It’s almost Christmas, but don’t blame Tony Dominguez, Western men’s basketball coach, if he doesn’t quite know what kind of team he has yet.
Is it the guys who went 7-1 in non-conference games, including a buzzer-beater win over then-No. 12 Cal State Dominguez Hills?
Or the guys who went 0-2 in their only Great Northern Athletic Conference games played so far, losing to Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington by a combined four points in back-to-back contests?
When 10 of the 16 players on the roster are new to the team, it’s hard to tell. In his 13th season as Western head coach, it’s the most new players Dominguez, the two-time GNAC coach of the year who led his team to the 2013 Final Four, has ever had. It’s a good bet that includes his 16 seasons assisting Brad Jackson, when Western won the 2012 NCAA Division II title.
But it’s a new world now, with the transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money as major disruptors to the college game at the NCAA Division I level and trickling down to Division II. How’s a coach supposed to cope when players can leave at any time for any reason? Some coaches have quit. Dominguez said he approached this season differently than any other.
“It’s a lot of soul-searching, because a lot of coaches are trying to figure out if this is worth it,” he said. “I think mentoring kids is worth it. So I love it. But I just had to figure out how to adjust to it. And I think one of the biggest things … is not taking it personally” if players leave. “Used to be you had a long, two- to five-year process with these kids. Now you just have to look at it as a nine-month contract.”
Players in Division II, especially men, have one eye on the ball and another on a promotion to Division I and possible NIL money. Can’t blame them. It’s hard to keep a player when he’s offered $30,000, on top of a scholarship, to jump to a DI program. Dominguez can’t fight that. He’s the father of three and, the way he looks at it, a father-figure to everyone who plays for him. That means watching junior guard Kai Johnson leave for Montana after Dominguez’s prediction he’d be “one of the greatest all-time Vikings.”
“I get an opportunity to mentor them for that nine months, and try to develop a team within the new culture,” he said. “Because whether it’s me or somebody else, this is how it is. I do take a lot of pride in trying to help kids achieve their dreams. Or help them to achieve as much as we can achieve together.”
It’s not an easy thing figuring out how to capture lightning in a bottle for that one championship season. With so much movement, teams will essentially start from scratch every year with a majority of new faces, or ones with just a season or two in the program. Dominguez is trying to counteract that with freshmen (his roster has six) and by red-shirting players. But it’s a new world.
“I’m just going to be optimistic and see who will want to stick around at the end of the year, no matter how the season goes,” he said, “and just keep adjusting.”
Indoor track and field season opens with a bang
Western track and field athletes are already rewriting the record books, setting a remarkable five school records in the opening meet at the Spokane Invitational Saturday, Dec. 14 in Spokane.
Newcomer Bec Bennett, a junior who has competed with the Australian national team, posted the second-fastest time in GNAC women’s history in the indoor 400-meter run, 54.73 seconds, to obliterate the Viking mark of 56.23 mark set by Ellie Siler in 2009. Bennett also ran in the record-setting 4X400 winning relay.
Other marks:
- Sophomore Kora Cook was named GNAC women’s field athlete of the week for her high jump leap of 5-foot-9.25 inches, a school record for both indoor and outdoor, breaking Miranda Osadchey’s 2016 mark. She won the event in a jump-off.
- Freshman Jessica Polkinghorn’s shot put heave of 45 feet, 10.5 inches won the meet while setting the indoor school record, good for 10th in GNAC history.
- Freshmen twins Isaac and Evin Ford, along with Sam Foust and senior Brian Le, set a school record in the 4X400-meter relay. Their time of 3 minutes, 16.37 seconds edged the 2014 mark of 3:16.81.
“This was a really encouraging opener for us,” said head coach Ben Stensland, coming off a fall cross-country season that marked 10 straight conference titles for Western women’s and men’s teams in cross-country, indoor and outdoor track and field. “Our veteran athletes showed great progress and the newcomers had a lot of promising performances … We’re all very excited about the season ahead.”
BEST BETS
3:45 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20 – Men’s basketball vs. St. Mary’s, Las Vegas. NCAA Division I team provides a yardstick for where the Vikings stand. 8 p.m. – Women’s basketball at Hawaii Hilo, Hilo, Hawaii. Western plays a regional rival on its home court.
Tickets. See wwuvikings.com/Tickets or in person one hour prior to game time.
Parking. Free for sports. For basketball, lot 19G for general audience; 9G for season ticket holders. See the map at wwu.edu/parking.
Can’t make it? Stream it
All home games and most road contests are streamed via a live and free YouTube webcast. Find links online at cascadiadaily.com.
If you have a smart TV, search for “WWU Athletics” on YouTube.
We want to hear from you
Got a WWU sports-related news tip or interesting item for this notebook, or a good story idea? We’re all ears. Send to newstips@cascadiadaily.com, subject line: WWU sports notebook.
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
