Lady Eagles look for another season of success

This archived article was written by: Micah Iverson

After a stellar season where the CEU lady Eagles went 23-8, coaches Dave Paur and Dan Allen have their team ready for the upcoming season in the SW Athletic Conference.
Daily practices the past couple of months should help Eagles be ready for live action.
Nine players from last year’s roster turned the page in their respective lives and are either playing basketball at different colleges or taken the leap into marriage. One would think after losing the number of athletes as they did that they would struggle to put together another squad to contend for the all-coveted SWAC title. After yet another great recruiting off-season, Coach Paur hopes his 30th year of coaching will turn out to be the best ever.
After the last issue of The Eagle, we learned where last year’s players went from the men’s basketball team, but what about the women’s BB team? Where are they now?
There were two first team all-conference players from the lady Eagles last year. The Warburton sisters lit up the SWAC and both were in the top 10 in scoring. Each earned a spot on the all-conference team. This year, both are playing at D-I colleges. Cassie chose the route of Cedar City and is playing at Southern Utah University. The younger, Chelsey, is playing for the Wildcats of Weber State University. Their offensive output will have to be made up for on this year’s younger team.
Former starting center Cheryl Grant joined Cassie Warburton at SUU and should throw the competition around like she did during her CEU career. SWAC honorable mention Lindsey Arnoldus will test her speed while playing at Colorado State at Colorado Springs. Shooting Guard Chelsey Jackson was recruited all the way from North Dakota and will test her superior shot at Minot State, a Division II college.
The schedule for the 2004-2005 lady Eagles will be a little bit different this season. Last year we saw back to back games on Fridays and Saturdays. This season, each team will only play each other three times instead of four stead of four times like last season. Therefore this year there will only be 18 league games. They will open up their pre-season at a tournament held on November 3 at Dixie State College. League play starts a month later on December 3 when the Rebels of Dixie State visit the BDAC.
Coaches Paur and Allen pride themselves on their team’s pressing defense. He says teams hate to play the lady Eagles because of their style of defense. Last year Westminster came to CEU during the pre-season and will not be back this season because they couldn’t handle the stifling full-court press perfected by the lady eagles. They are the only team in the West who incorporate this type of defense. More foreign players will be seen this year and Paur says the competition in the SWAC this season will surpass that of last year. Paur stated that athletically they are better than they have ever been. With that said, the lady Eagles should again be amongst the leaders of the SWAC and should contend for the conference title.
With the increased competition this year in the SWAC in both the women’s and men’s divisions, the BDAC will be on fire during the 2004-2005 season. With a few less games this season, it will give all the CEU fans an excuse to come out and cheer on the blue and gold.