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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July 02, 2007

Yup, Jenny was their choice

There are some coaches the Maloofs would rather not take credit for hiring (please see Eric Musselman). Then there is Jenny Boucek.

"That's a really terrific hire," Gavin Maloof said Monday. "She's firey. She's smart. Great hire. Great hire. We'll take credit for that one."

Gavin did pass along some kudos to General Manager John Whisenant, too, for picking his replacement.

Boucek will coach the Western Conference All-Star team on July 15, an honor she earned after leading the Monarchs to the highest winning percentage by today's deadline.

The first-year coach has remained humble, calling it a team honor and refusing to acknowledge it as a personal accolade.

"This team coaches itself and I'm here to support them, help them and serve them in any way that I can," Boucek said after Sunday's win over Minnesota.

"This is an honor, but definitely for them. I don't see it as an honor for me whatsoever."

However, Gavin certainly thinks Boucek deserves praise.

"She deserves all the credit in the world," he said.

--Melody Gutierrez

Posted by Bill Bradley, July 2, 2007 04:52 PM

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