Coach Kip Drown Coach Drown's Profile Pack Women's Basketball Page

Geared toward recruits, CSU-Pueblo head women's basketball coach, Kip Drown, will keep fans and recruits up to date on the program's activities, both at home in Pueblo, and on trips to find the program's next gem!

July Update

I love July!  It is a non-stop month of basketball and Cardinal baseball.  Coach Haywood and I left for Oregon on July 5th and we spent 3 1/2 days in Oregon City and surrounding communities watching some of the best players in the west play.  Besides being unusually hot out there we had a great week of recruiting and came away with a much clearer picture of our recruiting for 2011.  I also found a new favorite place to eat out there - Izzy's. It's an all you can eat food/salad/pizza/rib/etc. bar.  But the best part is the dessert bar. They have the greatest cinnamon rolls that I have EVER eaten. We ate there twice and the only reason we didn't eat there a third time is my plane was leaving and I had to return to Colorado. 

The second week of July was spent back in Pueblo conducting our Elementary and Jr. High School camps.  Putting a week of camp in the middle of July recruiting is not really the smartest thing to do but between women's and mens basketball, volleyball and wrestling using the arena for camps it is hard to get everyone schedule at times they would like.  We did survive the week and I am happy to say that we are now finished with camps for the summer!!!

Starting tomorrow Coach Haywood and I are back on the road again as we head down to Nashville TN. for that tournament.  I have always heard very good things about the Nashville event but I have never been to it.  The games start on Thursday and we will fly back to Colorado on Saturday night.

After a couple of days in Pueblo to do laundry we will fly to San Diego on Tuesday the 27th and will be out there until that Friday.  We will finish up our summer recruiting on Saturday the 31st with the U.S. Junior National Tournament in Denver. 

I'm sure that I will wake up on the morning of August 1st and wonder to myself - "where did July go?"  I'm also sure that I will smile and say to myself, " I can't wait for next July!"

Until next time.

Family Always - Team First

Coach Drown

Where Did May Go?

People are always asking me about my schedule.  Do I get any "down time" after the season is over?  What do I do during the summer?  I always start out by saying that May is my slowest month of the year.  Our players have gone home, camps don't get started until June, and recruiting doesn't really kick in until July.  This May, however, has just flown by and has left me wondering where my so called restful month went to.   I was able to slip away to Missouri for about four days to surprise my Mom on Mother's Day but besides those four days I have been extremely busy in the office.  I really believe that this was the most productive May that I can remember.  I got a good start on our player handbook and our playbook for next season. I also got started updating our Drill Notebook.  Not to mentioned that I have blogged twice this month. which may be a new record for me.  Now it is Memorial Day weekend and May will officially come to a close on Monday.  Then I have to wait another 11 months for my "easy" month.   May, can end on a "Great" note if my St. Louis Cardinals can sweep the Cubs this weekend.  Our SID Anthony Sandstrom would be crushed but you grow to expect disappointment if you are a Cubs fan!  Hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend.  Until next time...

Family Always - Team First;

Coach Drown

What A Season

I was reviewing my blog earlier today and I saw that my last entry was dated September 2009 and we were still 2 weeks away from starting practice.  Well, the 2009 - 2010 season is over and I am happy to report that not only was it successful but it was also historic.  We ended the year 21-11 for our third consecutive 20+ win season.  As is the case with most teams it is the post season that defines a team and this years group was absolutely unbelieveable.  The post season started for us on March 2 as the #5th seed and a road playoff game at Adams State (#4 seed).  Two minutes into that game our leading scorer and first team all conference point guard Rachel Espinoza went down with a torn ACL.  Most teams would have quietly slipped into the offseason complaining about the poor timing and bad luck of losing Rach.  Not this group.  What a great team effort they put togeter (Rach was the biggest cheerleader of them all) as we won that first round game at Adams and then beat Colorado Christian (#2 Seed) 3 nights later and then upset the #1 seed in the tournament and the #4 team in the country, Fort Lewis College, 61-60 on a last second shot to win our 3rd consecutive and 4th in 5 years RMAC post season tournament championship.  We became only the 3rd team in the history of the RMAC to win 3 tournament titles in a row.  But this group wasn't finished yet.  We received a #7 seed in the 8 team Central Region NCAA D-II Tournament drawing the #2 seed, Wayne State out of Nebraska.   Wayne St. came into the game ranked in the top 25 of the country and riding a 17 game winning streak.  With approximately 9 minutes left in the game we were trailing by about 10 points when one of the most remarkable things that I have ever seen in basketball occured.  We went on a 22-0 run over the next 8+ minutes and ended up winning by the score of 59-48.  The victory was our school's first ever NCAA tournament win for either men's or women's basketball.  Our post season run ended the next night as we lost in the Regional Semi's to Concordia St.-Pual but it didn't take away anything from what this group had accomplished.  In my 32 years of coaching what this team did despite the adversity that it faced ranks as one of the most special memories that I have ever had.  I will always remember this team for their courage, toughness and most of all "Team First" attitude as they truely pulled together to do what many people would have thought "Impossible".

As I write these words it is now the middle of May and our players have gone home for the summer but I am confident that we are working hard preparing ourselves to build on last season's success and aiming for even bigger things in the future.  Until the next time I blog (which I plan to be sooner than my last one 8 months ago) 

Family Always - Team First;

Coach Drown

Six Week Update

Wow! I guess the old saying is true, "time flies when you are having fun"!!!  I can't believe that we are into our 6th week of school already.  Pre-season conditioning is going very well and we all can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel as regular practice will begin 2 weeks from tomorrow.  Unfortunately, not everything has been of the postive nature this fall.  Sarah Staggs, our 2008 Western Division All-RMAC post player, continues to battle back problems and her doctor has recommended that she not play this year so that was a real disappointment for both her and the team.  Another big disappointment was the loss of highly regarded freshman Caiti Forrester for the upcoming season.  Caiti tore her ACL this summer at home working out and she underwent surgery yesterday here in Pueblo to repair the knee.  Her doctor said that everything looked great with the surgery and we are hopeful that she will be able to resume her workouts this April.  Coach Haywood and I will both be on the recruiting trails this weekend.  Les is going up to Greeley CO. to watch a high school showcase and I will be heading to Phoenix to watch the Arizona Jr. College Jamboree.  Once we start practice on the 15th we will only have 2 weeks to get ready for our first exhibition game against Colorado State in Fort Collins on October the 29th.  That will be a really good early test to see where we are at and what areas we will need to focus on.  Well that's a quick update of whats been going on and whats coming up in the near future.  As we like to say in our program, "It's a GREAT day to be a Thunderwolf"!!!

Family Always - Team First

Coach Drown

A New Year

Got back into the office this morning after being in Missouri the past four days visiting family. My grandson, Bryson, celebrated his 6th birthday while I was there and he and I went to "Build A Bear" where we created the "Albert Pujols" bear complete with a Cardinal uniform, hat, and red spikes.  For added measure we won a chain at the arcade which looks like the one Albert wears.  We had a great time!

Wow! I can't believe that we are ready to get another year started. The countdown has started. Three days until the dorm opens up and our freshman arrive on campus and 7 days until classes start next Monday.  Our returners will be arriving back into town all week long. I am really looking forward to getting everyone back on campus and getting started.   This years team really excites me. We have some question marks that have to get answered but we are talented and hungry and that is always a good combination.

Recruiting for 2010 is going well.  We are trying to finalize some visits for the 2nd football game of the year in early September.  Hopefully all the hard work that we put in this summer will pay off with another great recruiting class. 

Until next time;

Team First - ALL For One

Coach Drown

Off The Road

After 9 straight days of recruiting in Phoenix (Sarah Staggs and her Dad came by the gym to visit),  Denver, and San Diego we are back in Pueblo - but not without one final 2 hour flight delay leaving San Diego (more bad weather in Denver). Finally got home at 11:00 P.M. on Wednesday the 29th - just in time to see the Cardinals beat the Dodgers in the 15th inning - what a great way to end the trip!!!  Can't believe that tomorrow starts August and we are finished recruiting for the summer.  We saw alot of kids and Coach Haywood and I spent yesterday afternoon going over our lists and "Pooling" kids.  Now comes the hard part - finding out which prospects will be going D-I and which ones we have a shot at recruiting. We feel very good about our top propects right now but only time will tell if they will become Thunderwolves.  One final thought about the last trip.  For those of you who have read this blog from the beginning may remember me writing last year about the GREAT donut shop in San Diego that Coach Haywood and I have breakfast at every morning.  Well we walked in there first thing Monday morning and the two ladies who own it took one look at us and said "You all are back, must be basketball time".  You gotta love a place that is so personal.  Like I said last year, my first stop next July in San Diego will be Rose's Donuts. 

Just a couple of other final thoughts...Our arena is shut down this week for floor maintenance...met with our locker room guy this morning to finalize some additions we want to make...the first big event of the upcoming school year for our athletic department will take place next Wednesday night as we have our annual Lobster Bake...Until the next update...

Team First - ALL For One

Coach Drown

Quick July Update

Back from Oregon (had a great time out there)..... we finished our final week of camp last Thursday. Four of our players, Amanda, Kami, Jennelle, and Rachel helped work our camp.  We had 3rd - 6th graders for 3 hours in the morning and 7th - 9th graders in the afternoon. I tip my hat to elementary and Jr. High teachers all over the world - you all really earn your money..... In the office today and tomorrow until about 2:00 P.M. and then its off to the Valley of the Sun to watch the Grand Oasis Tournament starting on Wednesday.  I was watching the Cardinals / Diamondbacks game yesterday and the Phoenix announcers were saying that the high was supposed to be 112 degrees - I thought about calling Coach Haywood and having her cancel our tickets.  Just have to make sure I pack a hat!.....Will update everyone when we get back from San Diego next week.....

Team First - ALL For One

Coach Drown 

Love July

Hi Everyone - It's July, one of my favorite months of the year. July means one thing to a college basketball coach - Recruiting!  And it all gets started this coming Monday.  Thought I would give you an overview of the July schedule that Coach Haywood and I will be following.

Sunday July 5:  fly to Oregon

Monday July 6 - Thursday July 9 Recruit at the End of the Oregon Trail Tournament

Monday July 13 - Thursday July 16 Run Elementary and Jr. High Day Camps here at CSU-P

Friday July 17 - Sunday July 19 Recruit at MAYB Tournament in Colorado

Tuesday July 21:  Fly to Phoenix

Wednesday July 22 - Friday July 24 Recruit at the Grand Oasis Tournament in Phoenix

Saturday July 25 Recruit at the USJN Tournament in Denver

Sunday July 26 Fly to San Diego

Monday July 27 - Wednesday July 29 Recruit at the MSNM Tournament in San Diego

Thursday July 30 - Back on campus

It does get a little tiring but I honestly look forward to getting to see some great competition and trying to narrow down which players we are going to try and recruit.  It's an exciting month. 

I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable 4th and for those of you reading this that will be playing in the above tournaments - I wish you a great month of basketball and safe travel.

Team First - ALL For One

Coach Drown

June 2009 Update

OK - it's official.  I am the worlds worst blogger ever!  But I am trying to get better - anyone have any suggestions???  We will see what the summer brings.  June has been an interesting month to date.  After spending the first week of June on vacation to Missouri and Georgia the past two and a half weeks have flown by as we spent one week preparing for camps and last week actually running 3 different camps.  We did a two day team camp on the 15th and 16th, a 2 day post camp on the 17th and 18th and a 2 day perimeter camp on the 19th and 20th.  No more camps until the middle of July!  Our attention now shifts totally to summer recruiting.  I will be attending some club team practices over the next couple of weeks in the Denver area and then we fly to Oregon on July 5th to start the July craziness.  I really do enjoy watching all the basketball during this month but it can become a little tiring.  Last night Coach Haywood and I went up to Denver to watch several of our players play in a college summer league.  I always enjoy getting to do this especially since it is the first time that we have gotton to see some of our new recruits for next year play with some of our returners.  It was alot of fun to be up there and I plan on watching next weeks games also.  Alot of things are happening on campus this summer. Probably the most exciting is seeing the completion of the new dorm that will open up for this coming fall semester.  They have also started construction this summer on a second new dorm which I understand will be ready for Fall 2010. Well thats it for now.  The Cardinals are in first place by 2 games, summer recruiting is almost here and my wife Gina will be moving here in the middle of July to start a new job in Colorado Springs - Life is GOOD!!!  Till next Time.

Coach Drown

ALL For One - Team First 

May Update

It is week 2 since our players left campus for the summer and things are starting to settle into a nice summer routine.  Coach Haywood and I are busy preparing for the upcoming summer recruiting season.  We sat down yesterday to plan out our travel schedule and it looks like we will be attending summer tournaments in Oregon, Kearney NE, Phoenix, San Diego and Denver.  In addition we will be running a week of camp in June and another week of camp in July.  Needless to say that the month of May is our most relaxed month of the year... New recruit Katrina Selsor will be running in the Colorado state track meet this upcoming weekend.  Coach Haywood and I plan to be at the meet on Friday to watch her run the 800 meters...New recruit Caiti Forrester will be involved in state competition this weekend also as she partakes in the Nevada regional swim meet - best of luck to both Katrina and Caiti...Congratulations to the CSU-P baseball team as they won the RMAC tournament this past weekend and best wishes to them as they open up the NCAA Regional baseball tournament this upcoming Thursday in Grand Junction CO...also congratulations to the CSU-P softball team for their 2-2 record last weekend at the NCAA regional softball tournament...well I guess that is enough updating for now.  Hope everyone is having a great spring and in case you haven't noticed my St. Louis Cardinals are in first place by 2 games (that little shot is for our SID Anthony Sandstrom and former Thunderwolf player Michelle Ambuul both Cub fans).  Until next time...

All For One - Team First

Good Bye To Our Seniors

It's always hard to say good-bye - especially to people that you have come to love and respect so much over the years.  This past Tuesday evening Coach Haywood and I took our 5 departing Seniors out one last time - dinner at Olive Garden.  We were so blessed this past season to have these 5 outstanding women to anchor our team.  Three of them Jonnie Draper, Danielle Pritchett, and Mary Rehfeld came in as freshman my first year here 4 years ago. The fourth, Michelle Ambuul, transfered in 3 years ago as a Sophomore and Shan Trumble rounded out this special group by transfering to us for just this past season.   

A couple of days before, on Sunday, we had held our team banquet and we had given our Seniors their gifts and their Senior Council Medallions.  But this was different.  This was just the 5 seniors and 2 coaches sharing one last meal together and swapping stories back and forth.  Mary, Jonnie, and Danielle have been a part of 3 RMAC Championships and 3 NCAA tournament appearances (both firsts for the program).  Michelle won two and Shan got one this past March.    Mary will graduate tomorrow (5-2-09), Shan will graduate after the first summer session in May.  Danielle is going home to California and will finish her degree up at Sac State next year.  Michelle will graduate in December and Jonnie will finish all her course work up next spring for her Masters in Business Administration.

The outstanding athletic and academic achievements of these seniors, however, tells only part of who they are.  These are women of outstanding character and attitude.  They are loyal, hard working, and each and everyone of them has been a blessing and joy to coach. As good of players as they were they are even better people!

Shan, D, Michelle, Mary, and Jonnie - I love you guys and I appreciate so much what you have brought to this program and to my life.  I will miss you greatly but always remember, "once a Thunderwolf - always a Thunderwolf".  May God bless you richly as you leave CSU-Pueblo and begin a new chapter of your life.

Team First - All For One

Catchup

It has been brought to my attention that I have not updated my blog since the middle of December so I guess it is time to play a little catch up from the past 4 months.  The second half of our season proved to be filled with both highs and lows.  We returned from Christmas and went into a shooting funk that lasted for about a month.  During that time we dropped 3 in a row which was our longest losing streak of the year.  The turning point of our season actually occured on Valentines Day.  We had lost a road game the night before and had another tough road game that night against Adams State.  A loss there would have put us in a very big hole in trying to secure a home playoff game.  Our kids came out and played a great basketball game and we came away with an 86-74 win.  That led to an 8 game winning streak which culminated in our 2nd consecutive RMAC Tournament championship and a bid to the NCAA D-II National tournament.  We were seeded 6th in the North Regional and drew the #3 seed, Winona State.  We felt very confident going into the game but we just never played at the level that we had the week before in the RMAC tournament and lost our opening round game. 

We had 3 players who received All-Conference recognition.  Mary Rehfeld was named to the third team all-west team, Michelle Ambuul was named to the 2nd all-west team and Rachel Espinoza was named to the first team.  In addition, Mary, along with Amanda Bartlett were named to the RMAC all-tournament team while Rachel was named as the tournament MVP.

After taking a couple of weeks off after the loss to Winona, we returned for our spring workouts.  We feel very good about the progress that we have made this spring and believe that we have our players ready for a big summer of basketball as we enter the final few workouts this week.  Coach Haywood and I will be leaving Thursday for Phoenix to recruit this weekend at the AZ. Elite Tournament.  That is always a fun tournament to watch so I am looking forward to getting back to the desert for a couple of days. 

Until next time (whenever that might be) best wishes for a great spring.  TEAM FIRST!!!

First Weekend of RMAC Play

The Thunderwolves got conference play off to a great start at home this past weekend knocking off both Nebraska-Kearney and Chadron State.  I was really proud of the aggressiveness that our kids played with in both games - we are starting to play our best basketball of the season...  With the 2-0 start in conference play we are now 8-1 overall for the year...  The win Saturday night marked our 8th consecutive win of the season which ties the school record...  We finished up finals this past Friday so this week is much more relaxing for our players.  We practice Monday - Thursday this week and then go north up I-25 about 40 miles to face rival UCCS in another conference game.  After the Friday game our players will break for the holidays and won't return until December 28...  I'm going to split my Christmas break between family in Missouri and Georgia...Friday nights game against Kearney marked an important milestone for Senior Mary Rehfeld.  Mary scored the 1000th point of her career in that game - Congratulations Mary - you've earned everyone one of them...We are having our team Christmas party Wednesday night. We are having an "ugly sweater" contest and I am sure that I will win it hands down.  Just have to dig deep into my bottom drawer to find a real "winner" from days gone by...In the event that I don't get the chance to write again until after the Christmas break I just want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season.  May God bless each and everyone of you and your families at this wonderful time of the year.  Till next time - GO THUNDERWOLVES!!!

RMAC Time

The T-Wolves closed out the non-conference portion of our 2008 schedule this past weekend with 2 wins in the Chuck Stephens Classic beating University of the Southwest on Friday night 74-55 and Texas-Permian Basin 59-49 on Saturday.  We have now won 6 games in a row and are 6-1 overall.  And now the fun really begins.  We begin RMAC play this coming weekend as we host Nebraska-Kearney on Friday and Chadron State on Saturday.  We have had some great matchups with Kearney in the past highlighted by last years championship game of the RMAC tournament which we were blessed to win 70-54.  Kearney was the coaches pre-season pick to win the RMAC East and as usual are a very talented team.  Chadron has proven themselves to be one of the highest scoring teams and one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the league so far so it should be a great weekend of basketball here at Massari Arena. 

Some additional items:   This is finals week for our players so we will have to balance our preparation for this weekend while also giving our team the time they need to study and rest...   Danielle Pritchett, our Senior post player from Stockton CA. will have knee surgery next week and will be lost for the remainder of the year. D had started the first two games of the year for us before going down early in game 2 with the knee injury...  Michelle Ambuul was named the RMAC Western Division Player of the week 2 weeks ago... Mary Rehfeld was named the RMAC Western Division Player of the week for this past week...  Mary was also named as the MVP of the Chuck Stephens Classic....  Other Thunderwolves making the All Tournament team this past weekend were Rachel Espinoza and Amanda Bartlett... In closing I just want to say hello to my beautiful wife Gina, who reminded me last week that I haven't mention her in my blog yet.

Till next time - "ALL FOR ONE"

Coach Drown 

Off To A Good Start

Well, we have played our first 5 games of the season and we are currently 4-1 on the year.  After losing our opener on the road at Montana State Billings we have rebounded to win 4 in a row including a really quality win this past Saturday against a very good Quincy University team.  Quincy came into the game with a 6-0 record and they returned all 5 starters from last years team that made to the second round of the NCAA tournament.  It was one of those games that was alot of fun to be involved in with 2 good teams going nose to nose and neither one backing down.  Rachel Espinoza, our Sophomore pt. guard hit 2 free throws with .8 seconds left in the game to give us the win.  We played this past weekend in the Metro State Tournament which was really nice for alot of our players.  We have alot of families in the area and after practicing on Thanksgiving morning at Dakota Ridge High School about half of our players got to spend the day with family.  Those of us who did not have family there were "adopted" for the day by Senior Jonnie Draper's family and we had a great home cooked Thanksgiving meal.  After our Friday game against Lewis University our Assistant Coach Leslie Haywood and her family fed us at their home so we got the chance to enjoy some time away from the hotel and eating out.  We are back in action this weekend as we host the Chuck Stephens Classic.  We will play the University of the Southwest on Friday night and Texas Permian Basin on Saturday.  Both games start at 6:00 P.M.  This is our last week of classes before we begin finals next week so it is a very busy time for our players. The last time I wrote I told you about the 3 recruits that we had signed early and I also mentioned that there was the possiblity that there might be one more to add to the list.  I am happy to report that we did sign that 4th player.  Her name is Caiti Forrester and she is currently a Senior at Boulder City High School.  Caiti is a 6'0" 4-3 player who is very athletic.  We saw her play for the first time last April in Phoenix at a tournament and then again this past July in Oregon.  We are very excited to have Caiti join our other three signees to give what we believe is an outstanding recruiting class.  Until next time - "ALL for One"!

It's Been Awhile

I had such good intentions to try and write something at least once a week.  Well you can see that I did not do a very good job of keeping up with my blog this fall.  I have taken some heat from certain people (I won't mention names) for my lack of "blog production" so I guess it's time to catch everybody up on some of the recent happenings. 

Let's start with our opening game this past Saturday (11-15-08), a disappointing 91-81 loss on the road to Montana State Billings.  I have to give Billings alot of credit.  They came out and played a great first half shooting over 40% from 3 and getting all over the glass and jumped out to a big first half lead.  We did play alot better the second half but unfortunately the hole that we dug for ourselves was to big to overcome.  We are back in action this coming weekend as we host the Al Kaly Shrine Classic.  We play Willamette University (OR.) at 5:00 P.M. Friday night and Cameron University (OK.) at 5:00 P.M. on Saturday. 

On the recruiting front the early signing period has gone GREAT for us.  We have signed 3 players so far:  Katrina Selsor a 6'0" Wing from Glenwood Springs High School, CO.,  Jocelyn Fox a 6'2" Post from Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins CO., and Erica Hicks a 5'10" Wing from Lakewood High School, CO. We expect to sign one more before the period ends on Wednesday and I will tell you about her when we get her paperwork in, hopefully tomorrow.

I promise to try and do a better job of being more consistent blogging but just in case that I'm not - Have a great Thanksgiving (and I had better add Christmas on to that too!)

Team First;

Coach Drown

"Team First" Week

We started classes this past Monday (8-25-08) and we used 4 of our 8 hours for the week for team building activities which we call "Team First" week.  Our first activity was an ice cream sundae bar and a card game called "Dub Bridge" which helped everyone start to get to know each other.  Tuesday night we broke our players up into 3 teams and had a treasure hunt.  They got clues and each team got sent to 6 different locations on campus to get more clues - the final clue sent them back to the locker room where the "prize" was located.  Thursday we tie-dyed t-shirts and Friday we had a team dinner and then the team dressed up like the volleyball players and they went to the volleyball game to cheer them on.  It was alot of fun and a great time for bonding. 

Hope your school year has gotten off to a great start.  Until next time -

Team First

Coach Drown

Ready To Go

Campus really exploded yesterday as the dorms opened to record enrollments.  Eleven of our thirteen players have now arrived on campus with the final two scheduled to be here Saturday.  Most of our players went out to dinner last night as they started catching up from the past summer.  Jonnie Draper one of our Seniors stopped by my office a couple of days ago and as we were talking she said she has never been so excited to get a year started as she is for this one.  I share the same feelings.  Expectations are running high in our program and our players and coaches are eagerly ready to get it going.  Classes start Monday and week one will be filled with meetings, workouts, and "Team First" activities. The NCAA only allows us to be with our players for 8 hours a week during the pre-season and we will use all 8 hours during week 1 .  Until next week - "All For One"!

Two Weeks Till Classes

Where has the summer gone.  Two weeks from today classes start but our campus really starting hopping today with the arrival of the volleyball team and both soccer teams.  Football arrived last week so the fall sports have officially started preparing for their seasons.  I'm kinda of jealous - wish we were starting up too. I have been doing alot of playbook work the past couple of weeks - I am really excited about the upcoming season. 

Tomorrow is our annual Athletic Department Lobster Bake.  It is really the first athletic event of the new year and gives our boosters the opportunity to meet the coaches especially the new ones.  One of the items that is going to be bid on is the right to call the first play of the football season.  It's probably best that I don't win that one because we would be throwing the bomb right off the start.  If I only get to call one play were going for the end zone.

I'm going to fly to Missouri Wednesday night for a little family vacation for a couple of days but I will be back in the office again next Monday.  Hope everyone is doing well and if you haven't already started classes enjoy the rest of your summer. 

Team First!

Back In Pueblo

Returned to Pueblo Thursday morning about 2:00 A.M. and the record breaking heat wave that we have been experiencing.  It was a little different than the beautiful 80 degree weather and cool breezes that we had the past three days in San Diego.  After you recruit in a city for a couple of years you begin to find places that you like to eat.  One of my favorites is a little doughnut shop called Rose's that is located in a strip mall just down the street from USD where our tournament is held.  It is a nice quiet little place where I can sit and eat these great cinnamon rolls while I read my paper.  The thing that amazes me most about this place is that the owners remember me coming in there even though it is only for 2 or 3 days each year - they really make you feel welcomed.  Now that summer recruiting is over I have sworn off doughnuts and have started up my healthy life style again.  But I know that next July we will be back out on the road again and I will end the summer in San Diego eating cinnamon roll at Rose's - you gotta love summer recruiting!!!

Still on the road

Another week of summer recruiting over and one more to go.  Coach Haywood and I will be at the Jr. National Tournament in Denver on Saturday and then off to San Diego on Sunday to finish up the summer.  To be that close to the beach and not be able to spend any time there is tough but  recruiting always trumps the beach.  The talent level is always good in San Diego and we are looking forward to watching some players that we have been following all summer and to hopefully find some new prospects for both the 2009 year and beyond.  For those of you who are playing in all these summer tournaments my hat is off to you.  I'm sure that you are worn out with all the games and travel.  Hang in there, we are just about to the end.

Coach Drown

Recruiting update

We are back in Pueblo this week after spending last week recruiting in Oregon City OR. and Kearney NE.  No major problems with our flights, hotels or rental cars which is always a positive thing.  I love going to summer tournaments but I do have to admit that after six consectutive days of sitting on bleachers and folding chairs it was good to relax in my recliner this past weekend.  We will be back out recruiting starting next Monday (July 21st) at the MSNM in Colorado Springs. After a couple of events in Denver, Coach Haywood and I will finish up the summer recruiting at the MSNM in San Diego.  It looks like our locker room will be finished by tomorrow which we are very excited about.  We are down to a little over 5 weeks to go before school starts back up for the fall - I can't wait to get our players back on campus and to get started with another season.  Until next time - Team First!

Coach Drown

Rookie Blogger

Yes, this is my first attempt at blogging.  I'm sure that my players, family, and friends are all shocked to see me writing this because by nature I am a "technically challenged' person but thanks to the guidance and patience of our excellent Sports Information Director, Anthony Sandstrom, I have decided to undertake this project. 

This blog is designed for our recruits.  It is my hope that it will give you a little better feel for our basketball program overall but also a more personal look at our players and our coaches that you can't get just by going onto our web site.

One of our major projects for the month of July is our locker room.  As many of you know we moved back into our renovated arena at the end of February.  The building is beautiful and it has been a real blessing for our program.  One thing we have not had the time to do, however, is to "fix up" our locker room the way we want it.  We brought someone in to give us a bid on doing all the things that we wanted to add and hopefully by the middle to late July our locker room will be finished just in time for our team to return to their new "Home" and it should be really nice!  I know that our players are going to love it.

If you are a high school player or a College coach July is defined by one word - "Recruiting".  Coach Haywood and I fly to Oregon on Saturday to attend the End of the Oregon Trail camp. Oregon is probably my favorite camp to recruit at during the summer.  The talent is unbelieveable and it seems like just about every D-II coach in the west is there.  It makes for a great week of basketball.  We will stay in Oregon until Wednesday afternoon and then fly back to Denver but we won't be heading home.  Instead, we are going to jump into the car and drive to Kearney NE. that night so we can recruit in Kearney on that Thursday and Friday.  Thats what week one looks like. 

Have a great 4th of July weekend and for those of you heading to Portland - I look forward to seeing you play there.  Have Fun!!!

Team First;

Coach Drown