Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball coach Russ Beck isn’t wasting any time in assembling a team for next year. The Cougars, who finished 19-13 this past season, lose some key scorers from this year’s team, including guards Francisco Cruz and Scott Bamforth, and forward Geddes Robinson, who are all headed to the Division I level.
Beck has a couple of guard replacements in mind after inking Alliance’s Mike Peltz and Raul Delgado from Springville, Utah. Both players bring the same type of shooting accuracy that Cruz and Bamforth exhibited for the past two years.
“We will lose the top two scorers off of this past years team,” Beck said. “I expect that both Raul and Michael that they both can step in and provide us with a good scoring punch from the guard positions.”
Beck said it is nice to ink two top guards early on.
““We feel very f
ortunate to add Michael to our team,” he said. “In my opinion, he is the best high school player in the state of Nebraska at his position. He really has a good understanding of the game and has a knack for scoring. I think he will be a huge asset on the perimeter.”
As for Delgado, he came to visit WNCC because he knew Cruz and Saul Torres. During his visit, he decided to sign with the Cougars.
“Raul is going to be a great player here for us at WNCC,” Beck said. “He is big strong and athletic and will cause opposing guards a lot of problems with his size and strength. He can really get to the rim and does a good job of knocking down open shots.”
Peltz averaged 20 points a game for the Bulldogs this season as the senior led the team to the Class B, District 6 runner-up. Petlz said that he is excited to begin a new chapter in his athletic career.
“It feels really great to be coming here,” Peltz said last Wednesday. “I have been waiting a while to sign something. Now that I have, I am ready for the next level and ready to get to work. I am really excited.”
Petlz’ s goal is to achieve the same level of higher competition that Cruz, Bamforth and Robinson achieved. Cruz is headed to Wyoming, Bamforth to Weber State and Robinson to Utah Valley State – all Division I schools.
“That is my goal for sure to play Division I basketball,” he said. “I think I fit in well. My hard work and dedication I think I can get to where I want to be. I like coming up and playing with the guys. The competition is definitely elevated. “
Delgado is also excited to be following in his Cruz and Torres’ footsteps. All three are from Mexico and came to the United States to attend high school and to get an education while furthering their basketball skills.
“I choose to come here because I have a couple friends from Mexico that played here this past year in Saul and Pako,” he said. “It is a nice facility and nice community. I feel like this is the right decision to come and play basketball and it is a great program. I like the community and I just want to come down here because of the basketball program and the coaches.”
Delgado grew up in Mexico and played for the junior national Mexico team, which won the World Cup in Tailand when he was 15 back in 2005.
He then played two years at Springville High School in Utah, where he was MVP and an a McDonald’s All-American honorable mention. Delgado, who stands 6-foot-4, averaged 18 points, six assists, six rebounds and eight steals a game.
One of his specialties, though, is dunking the basketball, where he said he has won a number of dunk contests. He had nearly 50 dunks this past season as a Red Devil. During his visit to WNCC, Delgado put on a dunking clinic, where he dunked the basketball after taking off from the free throw line. He said he loves doing that in a game.
“I love to dunk the ball when I have an opportunity,” he said. “I won a dunk contest in Utah. It is fun and it is all about fundamentals.”
What Delgado wants to achieve is to get better to move on to the Division I level. He also wants to make his family proud in getting an education.
“I want to get experience at a junior college with the community and academic so my family can be proud of me and I can be proud of myself,” he said. “Everyone at the junior college wants to go Division I and that is my focus for know. “
Delgado had just five games where he didn’t score in double figures this past season. His best game came on Jan. 12 against Maple Mountain where he poured in 34 points, including six 3-pointers, He also had eight rebounds a five assists and four steals in the game. He finished the season with 370 points, 24 3-pointers and 80 rebounds.
Delgado said that while he can score, he also likes to get everybody involved in the offense.
“My job is to pass the ball around and make my teammates better,” he said. “Of course I have to score and I will do whatever it takes to win games so we can go to the national tournament.”
Delgado also played football and soccer for Springville. Currently, he is having an outstanding soccer season, where he has scored seven goals in six games. He had two goals in a match on March 22 against American Leadership.
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