Cougar volleyball reloading with talent

Submitted by By JEREMY WOZNICK, Star-Herald sports reporter
For more coverage of Cougar athletics, turn to the Star-Herald on the web at starherald.com.

With seven players returning from last year’s 56-2 national runner-up team, the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team already looks to be a scary matchup for the opposition as usual.

Combine that with the addition of a number of talented new recruits, the Cougars could be downright frightening when the season kicks off in just over two months. “We have seven girls coming back from last year’s team,” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “The great thing is when we start practicing and doing drills, it won’t take us long to get going.”

Players are scheduled to report for practice around Aug. 1. The season-opener for the Cougars will be in the South Sub-Region Tournament on Aug. 24-25, which will be played at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff.

Headlining the seven returnees are redshirt sophomore hitter Jennifer Eichler and sophomore setter Soriana Pacheco. Both played big roles in WNCC’s run to the national championship match last year. Also returning for the Cougars are Shawntell Jones, Stacie Meisner, Kendra Schauermann, Cassie Vrooman and Becky Hughes.

The Cougars said goodbye to defensive stalwart Bianca Rivera, who is continuing her collegiate career at Creighton University in Omaha, and Leticia Kuhn. As a freshman last year, Kuhn led the team in kills with 578.

“We lost our offensive leader with Leticia leaving. But we have a good group coming back with Jennifer as a hitter and Soriana as our setter. They were a big part of our offense last year,” Green said. “We did lose our defensive leader with Bianca, but Stacie and Kendra will definitely be able to step in and fill those shoes.”

Eichler, who was given a medical redshirt as a freshman, was second on the team in hitting last year with 515 kills. Eichler orally committed to continue her playing career at Division I Tulsa University in Tulsa, Okla. Among the new recruits scheduled to join the returning talent, 6-foot-3 middle hitter Fatina Balza could make the biggest impact of the bunch.

She was a member of the Venezuelan junior national team and brings in plenty of experience. Joining Balza as incoming hitters are Daphine Silva, Aida Bauza and Nayka Benitez. Silva is a 5-10 outside hitter from Brazil, while Bauza and Benitez both are from Puerto Rico. Bauza is a 5-9 explosive outside hitter and Benitez is a 5-6 outside hitter/defensive specialist in a similar mold to the departing Rivera.

Also signed to join the team is Jazmuhn Carlson. Carlson is a 6-0 middle blocker from Cheyenne, Wyo., who Green believes has a lot of potential, as do all of the new recruits.

“We’re excited about the talent we have coming in,” Green said. “All of them have a lot of potential to do very well.”

In addition to the new recruits, Green said the Cougars are welcoming Chelsey Lyles to the team this year. Lyles, a 6-0 hitter from Colorado Springs, Colo., competed at WNCC on a basketball scholarship last year. She averaged over nine points and nearly five rebounds per game. She also collected 34 steals and led the Cougars with 17 blocked shots.

“She’s very talented and jumps really well,” Green said of Lyles. “I think she’s going to be a very good player for us.”

Last year the Cougars advanced to the national championship match for the first time in school history before falling in three games to Iowa Western Community College. WNCC was ranked No. 1 in the national rankings for seven weeks in a row.

Last year also marked the eighth straight year the Cougars won the Region IX championship and advanced to the national tournament. All eight have been under the direction of Green, who is now in his ninth season as head coach. Green said the success the program has had at the national level is a key recruiting tool he uses often.

"We use it a lot,” he said. “That’s one of the first things we do when we’re trying to recruit someone. We talk to them about our program having success in the past, and the exposure they’ll get when they play here because we’re in the top 10 or the top 20 of the national rankings all the time and we play at the national tournament.”

WNCC Girl's Basketball Camp Photos

The 2007 WNCC girl's basketball camp featured over 30 girls that learned basketball skills for four days, June 18-21. The following photos were taken during the last day of the camp. To download the photos, just click on the photo that you want and then right-click on the bigger photo and hit save as.

Cougar Baseball camp photos

WNCC Golf Classic featured 32 teams; Burgner's team claims victory

Scottsbluff’s Ryan Burgner is hot lately on the links after claiming his second straight four-person scramble.

Burgner, who is the assistant baseball coach for Western Nebraska Community College, teamed up with the WNCC team of Tim Alvarez, Dave Groshans and Mike Jones to win the United Way Golf tournament on June 4.

Saturday, Burgner along with Bob Hessler, Greg Sell and Doug Scholtz claimed the WNCC Golf Classic held at Monument Shadows Golf Course. The foursome won with a handicapped score of 52.3, six strokes better then the Kriz Davis team made up of Tim Hoffman, Dave Harnish, Eric Wilcox and Terry Yeager.

"I am just glad to be playing with good golfers," Burgner said about his back-to-back tournament wins.

Groshans, Alvarez, Junior Alvarez and Dick Douglas finished with a 536 score claim the third-place money. The 3-time defending champs, Roy’s Plumbing and Heating of Roy Rojas, Tim Rojas, Ron Robles and Larry Yarnall finished fourth with a score of 54.8.

Hole prize winners for the athletic department scholarship benefit, included longest putt, Koni Einfelt; longest drive (men), Shawn Misner; closest to the pin in 2, Adam Kocer; shortest drive (men), Brian Downer; closest to the water, Gordy Smith; longest drive (women) Becky Randall; closest to the sand, Adam Wackler; shortest drive (women), Ellen Ramig; longest putt, Rod Ramig.

This was the fourth year for the golf tournament and this year there was a record number of teams (32) entered.

Complete results include:
1 – Burgner’s Boys (Bob Hessler, Ryan Burgner, Doug Scholtz, Greg Sell) 523.
2 – Kris Davis (Dave Harnish, Terry Yeager, Eric Wilcox, Tim Hoffman) 529.
3 – WNCC Fearsome Foursome (Tim Alvarez, Junior Alvarez, Dave Groshans, Dick Douglas) 536.
4 – Roy’s Plumbing and Heating (Roy Rojas, Tim Rojas, Ron Robles, Larry Yarnall) 548.
5 – Team Hamer (Austin Miller, Brady Hubbard, Greg Hamer, Bowdy Ehler) 550.
5 – Linweld (Jeff Rotherham, Bob Klein, Ted Schaaf, Tony Branson) 550.
7 – Western Plains Foot Center (Mark Willets, Shawn Seiler, Todd Boggs, John Cantril) 555.
8 – Winnelson (Russ Knight, Steve Richter, Shane Reynolds, Jeff Dunn) 562.
9 – JD Ace Auto Body (Jim Warburton, Rich Jackson, Ron Keller, JD Koncaba) 569.
10 – GW Grinding (JR Weideman, Mark Wilson, Bob Hodges, Andrew Wallace) 571.
10 – Bytes Compupter (Doug Rupp, Darrell Lewis, Todd Lewis, Mark Payne) 571.
12 – Bluff’s Vision (Jon Darnell, Gordy Smith, Mandy Schlaepfer, Shelby Nedella) 575.
13 – El Paso Pipeliners (Scott Schmunk, Thomas Johnson, Marty Retchless, Craig Landers) 576.
14 – Radomski Team (Keith Radomski, Kyle Graves, Carl Witt, Levi Witt) 578.
15 – Big Strokers (Cactus Aanenson, Todd Hillyer, David Jost, Chase Bridgeman) 580.
16 – Budweiser (Chip Huckfeldt, Robert Quijas, Jeff Wengler, Adam Wackler) 595.
17 – Team Rahmig (Terry Miller, Hank Rahmig, Kirk Begley, Don Hague) 586.
18 – The Aces (Max Hadenfelt, Hayden Green, Jerad Koncaba, Keaton Green) 588.
19 – Team Randall (Rod Ramig, Rod Randall, Becky Randall, Ellen Ramig). 594.
20 – Team Einfalt (John Einfalt, Jeff Brock, Julie Brock, Konni Einfalt) 598.
21 – Husker Hackers (Scott Winters, Adam Kocer, Kyle Keller, Chris Green) 601.
22 – Runza (Neal Blomenkamp, Kevin Miller, Brian Joyce, Terry Heimbouch) 602.
23 – Scottsbluff Screen Printing (Brittany Isakson, Michelle Wilson, Mike Jones, Shane Wilson) 607.
24 – Team Misner (Tim Misner, Vern White, Andy Birch, Shawn Misner) 609.
25 – Team Ault (Tim Ault, Carl Roach, Troy Hedin, Craig Lind) 610.
26 – Bear Dawgs (Stacy Schwartzkopf, Stacy Mitchell, Scott Schwartzkopf, Gene Schwartzkopf) 625.
27 – Heggem Construction (George Herman, Jeremy Herman, Manual Martinez, Joe Guerrero) 550.
28 – Gering (Chad Hergenrader, Les Olsen, Robert Perez, Ted Counter) 672.
29 – Heggem Mechanical (Jeff Guerrero, Randy Scott, Joe Bracken, Darwin Adams) 680.
30 – Wyoming Hackers (Cheryl Ross, Lee Anne Isakson, Greg Isakson, Chuck Ross) 680.
31 – FBG (Bob Jones, Mario Chavez, Brian Downer, Guy Roborge) 750.
32 – UP 2 Par Foresome (Kathy Thompson, Patty Colwell, Karen Todd, Robyn Iossi) 820.