Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball opened the first day of official practice on Tuesday and while the team might be low in numbers, they are high in energy and talent.
WNCC head coach Ryan Davis is excited for the season and the team. Davis was hired in late July and has plenty of head coaching experience in Region IX, having served as the head coach at Sheridan College before the program was dropped in 2020.
“The first practice was great,” Davis said. “I thought we had great energy and our players were really doing their best to pick up and apply new information. This group always brings energy and it was the same yesterday (Wednesday).
The Cougars have been working hard in September in conditioning and when the team hit the floor for the official practice on Tuesday, it was time for the team to get to work. The Cougars will have their first jamboree games this weekend in Denver on Saturday. Davis said in a way the team is excited for this weekend as it will give them an idea of what this team needs to work on.
“I don’t think any team will truly be ‘ready’ to start playing, but we are ready to compete,” he said. “We spent much of the preseason building a good base of conditioning and general understanding of what we are trying to accomplish as a team. I am looking forward to how we battle when we get to Denver.”
This year’s team has nine players on the roster with one that that will be ready in December or January.
WNCC returns four players from last year’s Cougar team, three of which saw action. Those three include Helena Kuck, a 5-foot-5 guard from Brazil, Laura Montiel-Baena, a 5-7 guard from Spain, and Adelina Urtane, a 6-0 forward from Latvia. Also returning from a year ago but had to redshirt because of a knee injury is Katie Vierra, a 5-3 guard from Berthoud, Colorado.
The Cougars also have three other sophomores on the team that transferred in. The first Nataly Dunka, a 6-1 forward from Brazil, who played at the University of Pacific last year. Also transferring to WNCC is Arianna Myers, a 6-0 guard from Cairo, New York, who played at Clarion College last year.
The other sophomore is Carleigh Pszanka of Gering, who played for the Cougar volleyball team a year ago and came out to help the Cougar basketball team this year with numbers.
The true freshmen on the team are also talented and will provide plenty of depth. They include Lidia Hernandez, a 5-7 guard from Spain, Asia Mitchell, a 6-0 forward from Columbia, Maryland, and Zozefine SIpolina, a 5-8 guard from Latvia.
Davis is excited for this team as they each have their skills and have been forming a strong bond on and off the court.
“We have good talent with players that fill each specific position very well and complement each other well,” he said. “I think we will have a lot of players off this team that will perform at high levels in different areas this year and eventually move on to good schools to continue their careers.”
For Davis, it is hard to pin-point one player that is standing out because all nine contribute to the team in different ways.
“I think every player has contributed in their own way,” Davis said. “Every single individual will have to fill a role and so far, they are all doing that. Scoring, rebounding, taking care of the ball, defending, etc., are all equally important and we have different players that fill those roles well.”
WNCC will scrimmage this weekend and then have a home scrimmage next Friday before the last scrimmage in Lawrence, Kansas, on October 20. After that, the Cougars will get ready to open the season November 1 and 2 at the Rustler Classic in Riverton, Wyoming, where they will face Fort Hays Tech Northwest (formerly Northwest Kansas Technical College) on Friday and then Central Wyoming on Saturday. The first home game is slated for November 9 against Casper College.
“The focus for this team is continued progression throughout the season,” Davis said. “If we can steadily get better and embrace the marathon that is the basketball season of focus strictly on the process we have talked about thus far, we will find success.”
With just nine players, this team has a special bond and one that Davis loves about each player. The players are embracing the opportunity with the goal of winning the South, hosting the regional tournament, and with the ultimate goal of winning a Region IX title and heading to the national tournament in Casper, Wyoming.
“I love the way this team prepares, their attitudes, their buy-in, and how they treat the staff and each other,” Davis said. “Those things this early are a major bright spot. I would have recruited every one of the kids on our roster, so that is a good feeling to have coming in for year one.”
