Our staff has teamed up with Lake Oswego HS for a week of basketball camp! The campers are mixing learning new basketball skills with other fun activities on campus such as swimming, water balloon fights, and games on our outdoor court!! The camp ends Friday with player competitions and our ending award ceremony.
On Sunday, May 10th, Emily walked across the stage, receiving her degree in chemistry. Following the graduation ceremony, the seniors were joined by the athletics department, family and friends for one final celebration, as they leave Lewis & Clark and begin their new adventure. Emily is going on to work with Lahash doing missionary work in East Africa before going on to med school next year. We would like to wish her the best of luck on her new adventure. If you would like to learn more about Lahash click on the link below.
Congratulations Emily!
Senior
The athletic department held it’s annual Pioneer student-athlete awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 21 in Council Chambers.
Pioneer basketball was proud to honor our lone senior, Emily, as well as Margaret for her accomplishments in both basketball and volleyball. Margaret was awarded the Female Rookie of the Year and Mary Hunter Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year.
The ceremony was a chance for all of the Pioneer athletes to come together and honor and congratulate one another for their dedication and accomplishments across all sports this year.
Rookie of the Year
You can click on the link below to view a full list of all of the award winners for the 2008-09 year.
Caitlin and Michaela have switched gears for the Spring, as they have helped lead the Pioneer softball team in the 2009 season. At 3rd base, Caitlin joins Michaela, who is in her sophomore season as the 2nd baseman. The duo has proved to be a driving defensive force for the Pioneer infield. The Pioneer softball team has just two games left, as they head to Dallas, TX for their final weekend of play. 
Go Pioneers!
Aron Phillips, a Lewis & Clark alum and former practice player for our team, reached out to the L&C athletes to help out with a local Nike basketball event put on last weekend by “Dime Magazine”. The event centered around the NCAA tournament, as Portland’s Rose Quarter was selected as one of the tournament locations.
Emily, Christina, Talerra and Kim, along with several other L&C students and alumni, offered their time, spending all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Nike Pro Combat Station, helping prepare March Madness fans for battle. “Battleproofing” fans was the main objective, as they offered face paint, free t-shirts, food, a custom photo booth and the NIKEiD studio. The event also allowed our players an opportunity to be introduced to many executives of Nike and Dime Magazine.
Former Pioneers, Shawna Castle and Allison Farr (Class of ‘08), have spent the past four months in the gym, not as players, but as coaches. After graduating from Lewis & Clark in May, the two ladies took coaching positions here in the Portland metro area. Shawna coaches the Hockinson 5th grade girls squad, while Allison coaches the Lake Oswego 8th grade girls team. Both coaches had successful seasons and enjoyed the many rewards of their coaching experiences.
We finished out our season on the road, traveling to eastern Washington to play Whitman and Whitworth on the 20th and 22nd of February. Like all of our road trips, the team found interesting ways to entertain themselves… and the coaches might have been entertained as well 
While at our hotel, we came up with what we call “The Starburst Wrap-Off Tournament” [see bracket below - courtesy of Coach Dub]. This year’s 2009 Starburst Champion was T, although “Large Marge” put up a great fight in the final round. See our photo shoot from the tourney.
2009 Starburst Tournament Bracket
Friday, February 13, was senior night as we said farewell to our lone senior, Emily Deichsel. We celebrated her Pioneer career on our home floor prior to tipoff of Friday night’s Linfield game. “Em” has devoted herself to this program and this institution, and for that, we are incredibly grateful.
Posted are some pictures from the Senior Ceremony on Friday night. The final home game of her career could not have gone any better, as we earned a win against the Wildcats. We went 2-0 on the weekend, beating Willamette on the road on Saturday night. It was a great weekend for Pioneer basketball!
Paige Signs Autographs
We shortened practice on Monday so that we could spend some time with a children’s organization called Upward, a church sponsored national program. The group consisted of a mixture of 5th and 6th grade girls basketball teams, led by a former L&C basketball player and alum, Jenny Pratt. We spent an hour together playing games and working on fundamentals. We have invited the group to come back to see us on Saturday, when we host Pacific Lutheran. The teams will be playing a short game during halftime.
We would like to thank Jenny and all of the Upward teams for their support of Pioneer basketball. We wish them the best of luck!
Today is the first day of the 2009 spring semester, as all of the players were challenged with the task of early rising this morning. After having an entire month break from school, I am sure the team is very anxious to get back in the classroom for those lectures and tests.
Aside from their rigorous efforts in the classroom, the team will finish up the first round of conference play this weekend at home against eastern Washington teams Whitman and Whitworth.
Go Pioneers!
Fans, Recruits, Family and Friends of Pioneer Basketball,
Our new blog site is under construction, but will be up and running within the next week. It will be filled with details, updates, photos and videos of the team taking on the challenges of college life. Check back with us soon to find out what the girls are up to this fall!
Regards,
L&C Women’s Basketball Staff
Our team, coaches, and alumni spent quality time together on Saturday at the Tideman Johnson Nature Park, where we got down to the nitty gritty. Let’s just say there were lots of wheel barrow races and by the end of the day we were all experienced shovelers and mulch movers. It’s Homecoming weekend at L&C which brought recent alumni back to the park with us! The team partners every year with Portland Parks to plant, remove non-native species, and other tasks necessary to keep the parks’ plant-life healthy and thriving! Good times every year!
The basketball and softball teams joined this afternoon to have an intra-team video scavenger hunt challenge on campus. The players were partnered in teams of 4-5 from their respective team. Each team carried along a digital video camera and a list of challenges to carry out and objects to obtain within a 60 minute time period. The tasks varied in difficulty, and the more difficult the task, the more points awarded. To give you an idea of how much fun it was, some of the tasks on their list included performing a movie scene on the theatre stage; playing duck, duck, goose on the grassy knoll; finding a professor and serenading him/her with their favorite song; and even finding/bringing back a prom dress. It was a great time for everyone and it gave the players a chance to do some team bonding and meet new people. We compiled their videos into a short movie… Check it out for some good laughs.
Our players had their final open gym tonight before the season officially begins this Sunday, October 19. Throughout the pre-season and post-season, the team gathers weekly in the gym to continue playing. The pre-season open gyms allow the new team to get to know each other, work on their basketball skills, and continue their conditioning. It also allows them to get all the alley-oops and AND1 moves out of their system before the real practices begin!
Coached Fulks finished her third trip with “Understand The Game” this summer. She traveled to Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt where she teamed up with a number of talented coaches, including Cynthia Cooper (WNBA) and Detlef Schrempf (NBA). The trip featured several coaching clinics working with youth, national teams, and coaches of each country. Additionally, the group visited a special needs center for developmentally challenged youth that provides Jordanian children the opportunity to expand their capabilities and their expectations. On the occasional day off, the team visited several historic sites including the Dead Sea, Petra, and the Pyramids. Check out some of the photos from the trip!
Today was our first practice of the 2008-09 season!
Our team started practice in the weight room where we measured individual strength & conditioning and then moved upstairs to the gym. Practice entailed teaching a variety of fundamentals and the beginning sequences of our offenses and defenses.
Everyone was really excited to jump back into the swing of things and officially start the much anticipated season of Pioneer Basketball! Expectations are high and the players have worked extra hard in the off-season to meet our team goals… and that work ethic carried into practice today.
Check out our video footage from the first day!
Shawna Castle (L&C alum '08) looks on as the young pios practice ball handling
The women’s basketball staff is currently running a Young Pios Basketball Clinic at Hockinson Elementary School in Brush Prairie, Washington. The clinic is using our L&C basketball staff, players, and alumni to teach local area girls the fundamentals of basketball. Our coaching staff is having a great time with this, and all of the girls are loving it.
The free clinic consists of girls between the ages of 8 and 12 years old and it runs every Sunday afternoon. Go (Young) Pios!
Margaret Dowling, one of our freshman forwards, has been earning numerous accolades on the volleyball court for the Lady Pios this fall. Margaret plays two sports and is currently finishing up in volleyball before transitioning into the basketball season.
The volleyball team, who currently stands in third place in the Northwest Conference, is one of our most loyal and energetic fan bases. They attend nearly all of our home games and we love showing them the same support. Volleyball will finish out their season with two home games Nov. 7th & 8th and you can bet that we will all be there. Go Pios!
As you can see from the pictures below, our team loves to go out and support Margaret and volleyball in their battle to finish at the top of the Conference.
Aside from their busy school and basketball schedules, three of our players also find time to log hours in the training room as student athletic trainers. Michaela, Emily, Paige, and Taylor are all members of the athletic training staff. This job is available to students who have passed the Athletic Training Course offered every Spring, taught by our Head Athletic Trainer, Mark “Petie” Pietrok.
As student trainers, their duties include but are not limited to: administering treatment to athletes, taping ankles, wrists and fingers, and updating electronic treatment records. Aside from putting in time in the training room, the student trainers also gain experience in the field, where they are able to observe the evaluations of injuries occurring during various sporting activities.
We are very proud of our student athletic trainers! Keep up the good work.
The ladies got together on Friday night for dinner and a movie at Emily Deichsel’s house. Our lone senior, Em, cooked pasta, garlic bread, and baked brownies for the team.
As coaches, we were happy to see the ladies unwinding and having a good time. They were all very excited to get off campus and eat a home cooked meal. We are very proud of all of the energy and hard work they have been putting forth both in school and on the court. They are all extremely busy with basketball and school, and with finals approaching in less than a month, I am SURE that they have been spending lots of time in the library…
We departed for Idaho on Thursday, November 20 at about 3:30 pm via charter bus, putting us in Lewiston a little after 10 pm. Immediately after arriving, all the coaches and players headed to their rooms for bed, as we had to wake up early for shootaround on Friday morning. We played our first game against LC State on Friday night and then turned around to play Montana Tech on Saturday afternoon.
We have provided some video footage for all of you to see. This short movie that we put together includes our dinner at The Spagghetti Establishment, a long bus ride, and also some pre-game footage.
On Thursday the 4th we departed for Hayward, California where we played in the Cal State East Bay Pioneer Classic alongside University of Puget Sound. Many of our players are from the northern California area, so it was a great opportunity for family and friends of those players to come out and support Pioneer basketball. On Friday, we won our first game of the tournament against UC Santa Cruz. That night, we all headed over to Burlingame, 
where Margaret’s parents had prepared a delicious dinner for all of us. All family and friends were invited, and it was a great opportunity to get to know those who are close to the players.
On Saturday, we beat the host of the tournament, Cal State East Bay. That night, Christmas came early… We took the team to In-N-Out Burger. We’ve never seen them so happy. We all had a great time and came home with two W’s, so the coaching staff was extremely pleased.
Here are the pictures that we took, we hope you enjoy them. A very special thanks to the Dowlings for taking us into your home, as well as all of the family members and friends who showed their support this weekend.
Go Pioneers!
Today we had our first snow day of the school year, and of course, the girls were very anxious to finish our morning practice so they could get outside and make their snow angels. Unfortunately for our players, the snow has arrived right in the middle of finals week, but that didn’t stop them from taking a few study breaks. We took a couple of pictures to share with all of you…
We took another long road trip last weekend, December 19-21, to southern California. We arrived at LAX on Friday morning and then drove to Cal Lutheran for our scheduled practice. After practice, many of our players spent some time at the mall, finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping.
On Saturday we played Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks. After the game we went out to pizza to celebrate the victory, and turned in early for the night so that we could be well-rested for our game the following day.
On our final day in California, we woke up early and traveled to San Dimas, Christina’s hometown, where her parents had made us a fantastic breakfast. After mingling with parents and family and filling up on eggs, sausage, and potatoes, we headed back towards Riverside for our second game of the weekend against La Sierra.
After our victory on Sunday, everyone parted ways for our 5-day break; some were flying home, some were staying in the L.A. area, and those who were returning to Portland had a big surprise in store. PDX had cancelled all flights on Sunday due to the inclement weather that had been lingering for over a week. With four players (Meg, Vega, Em and Taylor) and Coach Whitesel stranded at LAX with no possibility of landing in Portland until after Christmas, we had some quick thinking to do. Desperate times called for desperate measures… after renting an SUV, Coach Whitesel “Dub” drove 17 hours from Los Angeles to Portland, with a pit-stop in Sacramento for a short nap.
Despite the grueling journey for those traveling to Portland, everyone made it home to their families safely for Christmas. Not surprisingly, the trip was a lot of fun, as is always the case with this awesome group of people.
As we finish up our first round of conference play, it seemed appropriate to allow the team a day to “loosen up” after working so hard for three months. After practice last week we all gathered downstairs in the Pamplin mat room for a team activity… HIP HOP DANCE LESSONS. A local dance instructor, and also a friend of Coach Hristou, was kind enough to give us an hour-long lesson, as she choreographed a dance and taught it to the team. Many of the players revealed their hidden dancing talents… and many others should never, ever dance in public again
Here is a preview of the video footage… The movie montage will be coming soon! Be sure to check back… you won’t want to miss it!
