The Cougars are on the Rise

It’s been a long time since even the most ardent Washington State fan thought that their team might be on the rise, but they can think the impossible now. June Dougherty has a fine first recruiting class with seven frosh will make their debut in November. April Cook from Long Beach Poly is the only Top 100 recruit,
# 84, but the other six might have been in the Top 200 so they will immediately vie for playing time.

Most of the newcomers are wings or guards, but frosh post Jessica Oestreicher at 6-8 will be the Pac 10’s tallest player and immediately challenge 6-4 Sr Ebonee Coates for playing time. Coates averaged 7 points and 7 rebounds per game last year, despite missing the first 7 games with a foot injury and another 6 games during the season with a concussion. She is 5th on the all time WSU shot blocking list. She also recorded several double/doubles, including against Stanford. Oestreicher, the # 71 player per Blue Star, was a very high recruit, but dropped a bit due to injuries. All League in Softball and Volleyball, she will be a strong player for the Cougars.

At the 4 position, 6-3 Heather Molzen returns, having started every game for the Cougars last year, averaging 7 points and 4 rebounds per game.

There are several players who could play either the 4 or 3 positions, and not knowing June’s plan, I’ll just talk about the possible 4 players first. 6-0 Soph Katie Calderwood started 20 games as a frosh averaging 4 points and 4 ½ rebounds per game, playing more wing, she took 97 three point shot attempts. Frosh Rosie Tarnowski is a touted 6-1 frosh. She played on the Fencor Travel team, DelleDone’s team. Rosie was named Player of the Year in Philly, the first woman ever given that honor. And like a number of Cougars, a 4 point student in High School. Another frosh is 6-1 Lexie Petterson a local from Spokane.

A newcomer who transferred from Idaho is 6-0 Jr Katie Madison. She has to sit out this year, but may well be the best newcomer. She led the WAC Conference in scoring while a frosh at Idaho. As a Frosh she averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds and as a Soph 14 points and 7 rebounds.

Washington State has three possible Point Guards. Kezia Kelly started last season as a frosh, in fact played the entire season as a 17 year old. Kelly is originally from England and moved to New Zealand while in High School. She averaged 5 points and 2 ½ assists per game. 5-8 frosh April Cook was the # 84 player in the country and # 16 Point Guard. April also was a several time league 100m dash champion. The 3rd candidate is another frosh, Danielle LeNoir, from famed Narbonne High School in Los Angeles.

The Wing Positions will have lots of competition also. Katie Appleton is a 5-8 Sr who started almost every game last season. Appleton led the Cougars in scoring with 12 points per game and was 2nd in the conference with a 40% three point percentage. Salena Dickerson transferred from Gonzaga two years ago and last season averaged 4 points per game for WSU. Twice Dickerson, whose brother was a star at Arizona, scored 40 points in a High School game.

More on Wings with Jasmine Perkins, a 5-10 frosh from Berkeley, who scored 28 points in the NorCal Championship game for her Division last year. Alexa Price is a 5-8 Jr who appeared in all 30 Cougar games last year and averaged 5 points a game but also hit 34 Three pointers. 5-9 Soph Jasmine Williams started 23 games last year as a frosh and averaged 6 points and 3 rebounds per game. Both Williams’ brother and cousin play for the Washington Sate Football team. Frosh Katie Grad was an All State player in Washington.

There should be lots of excitement for Cougar fans, but the real excitement may be the making of new fans in the Palouse. Already for 2009, June has a top 5 in the conference class for next season.

Lots of young players, only 3 Srs and a single Jr. Goods times are happening.