Girls look to improve on last season’s woes

Caleb Burggraaf
Tip of the Burg

Last year, the women’s basketball team was terrible. With new head coach Roger Walters, the women improved slightly on their record from 2009 to five wins in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and a final record of 8-18. Not exactly the season that the new coach was looking for in his first season. The team had no height and didn’t show many signs of being able to work as a cohesive unit when they were on the court with each other. Changes needed to be made, and Walters has made them.
This year’s Lady Mavs will look nothing like the team of 2009–10. The new team offers a little of the old, but don’t go to any of their games this year expecting to know every player on the team.
Walters has done a complete overhaul of former coach Timi Brown’s old team. The only returning players from last years roster are Alaina Brennan, Jocelyn Zarling, and Katie Brady (Cupp).
To round out the team, Walters brought in transfer students to bring veteran leadership to the team, as well as a new look freshman class for the future. Leading the transfer students is the RMAC freshman of the year, Katrina Selsor. Two transfers from Utah’s Snow College will bring speed at the guard position and height into the low post. Keeping on the topic of height, the new Mavericks will have four starters who measure six foot or taller, allowing the team to compete with the taller post players of RMAC foes like Fort Lewis, Adams State, and CSU Pueblo.
Talk about a new team does raise questions. We still don’t know if these players will be able to form a cohesive unit when on the court. But the tools are there. Since there will only be two freshmen on the active roster, the team should be able to use its experience to understand that unless they work together, all the height and scoring potential in the world won’t be able to bring them an RMAC Shootout bid.
Also with teams like Fort Lewis (who made it to the national championship last year), Colorado School of Mines, and Adams State, the RMAC has never been tougher. The Mavericks and Walters have a new look, but are unproven. All eyes will be on the team this weekend as it heads to Colorado Springs to open up the season against Colorado College on Wednesday, but if things go the way they are drawn up on the new blueprint, then the students at Mesa State should be in line for one heck of an exciting season.
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cburggra@mesastate.edu

Categorised in: Sports

This post was written by critedev