Archive for February, 2009
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
I’ve got a basketball jones . . .
Those who ventured to Storey Gym for the Cheyenne Central-Cheyenne East girls game Saturday were treated to another exciting game. East overcame a six-point second-quarter hole and won 52-44. The Thunderbirds also took season’s first meeting 70-65 in double-overtime.
Central was whistled for 17 fouls and East just seven. The Indians were 6-for-6 from the free-throw line (all by senior Lindsey Fearing), while East was 20-for-23. Fans may claim East benefited from some calls, but Central coach Chad Whitworth said it’s more a matter of the style of play than favoritism. Central is a more perimeter oriented team than East (see the 11 3-pointers the Indians hit in two games against the T-Birds), while East likes to attack the basket leading to more contact a more foul calls.
“(East) takes the ball to the hole and we don’t stop them,” he said. “We just let them go. If we stop that, we don’t put them on the free-throw line as much. We also need to be able to step in and take a charge.
“Right now, we’re searching for a kid who can do that.”
Central – which has lost three straight games – played a 2-3 zone for much of the game, but the T-Birds were still able to find holes in the defense and get easy buckets.
“When they switched to (man-to-man) we did a good job of pounding the ball inside and really working to score on the interior,” East coach Jon Will said. “That was also our goal against the zone in the first half. We got that, but we just didn’t quite finish some plays in the first half.
“The shots we were getting were good shots, it was just a matter of finishing them. In the first half we didn’t (finish) in the second half, we did.”
Monday, February 16th, 2009
The Wrestlers
Turns out the East-Central wrestling dual wasn’t as close as I predicted. Central jumped out to a 39-0 lead before taking a 48-27 victory Friday. It was still pretty exciting despite the Indians winning the first seven bouts — two of them by forfeit.
One of the night’s big surprises came when East sophomore Michael Galicia downed Central senior Brad Ramsey 3-2 at 189 pounds. Galicia was a standout youth wrestler for the Team Braves program, but has struggled adjusting to the competition presented by his often older foes at the high-school level. Ramsey was ranked in the top six in Class 4A at 189 pounds entering the bout, but Galicia was the better wrestler Friday. He jumped out to a lead, was warned for stalling and smartly shot on Ramsey in the final 17 seconds to seal the match.
Galicia and East coach Dan Ley think Friday’s win is a sign of Galicia’s maturation.
“(Galicia) didn’t get frustrated, he focused and maintained his composure and stayed with his gameplan,” Ley said.
The second-most thrilling match of the night was the 125-pound bout between Central’s Leandro Arias and East’s Eric Maestas. Arias, a sophomore, pinned Maestas, a senior, in 5 minutes, 36 seconds. The pair spent the bulk of the match on their feet trying to find the slightest chink in the other’s armor to exploit.
Maestas held a lead before Arias finally got the opening he was looking for: His go-to move the spladdle.
“It’s a move that goes against every fundamental rule of wrestling,” Central coach T.J. Castillon said.
How so? Arias practially gives opponents an ankle. As soon as they have that ankle, Arias somehow hooks in and rolls them onto their back for a pin.
It defies convention, but Arias isn’t the second-ranked 125-pounder by accident.
Also, expect Maestas to stay at 125 pounds at this weekend’s East Regional and next weekend’s state tournament. He previously wrestled at 125 this winter.
The East Regional starts Friday at Central.
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Hit the mat
The annual Cheyenne Central-Cheyenne East wrestling dual will take place Friday at 7 at East. Last year, Central claimed its first win over the Thunderbirds in a handful of years. If tournament performances are any indication, the Indians should make it a winning streak Friday.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the score is insanely close. There isn’t much head-to-head wrestling going on between teams at tournaments.
Both teams are coming off disappointing performances at the Ron Thon Memorial Invitational in Riverton. Central placed seventh in a field of more than 30 teams. What was disappointing to coach T.J. Castillon was that the Indians had the same number of placers this year – five – that they had last year. Castillon feels this team is better than last year’s. I’d have to agree with him.
East took 17th in Riverton. Coach Dan Ley was upset because his squad only had one wrestler left competing after the first round of wrestlebacks Saturday morning.
Friday’s dual figures to be pretty entertaining.
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Broncs fun to watch
As a sportswriter, I, obviously, love sports and watching sports. Growing up, I loved basketball. My favorite player was Michael Jordan. But the players I most wanted to play like – even as a kid, I knew I would never play like or do the things that Jordan was doing – were Alex English and Walter Davis. Mainly the mid-range jumpshots that defined their games, and how they played the game. I loved going to McNichols Sports Arena when I was a kid to watch the Nuggets and those two players. Now that was basketball. Over the course of the last few months, watching the Burns boys basketball team has been a fun experience. Sure, it is a high-school team, so it makes its fair share of mistakes. But Burns plays the game right. It plays the game the way it was supposed to be played. Simply put, the Broncs are fun to watch, and they bring me back to when I was a kid.
Friday, February 6th, 2009
Keep an eye on Petsch
As you have probably heard by now, Burns senior running back Duell Petsch has earned prefered walk-on status to the University of Wyoming football team. Trust me, I know the instinct is there to say, “Yes, but he’s from Burns – from BURNS. What could he possibly do for the Cowboys?” If you’re thinking this, you haven’t seen Petsch play or know of his work ethic. Now I’m not saying he is going to show up in Laramie and become a starter after his first practice. What I am saying is Petsch’s work ethic is second-to-none of any athlete. He has seen and accomplished a lot of things in his four years with Burns, and he’s one of the best athletes that you will ever lay your eyes on. But he also worked incredibly hard to get to where he is, and is never satisfied with the success that he does have. He always wants more. And this is coming from the guys who compete with him and coach him on a daily basis. What I am saying is if there is anyone who can overcome the incredibly tough chore of proving to new UW coach Dave Christensen and his staff that he is worthy of being forwarded a chance, and can play at a high level for the Pokes, it’s Petsch. What I am saying is you better keep your eyes on this senior from Burns.
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Unpublished profile
We’ve recently brought back our prep profile boxes where we ask high-school athletes random questions. I asked Cheyenne Central Justin Roberts the following questions during our Prep Athlete of the Week interview Tuesday, but plumb forgot to put together the profile information for publication. Roberts gave me some quality answers, so here’s the box that should have run in today’s paper.
Justin Roberts
Grade: Senior
Sports: Football, indoor and outdoor track and field
Trading places:Seeing how track is my thing, if I could trade places with somebody for one day it would have to be (Jamaican sprinter) Usain Bolt. If I’m Bolt, there’s no way I’m pulling up and celebrating 10 or so meters short of the finish line in the 100 at the Olympics. I’m going to run as hard as I can all the way through the finish to see just how fast I really am.
Bucket list: Before I die, I definitely want to go watch the Olympics. I’ve wanted to do that ever since I started competing in track. I also would like to see the Super Bowl in person. I just hope the game I get to go to is as exciting as the last one we watched Sunday.
First job: I was a ticket-taker at Iowa State football games. We were basically done by the second quarter and then got to go up into the stands and watch the game. It was pretty nice.
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Pyling up the accolades
Last week, I wrote the prep athlete of the week story on Taylor Pyle. This athletic season, the senior from Burns is our first two-time honoree, and I’m sure it won’t be his last. Of all the athletes that I cover and have covered, Pyle is one of my favorites – to interview and watch – at any level. In both instances he is a natural. Fans of pure basketball would love to watch Pyle play the game because he does it right and makes it look so easy and effortless in the process. As I said in the story, he does everything he can to help the Broncs win. He can hit 15-foot jump shots, beat you off penetration, rebound like mad, plays in your face defense and he puts his well-being aside to dive after loose balls. And when you talk to him after the game or during a phone interview, he speaks from the heart and gives you the truth. Free from cliche or muddled responses that we often times get. But the best thing I can say about Pyle is that he’s just a great kid. Sure, he has confidence and he exhudes it. But it’s not in your face, and he’s definitely not an ego-maniac. And it’s athletes – people – like Pyle that makes this job so much fun.
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
The Lady Indians’ roller coaster ride
On more than one occasion, Cheyenne Central girls hoops coach Chad Whitworth has publicly described his team as schizophrenic. The Indians (10-8 overall, 2-1 East Conference) have had winning streaks and losing streaks. They’ve played really great one quarter and then not so good the next.
Nowhere was that fact more evident than in Central’s 70-65 double-overtime loss to Cheyenne East. It held an 11-point lead midway through the third quarter of that game. East executed far better in the latter parts of that game than it did in the earlygoing. The T-Birds stopped leaving as many shots on the rim and pressured of the heck out of the ball, forcing Central into mistakes.
East deserves credit for winning that game and not cashing it in when it trailed by double-digits, but Central also deserves some of the blame for the loss. The Indians left too many shots on the rim — by that, I mean there were some wide-open layups they didn’t convert — and they didn’t handle the increased pressure well.
If this weekend is any indication, those problems may be a thing of the past. Central played very well from beginning to end in blowout wins over Riverton and Laramie. Whitworth says improved execution is the biggest difference.
Exactly why are the Indians executing better?
“Chad,” Central senior Shelby Cegelski said matter-of-factly.
“Definitely,” classmate Lindsey Fearing added. “He’s been stressing executing better and we came out and did it.”
Cegelski said the Indians also have opened their playbook. Rather than running two or three offensive sets, Central ran five or six over the weekend. The increased options are generating better looks at the basket.
The early season struggles aren’t really much of a surprise. Fearing and Cegelski were really Central’s only returners with more than a handful of varsity experience. The struggles, most likely, were growing pains. Pains Central appears to have worked its way out of.
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
True tests for the T-Birds
The Cheyenne East girls basketball team has lived up to expectations this season. The Lady T-Birds returned a great deal of talent and experience from a third-place team and have gone 14-3 thus far. Two of those losses — Casper Natrona County in the first game of the season and a road loss to Rock Springs last month — were upsetting to East. They were upsetting because, to some extent, the T-Birds didn’t play to their full ability.
East has to be hitting on all cylinders from the opening whistle this coming weekend when it plays league contests at Sheridan and Gillette. The Broncs are 12-2 and Gillette is 15-2.
Both games will be stern tests against very good teams. However, the result I’m most looking forward to is the one against Gillette. The Camels return all but one player from last year’s 4A runner-up squad and their two losses have come to teams from Arizona and California. Gillette may have been the best overall team in Wyoming last year, but was beaten by a really good Cheyenne Central squad twice in the final week.
The Camels, in my opinion, should be a great barometer of where the T-Birds are in their growth and development to truly elite status in the Class 4A state championship race.
Tomorrow: Thoughts on the weekend that was for the Central girls.