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 31, 2007

Thumbs up or down for intense practices?

The Monarchs certainly don't go easy on each other during practices, diving for loose balls and taking charges. The intensity of their no-holds barred practices have resulted in a second injury to a key post player within a week.

Rebekkah Brunson suffered a sprained shoulder Thursday when she ran into a teammate. But as painful as that injury is, it may get a lot worse.

Yolanda Griffith is nursing a painful thumb injury that usually requires a cast. Instead, she's sucked it up and is playing with a splint made of tape.

Doctors told Griffith she could play with the torn ulnar collateral ligament in her right thumb -- her shooting hand -- as long as she can handle the pain and no more tearing occurs.

First-year coach Jenny Boucek likes intense practices, but at this rate -- only four games into the season and the team two days away from playing its first home game -- there may not be enough players left to scrimmage by the All-Star break.

Brunson is listed day-to-day and Yo will play Saturday against the Sparks -- that is if she can survive Friday's practice.

Posted by tnegrete, May 31, 2007 08:13 PM

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