboy forward Ryan Dermody.
Schroyer, like Legerski, also has a quartet of young veterans to begin a new season with in junior forward Djibril Thiam and the sophomore trio of forward Afam Muojeke, center Adam Waddell and swingman A.J. Davis.
The main difference between the two programs is that Schroyer will be relying on a number of newcomers, including sophomore transfers JayDee Luster and Boubacar Sylla, to pick up a lot of playing time immediately. Another player who fits into that area is sophomore guard Thomas Manzano, a JC transfer from Garn City (Kan.) CC.
Three talented freshmen — forwards Amath M’Baye and Daylen Harrison, and guard Desmar Jackson — also figure to see a good amount of playing time.
Another player who will eventually see playing time is sophomore point guard Arthur Bouëdo. He must sit the first 14 games of the season to satisfy the NCAA on rules of amateurism.
The key to the Cowboys’ season is three-fold: (1) how quick the newcomers pick up the system; (2) how they all understand and accept their roles; and (3) how fast the chemistry takes place.
It is also interesting to note that seven of the players in both programs are from foreign countries.
Legerski has always had good luck in recruiting Down Under and has three talented Australians on this year’s team — Kennedy (Cairns), Langford (Arthurton) and Campigli (Melbourne).
Meanwhile, Schroyer has a trio of players from France — Sylla (Paris), M’Baye (Auxerre) and Bouëdo (Aix en Provence) — and one from Senegal — Thiam.
The next couple of years are going to be fun for Wyoming basketball fans as they watch all this young talent come together.
Bob Hammond’s e-mail address is bobh@laramieboomerang.com
