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.

• Ask a question

« The buddy system | Monarchs Blog and Q&A front page | Monarchs chill out before Game 1 »

August 21, 2007

Where's the intensity?

With playoffs comes a certain level of intensity. Practices go long and players stay late. Or at least that's how it has been in previous seasons with the Monarchs, a team that has earned two consecutive trips to the WNBA finals in the past two years.

After the Monarchs decided to call off Monday's practice, I expected that shift in intensity to be evident today. However, I didn't see it.

I didn't even feel it.

Monarchs leading scorer Nicole Powell looked physically exhausted Tuesday and shrugged when told so. Several other players talked in voices barely above a whisper. Typically, a handful of players remain on the court after practices to work with coaches or each other on their shots. Today, only Ticha Penicheiro remained on the court 20 minutes after practice ended.

Maybe I missed something. Maybe the intensity I sought was there during the part of practice not available for media viewing.

With Thursday's first game of playoffs fast approaching, I guess we'll see.

- Melody Gutierrez

Posted by tnegrete, August 21, 2007 05:56 PM

---

Ask a question

Please use the form below to submit your question. Because there is a 100-word limit for questions, a word counter is located directly beneath the box where you enter the your question.

Name:

City:  State:

E-mail:

Monarchs question:

Your letter contains of 100 words allowed.  Count words


Your IP Address has been recorded as 38.103.63.17 and will be included with this submission.

---

Contact Sports

Tom Negrete - Asst. Managing Editor, Sports & Business - (916) 321-1171
e-mail: tnegrete@sacbee.com.

Bill Bradley - Sports Editor - (916) 321-1224
e-mail: bbradley@sacbee.com.

For comments or questions about high school sports coverage, e-mail preps@sacbee.com or call (916) 441-4100. Fax: (916) 326-5503.