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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May 01, 2007

For insurance, Monarchs sign two

The Monarchs signed two women they were utilizing as practice players to training-camp contracts over the weekend. Erin Batth and Leslie Dubois have been helping out the depleted post position during the first week of Monarchs training camp while the squad awaits the return of five players on teams in Spain and Russia.

The Monarchs were required to sign the pair for insurance purposes Sunday when the team traveled to Las Vegas to scrimmage Detroit, Minnesota and Houston, said General Manager John Whisenant. Although the contracts make them eligible to make the team, don't count on it. They are unlikely to make the roster.

Batth is 6-foot-4 center/forward from Clemson who has been working with the Monarchs as an administrative assistant to Whisenant. Batth was drafted in 2001 by the now defunct Cleveland Rockers, who waived her at the start of that season. She also is an assistant basketball coach at Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove.

The 6-foot-3 Dubois played for The Master's College, where her friend and former Monarchs player Erin Buescher starred. The two had played high school basketball together at Rincon Valley Christian High in Santa Rosa.

Interestingly, both Dubois and Buescher walked away form larger Division I schools to attend The Master's College. Dubois was on a volleyball scholarship at Arizona and Buescher was a prominent basketball player at UC Santa Barbara.

As for how the Monarchs did in Las Vegas, coach Jenny Boucek said she was impressed with how the team improved during each scrimmage on Monday. The four teams played two quarters against each other with running clocks. No score was kept and media was not invited.

"It went really good," Boucek said. "The drills became a lot more real to them."

A little tease: Look at this blog tomorrow (Wednesday) to read more about the new WNBA uniforms along with a sneak peak at the redesigned jerseys. Curious what Monarchs veteran Yolanda Griffith thinks about the new threads? Here's a hint: "cheap" and "ugly." Ouch.

Posted by Bill Bradley, May 1, 2007 06:00 PM

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