Written By: Con Marshall
His fellow Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference coaches were kind to Chadron State College’s new women’s basketball mentor Travis Brewster last week when they were asked to appease the media and participate in a poll on how the final 2023-24 standings might look.
There are 15 teams in the conference and the Lady Eagles were pegged to finish in the 15th spot. They didn’t put any pressure on the new coach. They could have given his new team a top five or even top 10 berth and then chided him a bit if the Eagles didn’t do that well.
Brewster also was kind to the coaches when he learned about the voting. He said, “We respect the teams in our conference.” Then he added what might be interpreted as a warning. “Our turnaround has officially begun. Success for us is being that team nobody wants to play because of our competitive will.”
In other words, he wants his team to play hard, expend lots of energy, take the fun out of the game for the opponents and not allow anything to come easily.
Chadron State knows it was fortunate to have attracted a coach with nearly 25 years of college coaching experience, including eight years as the head coach at the University of North Dakota.
After about three weeks of pre-season practices, Brewster says his team has already improved “quite a bit,” and he appreciates the players’ willingness to work hard and accept his coaching strategies.
“We’ve been doing a lot of teaching,” he said. “We’ve moved some people around, thinking it will suit them better and better suit the team. My first goal is to help them improve enough so they’ll become a highly competitive team.”
Brewster landed the job in late August, too late to add any new players to the roster. So, the 2023-24 Eagles will have mostly the same personnel on the court as they had last year when they won just four games. Missing are three players who graduated and two who switched sports and have found success on the rodeo team this fall.
It speaks well of the college that 14 players who were on last year’s long roster have returned. In this era of easy transfer, they could have skedaddled. They learned shortly after the old school year had ended that they would have a new coach. They had no idea who he or she might be. They decided they’d still report for duty this fall and try to make things click.
Brewster also knew what he was getting into. He knew about last year’s record. He knows the only way that can be improved is to help the players improve.
Here are a few things he said he’s stressing:
–“We need to get in basketball shape. That’s different from track shape. The starters may run three or four miles in a game.”
–“I want us to play at a fast tempo. The faster the ball moves, generally the score moves faster.”
–“We’re working on becoming better shooters. I want us to know what’s a good shot and what’s not a good shot.”
–“We’re trying to develop dedication. We’ve got to have that.”
–“We have to know how to handle success and also how to handle adversity. It takes the right mind set.”
The roster has no seniors, but eight juniors, six sophomores and two redshirt freshmen. Two of the juniors are transfers who had signed with the Eagles before Brewster became the coach.
Brewster said that, in particular, five players have grasped his concepts well and demonstrated the skills that would probably put them in the starting lineup if the Eagles were to play a game this weekend. They are juniors Shay Powers and Olivia Waufle and sophomores Megan Counts, Allison Olsen and Kyra Tanabe. All but Counts were in the primary rotation last season.
Powers was the team leader last season, earning First-Team All-RMAC while shooting a CSC all-time best 55% from the field and averaging 16.5 points and 6.9 rebounds.
The coach added that junior Kadyn Comer, sophomore Liberty Lines and redshirt freshman Camren Morris also have “figured things out” well and seem capable of contributing.
Unfortunately, a few players have not been able to practice much or at all because of injuries. They include juniors Livia Castellanos and Malaysia Lucero and sophomore Claudia Dollinger and redshirt freshman Bria Delimont.
“We’ve just got to keep working and trying to improve,” Brewster said. “I hope at the end of the season I can say this is the most improved team I have ever coached.”
The Eagles will open their season on Friday, Nov. 10 by hosting College of St. Mary from Omaha for a 5 o’clock tipoff. They’ll then take a long bus trip to Laredo, Texas, to play Texas A&M International on Sunday the 12th. The second home game will be on Nov. 20 against York College, followed by an exhibition game against the University of Wyoming the next day.