The BYUH basketball team is still third in the regional poll, just behind No. 1 Cal State San Bernardino (19-4) and No. 2 Humboldt State (21-3). Seasiders’ goals
Broering: Center of Attention
stay the sameBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comThe Seasiders are 14-3 and split with Hawaii-Hilo -- who dropped a spot to No. 8 -- during the polling period. The poll is important to the Seasiders because it determines who will be invited to the regional tournament.
The Seasiders will almost certainly get in as the Pacific West Conference champion, but they are still looking for more. Just because they lost Scott Salisbury, whom Wagner believes could be back to start the regional, it's no reason to circle the wagons. It is more of a reason to keep winning.
"Our goal is still to host the regional," guard Spencer Lynn said. "If we win these last four games I think we can do it. We kind of need it without Scott because we are tough to beat at home. We have a rhythm in this gym, we know what to expect, and without Scott we will need every advantage we can get."
The Seasiders played Montana State-Billings last night and will close out the season at home against Western New Mexico once and Chaminade twice. Although some of the players are daring to dream, coach Ken Wagner is looking at clinching the conference title before looking ahead.
"It would be nice to host," Wagner said. "But we have to win the next two games to clinch the conference first."
The team most perplexed about the regional rankings this week -- somebody feels snubbed every week -- has to be the Yellowjackets, who dropped out of the 10th spot despite coming to Hawaii with a 10-game winning streak.
Injuries may have played a part in it though, as the Yellowjackets have had only eight players on their roster during the run and lost another -- Bill Day -- to a knee injury Tuesday in a loss to BYUH. The loss was after the polling period.
Hilo searching: Hawaii-Hilo is inching ever closer to finding a replacement for volleyball coach Sharon Peterson, who retired after last season.
The school received 57 applications and is sorting through them to decide how many applicants deserve interviews. Athletic director Kathleen McNally hopes to get through that round by next week, but has not looked closely at any of them to remain impartial during the hiring phase.
She can say she is very pleased in the interest, which she expected despite changing the job description to include asking the new hire to be responsible for fund-raising.
"I am very pleased," McNally said. "I know it's a good program, we have some problems, but there is a lot of history and potential here."
She never believed that the change would hold down the number of applicants.
"If someone doesn't want to apply for that reason they probably don't belong here," McNally said. "I don't think in today's society that asking coaches to generate money is unusual. Some D-I programs do it, the world just doesn't have enough money anymore."
Seasiders face test: The BYUH softball team is on top of the PacWest in softball, but it will find out where it really stands this weekend.
The Seasiders only won two conference games last year but retooled over the winter and have jumped out to a 6-0 start -- with wins over Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific and Montana State-Billings but host Hawaii-Hilo tomorrow.
Hilo finished a game behind Western New Mexico for the conference championship last year, and will get a chance to atone for one of the losses tonight, when it visits Chaminade, before heading to Laie.
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