Santa Clara Women's Basketball and Coach Mountain

2009-02-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hey Bronco Fans! Hope everyone is doing well. We are approaching the final weekend of conference play with our trip to the Northwest. We play the #1 and #2 teams in the conference to close out the regular season; Gonzaga and Portland. Coming off of our first conference victory against USF the team seems excited and rejuvenated. Confidence is a wonderful thing! For those of you that missed it, what a great night. It was our senior night highlighting Sara, Liz and Claire. All three had their family members with them and all three contributed to a much deserved victory. We ended our home season with our Pink Zone night! This event helps the WBCA along with the Kay Yow foundation in support of finding a cure for Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer research. It was a huge success and I was very proud of the community for their efforts in support of the event. It was also the largest attendance of the year of over 1200 people.
I want to thank all of our coffee club and fast break members for all their support throughout the season. We look forward to a bright future ahead.
I hope to see all of you in Vegas! It looks to be quite an event!

2009-01-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that you had a chance to relax and enjoy your families. We started off the New Year the right way with a WIN against cross town rivials San Jose State. The team has been working very hard over break improving each day preparing us for the start of Conference play. We open this Thursday with Saint Mary's and then travel to San Diego on Saturday. We invite all of the Bronco Bench members and our Fast Break Club to our pregame social and chalk talk this Thursday at 6pm.

I want to thank all of our Fast Break and Coffee Club members for attending our events. We really enjoy getting to know all of you and making you a part of our Santa Clara Family.

Lastly, I hope you have had a chance to come and see us play recently. I think we would all admit we are improving and getting better. The return of Maggie Goldenberger has helped our inside play. Our young point guards are healthy and starting to understand their roles. Our Seniors have continued to contribute and are stepping up their point production as league approaches and Lena Gipson continues to dominate down low drawing double teams most games. Lena is ranked 34th in the country with rebounds per game. We also expect Becky Goll to return in the next few weeks which will also give us added depth.

Well, I wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope it is filled with joy, peace and everything you could wish for. We will see you all at a game real soon!

Update on Upcoming Events: Jan. 8th Bronco Bench Pregame vs. SMC in University Suite

Jan. 15th Pack the house night! (Everyone wears white) 1st 1,000 fans will receive Bronco Basketball Rally Towels!

Feb. 14th Alumni weekend and Melissa King Night! (We are going to honor her jersey)

Feb. 21st Pink Zone night and our Senior Night!

Take care,

Coach Mountain

Hello Bronco Fans!

2008-11-07T17:55:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Halloween last Friday! It has been a whirlwind around here these last few weeks! Practice has been going on since Oct. 17 and the team is progressing nicely. It has been a little challenging implementing a new playbook and philosophy with the players, but just this last week it seemed that things are starting to click for our team. We have our 1st test on Tuesday, November 11 at 7 pm against the Melbourne Roos. We then head down south to take on the Fullerton Titans on Friday night to open the season. Our home opener is against Minnesota of the Big Ten Conference on November 16th. We look forward to a great crowd from our BAWSI friends and our camper reunion!

Speaking of next Tuesday...we will have our first of 4 monthly Coffee Club meetings at Mission City Coffee Roasting Co. (2221 The Alameda, San Jose, CA)on the Alameda at 10 AM. The future dates for the Coffee Club are December 9, January 13, and February 10. It is $75 for all 4 dates or $20 for a single Coffee Club. Along with the Coffee Club we are having a monthly Bronco Luncheon. It will be held at Mondo Burrito (3300 The Alameda, at the corner of Benton, Santa Clara, CA 95050) from 11:30AM -12:30 PM. The cost is $150 for the Bronco Luncheon on November 17, December 15, January 26, and February 23 or $40 for a single Bronco Luncheon.

Tuesday can't come soon enough and we hope everyone can come check us out! See you then!

Countdown to 1st Practice - 7 days!

2008-10-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

7 days until we finally get to start practice! Our girls have been working hard throughout the first month of school with conditioning, weight lifting, and individual workouts.

On the verge of practice, we have had a couple special events this week. First, we had the 1st Annual SCU Women's Basketball Golf Tournament on Monday! It was a beautiful day at Eagle Ridge Golf Club . Thank you to all those who attended and supported us out there. We had a great beginning to our golf tournament and if you couldn't make it this year we hope to see you next year!

On Tuesday, we went to the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI) Luncheon at HP Pavilion. Brandi Chastain, Marlene Bjornsrund, and the rest of the BAWSI staff have really been an inspiration to us as a staff for what they do every week at local schools to turn girls into confident, responsible, and active young people. Marlene also surprised us by honoring our team with the 1st Best of BAWSI Award. Our team earned this award because our players are helping out at 2 different schools(Goss Elementary and Bachrodt Elementary) twice a week.

We hope you all are excited for the season! We have our exhibition game against the Melbourne Roos on Nov. 11th and our 1st home game on Nov. 16th against the Minnesota Golden Gophers! Season tickets are available now! For a Family Plan ticket package, you get 5 general admission tickets to every game for only $100! This includes games against Minnesota, Nevada, Boise State, West Virginia, and all of our West Coast Conference rivals!

School has started!

2008-09-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hello Bronco Fans!

Santa Clara University is back in full swing with today being the 1st day of classes for the fall quarter. We had a 'Welcome Weekend' Pep Rally for the freshmen to welcome them to SCU. It was a great start to the quarter as we had over 1,500 freshmen attend. Assistant Coach Leigh Gregory got the crowd fired up before the Women's Basketball team performed a dance routine that was inspired by their summer workouts with the Strength & Conditioning coach, Joe Siara. It was a huge hit with the new Santa Clara students!

Last time I updated you, J.R. had her baby and both are doing very well. With J.R. out for a little while, we have a new assistant coach that has come in to help us right away. Tamara Inoue (prounounced like 'in the way') comes to us from Austrailia where she spent the last 4 years coaching the Melbourne Roos. Tamara brings even more knowledge and energy to our great staff, along with some technology savvy and a fun accent (even though she is an American!)

With everything that has been going on, we managed to find time to organize a team retreat out in Capitola (near Santa Cruz). We got to stay at an amazing beach house that was right on the Capitola Pier and looked out directly upon the ocean. Tamara and Leigh organized our very own 'Amazing Race' where we divided the team up into 3 groups of 5 and gave them different clues/challenges throughout Capitola. Once we finished the race, I explained to the team we had done this challenge to show them that everyone plays a part in our team. Whether it was Lena serving up ice cream while everyone tried to find a reluctant customer or Alyssa, Liz, and Kimee racing out in the ocean to find a clue, we are all part of a team and each one of us is an 'Essential Piece' of the puzzle. That goes for all our friends, family members, teachers, and fans too. You are all an 'Essential Piece' to our season and we need you to come out and support us throughout the season.

Speaking of supporting us thoughout the season, we have finally released our schedule for the 2008-09 Season and are really excited for it. We are going to be facing some tough competition but it will help us come post-season play. Some of the non-conference schools we will be facing at home are Minnesota, Boise State, Nevada, and West Virginia. On the road we face Utah, UCSB, UC Davis and possibly the University of Miami in the Miami Tournament over Thanksgiving.

One last thing that I would like to mention is that Santa Clara University's very own Tracey Walker is playing professionally over in Iceland. Tracey joins Ashley Graham and Yasemine Kimyacioglu who are both currently playing professionally overseas. For more on Tracey, read here http://santaclarabroncos.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/090508aab.html

Hurry up and get involved in the 1st Annual Women's Basketball Golf Tournament! Only 2 weeks away! Contact Blake Malcolm for more detail or if you would like to join...408-554-5018

2008-09-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hello Bronco Fans!

We have some very exciting news to announce! Assistant Coach J.R. Payne gave birth to a baby girl last night! Aliyah was born at 7:17 PM and at a whopping 9 pounds, 21 inches. Everyone is healthy and doing great!

Our girls just finished summer school last week and get ready for more good news…our team GPA during the summer was 3.64 and no one received lower than a B grade. These girls really worked hard and the grades reflected it.

Speaking of school, it is just around the corner. We are on the quarter system so we actually do not start until September 22. It is a very busy time for our girls with class, homework, and workouts. We will also be working with the Bay Area Women Sports Initiative at 2 local elementary schools to work with young girls and promote sports and exercise. The people who organize BAWSI are fantastic individuals and they are great role models for all women.

One last thing before I sign off until the next blog, make sure you sign up for our Golf Tournament on October 6th at Eagle Ridge Golf Club. If you have any questions or want to know more details about the tournament, please contact Blake Malcolm. He can answer any of your questions for you.

Until the next time….Go Broncos!

2008-08-05T08:55:00.001-07:00

Hello again Bronco Fans!

August is here! It was a great month of July with all the tournaments and great competition everywhere we went. J.R., Leigh and myself traveled all over to watch some of the most talented players at their best.

With August under way, the Broncos are back in training. Summer school started last week and we have all of our players here studying and working hard. We do have new Broncos to welcome here and what a great group they are. They all have come in with a hard working attitude to get ready for the upcoming season. The new Men's and Women's Basketball Strength Coach, Joe Siara has the Broncos working out hard with his basketball specific workouts. He is definitely going to be an asset to the program and we are excited for him to be here.

2008-07-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Bronco Fans!

Well we just completed our first round of recruiting at the various summer tournaments around the country. We saw some great talent at each of the tournaments that we attended. Right now we get a chance to catch our breath as we get a few days before we go out again and check more tournaments. Traveling sure takes it out of you, so it feels good to be back home.

Speaking of home, I received some great news upon my return. Our Spring GPA was the highest it has been in almost 3 years! Our team finished with a Term GPA of 3.32 and Cum GPA of 3.07. Our freshman finished with above a 3.0 GPA! All our players worked extremely hard and remained eligible throughout the year. This was our first year with our Men's and Women's Basketball Academic Support Coordinator, Jason Stock, who does a tremendous job working with our team. Jason deserves a big congratulations as well!

Well just a quick update as we head back out to the summer tournaments, but we hope you all are enjoying the summer and staying cool!

GO BRONCOS!

Greetings from Santa Clara!

2008-07-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome Broncos Fans!

I wanted to get a chance to introduce myself and to wish everyone a great summer! July is here and my staff and I are so looking forward to watching the action in the summer tournaments! July is always a great time of year for us coaches as we get a chance to scout all the great talent around the country! Here at Santa Clara we have had a few months to settle down and get to know our new team! For those of you that do not know my staff, here is a quick introduction:

JR Payne who most recently was at Boise State. JR and I have had previous experience together at Gonzaga and I am so excited to have her join me and coordinate all of our recruiting. JR has experience in the WCC as both a former player and coach. She is extremely knowledgable and first and foremost a great person! She wants our student athletes to succeed on and off the court and for me this fits right in with my mission. We want to produce well rounded individuals who will be positive members of our society! Someone who gives back to the sport and does what is right for women sports! Great role models!

Leigh Gregory who played at Cal, graduated from Carondelet High School! An East Bay native and great player from this area! She recently started her coaching stint at the University of Denver before returning home to be a Bronco. Leigh brings great enthusiasm and is well connected in this area! I am so excited to have her on staff. She brings passion and a love for the game! She is a young coach with a great future ahead of her!

Blake Malcolm who serves as our Director of Basketball Operations returns to our staff after one year with the previous staff. Blake is more organized then an entire office of people. He is hard working, intelligent and very compassionate to the team. He was in charge of putting together our first successful camp and for me personally I don't think I would have survived the first few weeks without Blake! He is a blessing for all of us!

Speaking of camp, we finished camp last week where we had about 105 campers of all ages! Camp was very successful and we are looking forward to it again next year! I am hoping with allotted time we will have multiple camps as well as additional team camps and tournaments! Fun times ahead!

Well, there is just a quick hello and introduction of my staff. We are so excited about the future of Santa Clara basketball! I am so blessed to be surrounded by great people! Our players are excited and they are ready to embark on a new era of basketball! Santa Clara has great tradition and the coaches and players before me are responsible for this! I hope to be a part of something very special and for those of you in the community I want you to be proud to be associated with our program! Come out and support our team! You will be impressed with the effort these girls put forth and more importantly you will be proud of who they are and what they stand for!

"Success isn't something you chase. It's something you have to put forth the effort for constantly. Then maybe it'll come to you when you least expect it"
-Michael Jordan

Take care!

Jennifer Mountain

"Go Broncos"

2008-06-11T16:16:00.001-07:00