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CSUB notebook: Player departures ravage men's golf
| Tuesday, Jul 1 2008 9:21 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 9:12 AM
Last fall, Cal State Bakersfield golf coach Dave Barber figured his team was set for at least two seasons.
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But a rash of player departures for various reasons has rocked the Roadrunner program and has Barber scrambling to put together his team for the 2008-9 season.
"It's been an interesting time since the end of the season, that's for sure," Barber said Tuesday night. "I started last fall with nine players, all freshmen and juniors. Now I've got four returning."
Two of the players who have left the program are from Bakersfield: Highland High graduate Brady Baguio, who would have been a senior this season but is now academically ineligible, Barber said; and Stockdale High graduate Bryan Hogan, who has three years of eligibility remaining and told Barber he is transferring to Fresno State.
The other three who won't return are Mike Flynn from Oxnard, the team leader in scoring average last season as a freshman who Barber said flunked out of school; Kirk Little, a freshman last season from Ukiah (north of San Francisco) who Barber said left the program in the fall when he became homesick; and Nick Baratelle, who is transferring to Long Beach State. Barber said Baratelle has family circumstances, which prompted a move near his home in Cypress.
Barber said Hogan and Baratelle will both be eligible in the fall at their new universities.
Barber said Hogan's decision to transfer stemmed from CSUB being two years from becoming postseason eligible as it continues in the transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I status.
"That's part of this Division I situation," Barber said. "Bryan's a good player. We can't go to postseason for two years. He has three years of eligibility remaining. With the talent they have at Fresno State, they have a great chance to go on, and he can add to it."
By the time Barber realized more than half his squad had departed, most of the players who Barber could have recruited had already committed to other schools.
The four players returning are Adam Frey, a senior from Cypress; Chris Baden, a senior from Henderson, Nev., who played two seasons at Bakersfield College; sophomore Kyle Morrison from Redondo Beach; and James Moseley, a sophomore from Arcadia.
Barbar has signed one player to a letter of intent: freshman Jason Errecart from Kerman High School in the Fresno area.
Errecart tied for 75th at the May 29 Southern California Championships at the Saticoy Country Club with a 5-over 77. Barber said Errecart had a verbal commitment to the University of Nevada in Reno but opted out before signing when that program requested the resignation of the head coach amid alleged NCAA violations.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM HIRES ASSISTANT COACH
Kristen Dowling, who has been an assistant women's basketball coach at Pepperdine the last two seasons, has joined the Cal State Bakersfield women's basketball coaching staff.
Dowling played at the University of Redlands. She graduated from Upland High and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Redlands, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Spanish with a minor in physical education. She earned her master's in educational technology at Pepperdine. She is also a graduate of Nike's So You Want to be a Coach program and the NCAA Women's Coaches Academy.
She replaces Amy Parrish, who left the Roadrunner coaching staff after one season, reportedly to become director of basketball operations for her alma mater, Fresno State.