ROOT Sports serves as a local and regional network for sports broadcasting around
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, reaching 3.4 million homes.
Regionally, ROOT is operated by DIRECTV in four different regional networks, featured in over 22 states and reaches 13 million households. The network has exclusive programming and distribution partnerships with over 25 teams and conferences including the Northwest region, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and the Southwest.
ROOT sports is home of the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Sounders
FC, Portland Timbers, and Gonzaga Bulldogs, but most importantly broadcasts for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the Western Oregon University Wolves.
Many students have already experienced a ROOT sports game including the women’s
basketball game on Jan. 24. The men will be televised on Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. when they take on Saint Martin’s in Lacey, Washington. These games are a part of a 10-game GNAC package from December through February.
Students who work during the basketball games get to experience working with a
sports broadcasting network. KWOU Station Manager Iain Dexter had his own positive
experience broadcasting the game with the ROOT crew.
“The experience working with ROOT Sports was incredible,” Dexter said. “Getting
the opportunity to meet and work with them was exciting as a college student. The guys worked with were helpful and easy going, making the experience more enjoyable.
“Having ROOT come to Western is great for the exposure of our school and students,” Dexter said. “Having a game air in the entire Northwest will hopefully bring more students to our school and bring us more opportunities for exposure.”
The next opportunity for Western exposure will be the men’s basketball game on Feb. 11 but anyone can watch GNAC games throughout February on TV depending on their cable package.
Western Oregon men’s basketball team showed their true colors in an impressive win against their conference rivals Saint Martin’s University last Thursday in the New PE Building. This Great Northwest Athletic Conference win extended the Wolves home win streak to nine games as they found themselves on top by 14 (82-68) at the conclusion of the game.
“Tonight’s win feels good,” said head coach Brady Bergson.
Thursday, Jan. 15, the Wolves doused the Saints with shots from beyond the arc hitting 12-23.
Late in the fourth, four Wolves players contributed to make five straight three-pointers in a row.
Guard Jordan Wiley made two of the five in a row and also shot 5-of-9 from beyond the arc for the night. Wiley led Western Oregon (14-3, 6-1 GNAC) offensively with 21 points and a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line.
Fellow guard Julian Nichols continued his outstanding free-throw performance for the season by hitting a perfect 10-for-10 from the line; he also contributed 17 points and seven assists.
Guard Devon Alexander tallied up 12 points of his own to help the Wolves. Forwards Andy Avgi, Lewis Thomas and Marwan Sarhan held down the paint.
Avgi scored in double figures for the 15th time this season with 16 points. Thomas put in major minutes playing for 28 and contributing seven points of his own. Sarhan came up big on the boards to grab a game-high tying six rebounds.
“It felt good,” Wiley said. “The ball was going in tonight so that is always nice. We have a nice zone play that gets me open quite a bit and Saint Martin’s was shagging off a little bit resulting in a 2-on-1 on the back side that turns into a wide open shot for me or one more pass results in a wide-open shot for the next guy.
“My teammates did a good job finding me,” he added.
During the win, the Wolves combined to shoot 24-for-50 (48 percent) from the field.
That number improved in the second half, 12-for-22 (54.5 percent).
The Wolves made half of their shots from behind the three-point line 12-for-23. They impressively made 22-of-26 (84.6 percent) of their shots at the free throw line. The Wolves have won four straight games and 12 of their last 13 games, which contributed to their unbeaten home stretch of nine.
“Each week is a new week,” Bergeson said. “The streaks are for the fans and the people on the outside to enjoy and talk about. We don’t talk about it. For us, the streak ends at the end of the week.”
Western Oregon traveled across the border Thursday, Jan. 22 to play the highest scoring team in NCAA Division II, Simon Fraser of Burnaby, British Columbia before traveling to Bellingham, Wash. to take on Western Washington University Saturday, Jan. 24.
The men and women of the Western Oregon track team showed just how hard they’ve been working during the offseason in what was a historic day at Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle for the teams’ opening meet of the year, the UW Indoor Preview.
The highlight of the afternoon for the men was when the 4×800 meter relay team comprised of Brady Beagley, Josh Hanna, Sam Naffziger and Josh Dempsey put together a school-record breaking time of 7:54.22 en route to a 5th place finish.
Meanwhile, Cody Warner posted the second fastest time in school history in the 60-meter dash, running it in 6.96 seconds.
On the women’s side, Stephanie Stuckey set a school record herself, completing the 1,000-meter run in 3:02.96, narrowly beating the previous record by 1 second, to take home 16th place.
“I felt great. It was one of the first good races that I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t even know what the record was because I didn’t want to worry about time. This season, I’m all about having fun and running well. That race was a great example of how important that is,” Stuckey said.
She added, “I’m really looking forward to seeing my teammates compete and represent Western. Being a student athlete is hard. Heck, being a student is hard. It’s all about doing what you love. If you don’t love it, it gets really hard to keep going.”
In the 600-meter run, Suzanne Van De Grift finished in 1:41.14, not only cracking the top 10 all time at WOU, but also finishing 4th amongst non-Division 1 or club runners.
It was a big day for the throwers, as Emmi Collier and Alex Green finished 11th and 15th, respectively. Green’s throw of 12.45 meters was a personal best and with that, she joins Collier in the all-time top 10 for women’s indoor shot put.
The Wolves will take a week off before they look to build on their performance Jan. 30, at the Husky Invite in Seattle.
The women’s basketball team traveled north this past week to face a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference contenders at Western Washington and Simon Fraser University. Unfortunately, the Wolves returned home without a victory as their losing skid extended to five games.
The Wolves faced a tough task Thursday, Jan. 15, taking on a Western Washington team that has only lost twice at home this season.
The Wolves were able to battle early on to keep it close, but the Vikings (10-5, 4-2 GNAC) simply had too much of an inside presence and out-rebounded the Wolves 32-18 while outscoring them 42-30 in points in the paint en route to a 80-64 victory.
The lead ballooned to 32 points midway through the second half but the Wolves (4-11, 1-6 GNAC) were able to close strong, holding Western Washington to a mere 10 points during a 26-10 scoring run.
Forwards Angie Titus and Sami Osborne led the Wolves in scoring with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
On Saturday, Jan.17, Western Oregon traveled across the border to Canada to face the Simon Fraser Clan.
The Wolves faced a tough test having to play against the GNAC’s leading scorer Erin Chambers (22.9 ppg) without their own leading scorer, forward Dana Goularte, who missed her fourth straight contest due to injury.
The Clan (9-6, 5-2 GNAC) jumped out to an early lead, opening the game on a 16-3 scoring run, before the Wolves settled in and closed the gap to nine points by halftime.
They carried that momentum over into the second half and managed to close the gap to four points before Simon Fraser answered with a back-breaking 11-0 run that pushed the lead to 15 points.
The lead grew to as many as 23 and the Clan eventually took home the 76-56 victory.
Forward Sami Osborne once again stepped up in Goularte’s absence, leading the team with 15 points and grabbing four rebounds while guard Jordan Mottershaw chipped in 12 points.
The Wolves will return home this week as they played host to Seattle Pacific on Thursday and Montana State-Billings on Saturday in Monmouth.
For most sports franchises, the two most exciting dates on the calendar are the championship game and draft day. With MLS moving more toward the youth academy system of talent development used in the English Premier League and others like it, the super draft may soon be a thing of the past.
For now though, 2015’s draft was still front and center in the growing league. The creation of two new expansion teams, Orlando City SC and New York City FC, in addition to the recent restructuring of Chivas USA, combined to create higher than usual demand for the available young players.
The Super Draft structure is similar to drafts in other American sports and the players are still attending university at the time of the selection, although many are also attached to USL (United Soccer League) teams as well.
Orlando City SC was granted the first pick in a coin toss and selected Canadian national team regular and UConn Huskies star forward Cyle Larin. The second overall pick — forward Khiry Shelton — chosen by New York City FC has been playing for Oregon State since 2011, and he has even made several appearances for the US Men’s National team.
When Shelton begins training with his new teammates, he will join the likes of former Chelsea hero Frank Lampard, and David Villa of Barcelona fame.
Local favorites Portland Timbers FC acquired the fifth overall pick in the first round as a part of a trade deal with the Colorado Rapids for Portland native Danny Mwanga (forward).
After a disappointing 2014 campaign plagued by injuries and poor results, the Timbers looked to make waves in the off-season with their highest selection seed since 2011.
Timbers’ first pick, Nick Besler (midfield), was a regular starter of Norte Dame’s 2013 national championship team and was named to the 2014 NCAA All-American team.
With an eye for bolstering all areas of play, the Timbers also selected University of Washington’s Andy Thoma (defender), Southern Illinois’ Christian Volesky (forward), and Virginia Commonwealth’s Kharlton Belmar (forward).
With the first and second rounds of the Super Draft completed in Philadelphia, and the third and fourth rounds set to occur via conference call on Jan. 20, there is still plenty of room for new players to make their entrance into America’s premier soccer system.
The question for the MLS moving forward though is whether or not the Super Draft is really the best approach.
Instituted in 2000, the draft was an attempt to streamline the development of America’s underserved soccer talent. The league has benefited as the draft has grown alongside it, but the US Men’s National team has not benefited much and the MLS is still considered by many to be a farm league on the international scene.
There has been talk of switching over to a strictly academy style system with a draft becoming a secondary approach. For example, in England players can be selected to play in a club academy from a very young age (as young as 9). This allows the coaches of both major clubs and international teams to observe players as they develop, and it means that a wider scope of talent can be recognized and nurtured to greatness.
However, this system is greatly aided by the fact that England has roughly the same land area as Washington State. Even if an academy on the other side of the country is looking to sign a player, the transportation is still achievable. Frequently, younger players in America just don’t have access to the same level of development programs.
Regardless of where you fall on the draft, however, you can look forward to great season of MLS in 2015. The strength of the players and size of the draft pool this year indicates that soccer’s participation and fan bases are growing in America, and with the larger fan base comes a bigger group of people willing to help youth players achieve their dreams of success.
The women’s basketball team hosted the Alaskan schools this past weekend and came up just short in both games. The Wolves encountered the No. 7 ranked team in the country, Alaska Anchorage University, Thursday, Jan. 8, without forward Dana Goularte, the team’s leading player in scoring (16.2 points per game) and rebounding (10.7 rebounds per game).
While the Wolves would eventually lose 61-79, they fought to remain within striking distance for much of the game, as well as out-rebound the No. 1 ranked rebounding team in the conference 36-34.
Guards Jordan Mottershaw and Katie Goddard picked up the scoring duties in Goularte’s absence, scoring 17 and 16 points respectively while forward Angie Titus held down the paint with a game-high eight rebounds.
It wasn’t enough, however, as the Seawolves (14-1, 4-1 GNAC) pressured the Wolves into 26 turnovers, which they converted into 30 points to pull away for the
victory.
Megan Mullings and Jenna Buchanan were the only players in double figures for Alaska Anchorage, with Mullings leading all scorers with 19 points and Buchanan chipping in with 15 points off the bench.
Despite the lack of double digit scorers, Alaska Anchorage used a deep, balanced attack as nine players played at least 15 minutes, with all of them contributing on the scoring sheet.
Saturday, Jan. 10, the Wolves (4-9, 1-4 GNAC) hosted the University of Alaska in a hotly contested battle in which both teams used large scoring runs to swing momentum back and forth for the duration of the game. The Nanooks (12-4, 4-2 GNAC) pulled away at the end with a string of clutch free throw shooting to ice the game.
The Nanooks came out of the first media timeout and rattled off unanswered scoring runs of 10 and seven points to take a commanding 25-11 lead midway through the first half. The lead would later grow to 15 points before the Wolves settled in and opened up a scoring run of their own, closing the half 11-1 to cut the lead to 37-32 and carry momentum into the break.
The Nanooks, however, erupted for 14 unanswered points to start the second half, opening up their biggest lead of the game of 19 points. Though the Wolves were able to recover and fight back, outscoring the Nanooks by 14 over the next 13 minutes to come within five points with just over two minutes to play, it was too little too late as Alaska was able to hit seven of their last eight free throws to put the game away.
The Wolves got surprise contributions off the bench from guards Shyla Atkins and Sami Osborne, with Atkins providing 12 points and Osborne leading the team in points (14) and rebounds (12).
The Wolves played an excellent 3-point defense, forcing the Nanooks into eight percent shooting from behind the arc; however, the team struggled without Goularte’s inside presence, allowing the Nanooks to outscore them in points in the paint 48-32.
The Wolves traveled north Thursday, Jan. 15, to play Western Washington, who’ve won the past three games. The team then travels across the Canadian border to battle the Simon Fraser Clan on Saturday, Jan. 17.
The Western Oregon men’s and women’s track teams will open the 2015 indoor track & field season on Saturday, Jan. 17, at Dempsey Indoor Arena in Seattle, Wash.
The indoor track & field facility is located on University of Washington’s campus, and will be the site of many of Western’s competitions this season.
The Wolves, led by head coach Mike Johnson, will have the difficult task this year of replacing the production and leadership of the teams departed seniors.
With the likes of Kody Rhodes, Brett Campbell, Madison McClung and Ryan Hansen having graduated, it will be up to the returning athletes to replace their production at competitions, as well as the invaluable leadership that they provided in practice every day.
“The Dempsey arena is one of the best places to compete in the nation,” said coach Johnson. “Unfortunately that means the entry standards are very high, and we need to be ready to compete with only about 12 days of preparation.”
The men’s team will rely heavily on junior distance runner, Josh Hanna, who will be looking to defend his conference title in the 800m run, as well as returning senior distance runner, Brady Beagley, who will be able to compete for one last time this winter in the mile and 3,000m runs.
Beagley will be looking to add a gold medal to his impressive career resume.
Jeff Howard, who placed in both the 60m and 200m sprints at last year’s conference meet, will be tasked with shouldering the load for the sprinters this year as he looks to earn a spot at the podium by the end of this season.
“This year’s budget restrictions will reduce the number of competitors we are able to take to each meet, and fewer of them will benefit from this experience,” said Coach Johnson.
The women will lean on returning juniors, Audrey Hellesto and Rebecca Laible, as they look to improve on last year’s 7th place finish in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Hellesto, a sprinter, placed 3rd in the 400m sprint at last year’s conference meet by less than a second, and will look to take home the gold at the end of this season. Laible returns this year following a 3rd place finish in the triple jump last season, and she will also look to build on an impressive sophomore campaign and bring home a gold medal in February.
The women bring a deep group of distance runners that will look to surprise this year after a disappointing 2014 campaign. The team features a promising group of returners, including Bailey Beeson (7th in 800m), Stephanie Stuckey (11th in Mile, 12th in 3,000m) and Rachel Crawford (12th in Mile) as they look to be the strength of the team throughout the season.
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