SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. -  Roybell Baez begins his second season as the coach of the Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team and this year’s team has plenty of talent as they just finished up two weeks of official practice.
The Cougars will wrap up the scrimmage season on Friday (Oct. 17) and then will have a couple weeks to get ready for the upcoming season when they open at home Halloween afternoon at 3 p.m. against Snow College.
Before that, the Cougars will have a Cougar Madness, a meet and greet basketball season on Wednesday, October 22 at 6:30 p. m.
Noah Jones, a redshirt sophomore from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said this team has been putting in plenty of work to get ready for the season.
“Practices have been good. We compete often,” Jones said. “We have a lot of competitive players. Coach started us off early on with like getting everybody on the same page. We have a lot of guys, a lot of camaraderie all throughout the team, all 15, and practices have been going good.”
The Cougars have been hard at it with several scrimmages and Jones has seen a marked improvement after all the scrimmages.
“The scrimmages have been good. Obviously, we are flowing as a team,” Jones said. “I think we won our first two and lost against Southwestern Illinois. That was just figuring out how flowing as a team. The jamborees have been fun. It’s been fun getting on the floor with our full team against other guys. We are looking forward to that and having a big show Friday (in the Colorado jamboree).”
Jones added that the team is getting excited for the season opener against Snow and Dodge City Community College Oct. 31 and November 1.
“The entire team is excited. Our coaches are excited. We’ve been putting in a lot of work and we are excited and we are ready to get out there.”
WNCC has nine sophomores on the team this year, seven of which played a year ago. The seven that saw action a year ago include Jones, the 6-5 guard from Louisiana; Kellon Harris, the 6-2 guard from Scottsbluff; Isaiah St. Preux, a 6-1 guard from Miramar, Florida; Witold Czerenkiewicz, a 6-5 forward from Poland; Toms Linis, a 6-7 forward from Latvia; Kendrick Preston, a 6-8 center from Miami, Florida; and Dorin Ngerma, a 6-6 wing from Spain.
The other two include Max Orchard, a 6-4 guard from Loma, Colorado, who red-shirted last year, and Willie Wilson, a 6-2 guard from North Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wilson played two seasons ago and took last year off, but came back to school this year.
The freshmen include six talented players. They include Xavier Kirkpatrick, a 6-3 guard from Ocala, Florida; Melchi Egbeyemi, a 6-2 guard from London, England; Viktor Lukic-Gavric, a 6-3 guard from Sweden; Amare Jackson, a 6-3 guard from Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nehemiah Jean Charles, a 6-6 forward from Hollywood, Florida; and Ocean Brobbey, a 6-6 forward from London, England.
Jones said there is plenty of talent on the team this year as they look to improve upon last year’s 14-17 record.
“We have a lot of talent,” Jones said. “The entire team, honestly, is very talented. Like I said, we are just excited to get out there, show the world who the Cougars are.”
And, the public can get a first look at the Cougars at next Wednesday’s (October 22) Cougar Madness that begins at 6:30 p.m. with a meet and greet session and fun activities.

WNCC men’s soccer begin regional playoffs Saturday

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team begins defense of their Region IX championship from last year when they open the Region IX tournament on Saturday in the first round of the playoffs.
WNCC, who earned the sixth seed, will travel to face third-seeded Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, at 10 a.m. The Cougars enter with a 3-6-5 record while going 3-4-2 in conference action. Northwest is 9-4-1 overall and 5-3-1 in conference.
First year men’s coach Eseah Ingram said this is the second season and records mean very little as he likes his team’s chances entering the tourney.
“We gotta take risks and execute,” Ingram said. “If we play with some heart and a bit of arrogance, we can get a result. I believe in my boys.”
The two teams faced each on October 4 at Landers Soccer Complex and the Cougars fell to the Trappers 3-0 in a match that saw Northwest’s Shay Lonergan score twice in the first half.
Ingram said they know plenty about what kind of team they will face Saturday in Northwest.
“We know plenty. Solid stretch end of season for them and they’ve earned their position in the standings,” he said. “Rob’s always got his teams ready, but I feel the same about my team. My boys will be ready. It’s the shot up or shut up part of year. I’m confident my boys will show up.”
A win Saturday will move the team into the semifinals against Casper College, who earned a first-round bye as the number two seed. Otero earned the top seed and will face the winner of the other first-round game between Laramie County Community College and Central Wyoming College. That game will be played Saturday in Riverton, Wyoming.
The finals are slated for November 1 at the site of the higher seed with the winner qualifying for the national tournament in Daytona Beach, Florida, November 16-22.
Ingram isn’t worried about anything except this week’s opponent. WNCC enters the contest having scored 21 goals the entire year, but has a team that has plenty of players that can score. Leading the team is sophomore Alvaro Abeal, who has netted five goals this season.
Oscar Molina has made four goals, while Tomoaki Kamiya and Pau Vera Montoya each have three goals.
While the Cougar men are in the playoffs, the Cougar women just missed the playoffs. The women’s regional tournament will be going on the same time. First round games on the women’s side has two games on Saturday with Gillette at Casper and Northwest at Central Wyoming. The winners of those two games will face Laramie County and Western Wyoming Community College, who earned first-round byes as the top two seeds.