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The Kings played top teams from New
York (Hamburg and Buffalo), as well as Caha, Ohio, and Reston, Va.,
at the Cleveland tournament. They won three games and tied one. They
played between Friday evening and Sunday, earning the tournament
title.
The Kings entered the tournament
holding the East Coast Division and the Central Illinois Hockey
League titles.
Rik Stone coaches the team. Assistant
coaches are John Flahive and Sonny Adams.
Weekend results
Springfield 4, Caha, Ohio 0
Springfield 1, Hamburg, N.Y. 1
Springfield 5, Buffalo, N.Y. 0
Springfield
3, Reston, Va. 1
[LDN] |
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Just the third
Redbird head coach in recorded history, Yopp was 25-83 (.231) in her
four-year career as the Illinois State coach and has posted a career
record of 65-123 (.346), which includes a three-year stint at
Portland State.
The 70-54 loss
against Creighton at the 2003 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference
Tournament ended the Redbirds' season with a 7-21 record overall and
5-13 in the league. It was the first trip to the event for Illinois
State in five seasons.
"Although the
development of our program has not progressed like we planned, it
hasn't been due to the lack of effort," said Weisenburger. "I want
to recognize the commitment and dedication that Jenny Yopp and her
staff invested in this program."
Yopp believes that
the work she and her assistants have done will help take the team to
a higher level.
"I have always said,
and I still believe, that Illinois State has what it takes to
produce a successful women's basketball program," said Yopp. "While
I am proud of the things we were able to accomplish, I recognize
that the level of success on the court wasn't what everyone wanted
or expected. I want to thank the many, many people in the program,
on campus and in the community who supported our efforts."
While also frustrated
with the results, Weisenburger applauded Yopp's efforts.
[to top of second column in this
article] |
"Jenny has been an
asset to our department, but the bottom line is we haven't won or
shown consistent development and improvement," said Weisenburger. "I
know that has been a source of great frustration for her and her
team. Jenny is a bright young coach and I thank her for her efforts
here at Illinois State and wish her the best. The task to find
Jenny's successor begins immediately."
Yopp was hired in
1999 to succeed retiring coaching legend Jill Hutchison. At Portland
State, Yopp led the Vikings from Division II status to second place
in the Big Sky Conference in just three years. When she took the
helm at Portland State, Yopp was the youngest Division I coach in
the nation.
Before beginning her
head coaching career at Portland State, Yopp was the top assistant
coach at Tulane. During her tenure, the Green Wave reached the NIT
in 1994, then the NCAA Tournament in 1995 and 1996.
After receiving her bachelor's degree in
health and physical education from North Carolina in 1989, Yopp was
a graduate assistant coach at Maine, helping the Black Bears win the
1990 and 1991 North Atlantic Conference championships and reach the
1991 NIT.
[Thomas Lamonica, Illinois State University] |
|
Spots are available on the
Iowa-Illinois Waves, located at Miles, Iowa (just north of Clinton)
and on the Iowa-Illinois Jam, located in Burlington, Iowa.
Tryouts to fill these squads will be March 30 at East Central High
School in Miles, Iowa, and at Cardinal High School in Eldon,
Iowa. The ASI Team Illinois squad, based in Danville, will include
athletes from northern, central, eastern and southern Illinois.
To obtain a tryout spot, contact Mark
McLaughlin, ASI national director, at (712) 755-7756 or by e-mail at
asiinc@harlannet.com for
information and a tryout application. Cost of the tryout is $25 and
includes tryout T-shirt. Application deadline is March 28 for the
March 30 eastern Iowa tryouts and April 10 for the April 13 Danville
tryout.
The players trying out will go through
an intense day of individual skill, drill, small group and team
evaluation to determine eligibility for a team invitation. At the
conclusion of the day, ASI coaches will explain the summer travel
program that can include up to 60 games of competition across the
Midwest and in national tournament events in Alaska, Washington
state, Iowa, Illinois and Antigua.
Coaches include Troy Noble, Danville
Community College assistant, directing the Team Illinois squad; Tom
Gruenwald of East Central High School, coaching the Waves; and Jon
Schmitz of Burlington High School, coaching the Jam.
Ambassador Sports, based in Harlan,
Iowa, directs 16 regional and national tournament events; leads a
Positional Camp at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa;
prints the Iowa Prep Report basketball magazine; and will lead more
than 300 athletes grades 7-12 on 33 national and junior select
travel teams in Alaska, California, Illinois, Indiana, Hawaii,
Kansas, Nebraska and Washington state this summer.
Any male athlete grades nine through 12
is eligible to try out for a spot on one of these teams. For more
information, see
www.ambassadorsports.com.
[to top of second column in this article] |
 Three-I Super
Shootout in Danville
Athletes from Iowa, Illinois and
Indiana will be
dribbling, cutting, screening and defending their way through the
Ambassador Sports International Three-I Super Shootout, a two-day
high school boys basketball tournament roaring into town July 12-13.
Sponsored by Danville Area Community
College and head men's basketball coach John Spezia, the Three-I
Super Shootout is designed as a 32-team high school boys tournament
directed by ASI. Teams from Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana and Wisconsin
are already expected to attend.
ASI National Director Mark McLaughlin
of Harlan, Iowa, who with partner Damon Vogt of Columbus, Neb.,
spent three days in Danville in late February, said the site is a
perfect, high-energy location for the Three-I, so named after the
legendary sports history of Danville. The Three-I is one of ASI's 16
local, regional and national tournament events that stretch from
Alaska and Washington state on the West Coast to Iowa, Nebraska and
Illinois in the Midwest and Antigua of the Caribbean in the East.
"Our association with coach Spezia,
working with us on the Antigua tournament, brought us to Danville
and gave us pause to consider the community as a natural regional
tournament site," McLaughlin said. "We believe, with the
interest present here, that as early as 2004 it will become a
four-day national tournament site."
McLaughlin noted that the ASI Midwest
Links, ASI Midwest Wolfpack, ASI Midwest Lancers, Iowa-Illinois Jam
and Iowa-Illinois Waves, plus four ninth-grade select teams, would
be committed to the Danville tournament along with the ASI Illinois
Select and Indiana Select teams. Entry is open to any high school,
AAU select or travel squad in the Midwest, with registration cost at
$400 for the two-day, six-game guarantee event.
Registrations are limited to 32 teams
of high school boys and 16 teams of ninth-grade boys.
"Danville will be an outstanding,
mark-it-on-your calendar date for us each summer, with this July
becoming the beginning of a beautiful friendship with the people of
Illinois and its basketball players and coaches," McLaughlin said.
"Our kids in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri are intrigued about the
game over here, and we can't wait to get over for a taste of it."
For more
information on the ASI Three-I Super Shootout, visit
www.ambassadorsports.com
and call (712) 755-7756.
[News release] |
