WNCC basketball teams open practices on Oct. 1

Western Nebraska Community College basketball coaches Dave Harnish and Russ Beck have to be excited with the energy generated from their respectful teams after going through the first day of official practices on Thursday.

“The first day they really got out and showed good energy,” first-year coach men’s coach Russ Beck said. “As a staff, we have been pretty excited about Oct. 1 and I think our guys were, too. The last week we kept telling them we were going to turn it up several notches and the intensity level would be that much harder. I was pleased of how they came out today.”

The energy level was certainly high octane during the men’s opening practice. Beck said he wanted to see the energy level his team had, and he was impressed.

“We wanted to make sure that we are talking, that we are in the places that we should be, and making sure we are transitioning from one drill to another,” he said. “We want the intensity to be up and we want to put a lot of pressure on them so I am going to put a lot of pressure on our guys in practice so that will transfer to their playing minutes.”

The women’s first-day of practice was also filled with a lot of excitement as Harnish fields one of his tallest and talented teams in the history of Cougar basketball.

“It will always be a struggle with this team early on because of all the freshmen, but we have the pieces where we can be successful this year,” Harnish said. “There is no question that this team is a lot more talented, more athletic and has more height then we had in the past. The pieces are there, it is just a matter of trying to get the 13 freshmen understanding how the college game will be played.”

The Cougar women definitely have a tall team this year with seven players standing 6-feet or taller and two others that tip the scales at 5-10. The Cougars tallest player is 6-foot-7 Thais Pinto of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. They also have a couple of 6-2 freshmen in Soulijah Evans of San Diego, Calif., and Kellli Culver of Arvada, Colo.

The women also have four local players, including Amber Kistler of Bayard, who started for the Cougars last season. The other three are freshmen with Shelby Campbell of Hemingford, Madison Keller of Scottsbluff, and Tayler Puttergill of Mullen.

Kistler and Stormye Everett are the only returning players this season and Harnish said they have a huge responsibility to the team.

“You have to have sophomores take the leadership role because they understand what it takes to play at this level,” he said. “It is important for Amber and Stormye set precedence in terms of what it takes to get where we need to go. They both need to stand out and do a good job for us.”

The men also have a talented squad with six sophomores, including three that transferred in with Beck. The transfers include 6-3 Jasen Williams, who was previously at Rice University, 6-7 Kwame Alexander, who was at Irvine Valley College, and 6-5 Geddes Robinson, who was previously at Jacksonville State.

The returners include Francisco Cruz and Scott Bamforth, the two leading scorers from a year ago, along with Saul Torres, Ritchie Mundende, Mateus Chaves, and Geoffrey Firmin. Mundende, Chaves and Firmin all red-shirted a year ago.

“I could see Paco, Scott, Geddes and Kwame, for being sophomores, were very eager to get out there and get their sophomore year started,” he said. “I told them that if they work hard day by day in practice, we can build something special.

“I think we have the potential to do some good things and it is all going to pertain on their ability to pull together and to have good team chemistry defensively. I think offensively they handle a lot of trust in each other right now. They know who the guys are that can shoot the ball and the guys that score the ball in the block. I think it will all come down to defensive team chemistry. Individually, there is a lot of potential out there as well as team potential as well.”

The Cougar men’s first home contest will be Tuesday, Nov. 3 when they face the College of Eastern Utah. The men’s first scrimmages will be Oct. 16-17 at the Casper Jamboree, where they will scrimmage Beck’s former school the College of Southern Idaho. The women’s first contest will be Nov. 7 at Colby Community College.