Lady Aggie shorthanded in Idaho
With only 10 players, the Utah State University women’s basketball club will travel to Idaho this weekend in hopes of giving their opponents good games, Head Coach Chalyce Stevens said.
The Aggies start out the round-robin tournament, held at BYU-Idaho, Thursday against host BYU-Idaho at 8 p.m., the only team in the tournament they have played this season.
Their second game will be against Treasure Valley Community College Friday at noon, followed by a Saturday game at noon against Northern Idaho College.
Despite having four players missing from this tournament, Stevens said the Aggies are simply hoping to give their opponents some good games.
Missing from the tournament will be starters Michelle Dyreng and Katie Kimball, who will be missing their second tournament in a row because of coaching obligations with Sky View High School’s women’s basketball team.
Chantelle Hiatt sprained her ankle in last week’s game and will be absent. Leah Roberts will be missing due to leadership activities at USU. To help the Aggies cope with missing four key players, they are hoping to bring a guest player from USU, Stevens said, but if that doesn’t work out, Stevens may end up playing a little with her team.
“I might [be] suiting up to save face, so we don’t get totally slaughtered,” Stevens said.
Last time the Aggies met BYU-Idaho they lost by about 20 points, even though the Aggies outscored them in the second half. “We’ll see what happens on their floor,” Stevens said.
But it isn’t the wins the Aggies are concerned with, Stevens said. The Aggies are most concerned with how they do as a team, she said, and that’s what helps them feel like they’ve played well.
“We’ve talked about how we define success,” she said. “If we accomplish our goals, then we’ve succeeded and we feel good. Our success is not on the scoreboard.”
Being a club team, the Aggies are in a league in which they don’t really fit in, Stevens said. All the games they play are against scholarship teams. USU is the only school that hasn’t made women’s basketball a sanctioned sport, with the exception of two schools back East.
The scholarship problem puts the Aggies way behind their opponents because of one reason – priorities, Stevens said.
On a scholarship team, the players place basketball right up there at No. 1 and No. 2 in priorities, Stevens said, because they don’t have to work. The girls on the Aggies’ team place basketball at third or fourth with their priorities because they have to work to stay alive and this gives other teams a big advantage, she said.
As a result, until the time comes that women’s basketball at Utah State does give scholarships – which is set for the 2003-2004 season, Stevens said the Aggies will feel out of place.
“We accept our role and do the best to our ability,” she said.
Following the BYU-Idaho tourney, the Aggies will return to action on Tuesday, Nov. 27 when they play their last home game against Western Montana.