POST IN ROCKET MINER ANDREW GALLINGER/Rocket-Miner Sports Reporter Posted 3/20/14 Lady Mustang Alisa Petersen, No. 32, goes in for the rebound against her Sheridan College opponents while teammate No. 23 Whitney Mitchell moves in for support. ROCK SPRINGS -- The Western Wyoming Community College womens basketball team had an outstanding 2013-14 season that was capped off in the championship game of the Region IX tournament. Despite home court advantage, solid fan support and a down-to-the-wire campaign, the Lady Mustangs missed an invite to nationals with a 69-67 loss to Western Nebraska Community College, which also signaled the end of head coach Ken Swartzs basketball career. He was elected to the Wyoming Coaches Hall of Fame in 2004. The 2013-14 womens team included eight sophomores: Dannika Webb, emily moore, Erica Shenton, Shyanne Halalilo, Tiffany Trimble, Whitney Mitchell, Theresa Allgaier and Taylor Hughes. Swartz said all his returners this season made a big impact throughout the season. I cant say enough about these ladies. They had a very successful season on and off the court, in the classroom, as people and as basketball players, Swartz said. I told them that sometimes in life we look at what we didnt achieve rather than what we did. They accomplished a lot by winning our subregion and getting to the Region IX finals. Swartz said he was extremely proud of how the eight sophomores finished the season and competed throughout. I told the kids from the very beginning that it wasnt about me, Swartz said. I was in this for those eight sophomores, and every person on our team laid it all on the line, and when you have that youre going to win a lot of games. I think these kids are going to go out and always remember that they played in the Region IX championship game at home in 2014. They might not remember another thing about the season, but they will remember that. It was just a great run with this group, and they ended up winning 49 games in two years, which is pretty good. The Hall of Fame coach realizes that this years success most likely will not be duplicated next season when the Lady Mustangs have a new head coach and a young team of freshmen. Theres going to be some growing pains, and this team is not going to come out of the chute next year and do what we were able to do early this year, Swartz said. If you look at it realistically, weve got four returners, and if they all start next year, we know we are going to start a freshman at the point guard position because we dont have a returning point guard and we are recruiting kids to come in and make our players better. Swartz said the new member of the 2014-15 squad will not be made public until signing day on April 8. However, the coach said four recruited athletes have already verbally committed to WWCC.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 15:29:28 +0000
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