Monarchs Blog and Q&A

Bee staff writer Melody Gutierrez grew up in Twentynine Palms. At 14-years-old, she decided to combine her two passions -- sports and writing -- when she became a special assignments reporter for the Desert Trail, her hometown weekly newspaper. Melody headed to Northern California in 2000 to attend Chico State and has remained in the region ever since. She earned an internship with The Bee and subsequently became a staff writer in 2004 and has covered virtually every sport, starting with high schools, up through college and then the pros. Melody took over coverage of the Monarchs last season and chronicled the team's pursuit of a second straight league championship -- a quest that fell just short.

Melody welcomes your questions and will answer as many as she can as the season progresses.

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April 23, 2007

Positive spin on late arrivals

I got a call from Phoenix coach Paul Westhead on Sunday night as he prepared for today's opening of the Mercury camp. While I was hoping to hear from him for Saturday's story in The Bee about the overlapping contracts WNBA players sign with international leagues (see: http://www.sacbee.com/352/story/159014.html), I found his comments noteworthy enough to share.

Westhead said he has two returning players at camp. The rest are on international teams, including two players in the notoriously late Italian league.

He tried to remain positive: "Basically, the good news is it gives us a chance to focus on free agents and draft choices. We are forced, in a good way, to focus on them."

The Mercury finished one game out of the playoffs last year after stumbling through their first 11 games, losing seven of those. Entering his second season, Westhead said his team's early struggles last season included getting players back late. However, he stopped short of criticizing players or the WNBA for not finding a solution.

"To be honest, I try to focus on the things I have slight control over," Westhead said. "It's a reality that I kind of stumbled into last year when I was in this situation."

Posted by Brian Blomster, April 23, 2007 06:07 PM

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