St. Kate's 7, Johansen at SW MN State, Coaches Corner

#2 posting 5.28.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

ST. KATE'S 7
Here is the 2008-2009 College of St. Catherine's Women's Basketball Recruiting Class

The St. Kate’s Basketball team will bring in seven new players for the 2008-2009 season. The incomers will provide some height for the Wildcats which should help with rebounding problems from a year ago. “We were just not tall enough to win this part of the game,” noted Coach Gary Rufsvold, “The team was solid and played well to their strengths but we need to improve in the rebounding area. I believe our 2008-2009 recruiting class will make this possible.” The Wildcats also brought in a couple of guards to help fill the void of two senior wing players, Ashley Busch and Rachel Berglund.

Laura Beach is a 6-2 Center junior transfer from Montana State University at Billings. Laura will give the Wildcats a physical presence in the lane with her rebounding, shot blocking and scoring abilities. Laura played high school ball at Baker High School in Montana.

Laura Kalbfell is a 6-0 sophomore wing player from Lakeville South High School. At Lakeville Laura led her team in scoring and rebounding and was the team MVP. She was also Lakeville South High’s Athena Award winner her senior year. Laura played her first year at Southwest State University in Marshall, MN.

Josey Madler is a 6-0 junior post player from Baker, Montana. The past two seasons Josey played for Dawson Community College in Glendive. Her sophomore year at Dawson she averaged 10.5 points per game and seven rebounds per game

Janelle Christensen is a 5-6 first-year guard from Bemidji High School. She played the point guard and two guard for her Bemidji varsity team her last two years of high school. Janelle also played the guard position for a very talented Northern Lynx AAU program.

Justine Grady is a 6-0 post player from Mound-Westonka High School. At Mound Justine averages ten points per game her senior season. This will be Justine’s first year of college basketball after two years at the University of North Dakota.

Jessica Hoffman is a 5-11 first-year from Champlin Park High School. Jessica is a post player from a very good Northwest Suburban Conference. She was Academic All-State and All-Conference Honorable Mention her senior year.

Megan Zillmer is a 5-9 first-year guard from Crosby-Ironton High School. In High School Megan played on a team that won twenty games. She averaged double figure scoring her last two years and was team MVP, All-Conference, and All-Area her senior year. Megan is also a soccer player.

COACHING NEWS
Jina Johansen has been named an assistant women's basketball coach at Southwest Minnesota State. She replaces Katie Huschle who resigned to pursue high school teaching positions. Johansen assisted at Augustana last year. Before that she was a grad assistant at South Dakota State.

SKILLS & INSTRUCTION
The WNBA has a nifty feature on their site called Coaches Game Plan. It offers tips and skill instruction for coaches, players and fans. This week's featured skill is Sliding Behind Screens. You can print out the information and watch a computer animated demonstration. It is quite clear and I would recommend it.

MORE BASKETBALL ON TRACK
Whitney Rawdon, Team Wisconsin Select Samuels, missed this last weekends tournament in Menomonie because she will also be in the state track meet for two events: 100M High Hurdles and 4 x 100M Relay.

Next up: The Team WI Select Doucette vs Southern Minne Magic 19 semifinals