Orem High wing Jordan Darger, 6-foot-5, has signed a letter of intent to play basketball for Western Nebraska Community College.
Darger helped the Golden Tigers win the 4A state championship as a junior, but a shoulder injury sidelined him during his senior season.
"We feel like we have added a very versatile player in Jordan. He comes from a winning program and a great family," said WNCC coach Russell Beck. "We expect him to come in and give us some firepower at the forward position."
WNCC's roster this coming season will include no fewer than eight Utahns. The roster includes Mountain Crest's Tyler Crosbie, Northridge's Preston Christensen, Syracuse's Diante Mitchell, Bingha...

Natalie Mecham, a 5-foot-10 wing player who just graduated from Davis High in Kaysville, has committed to play basketball for Idaho State University.
Mecham averaged 12.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game for the Darts this past season.
She was a consensus first-team all-region performer and a second-team all-area pick by the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
Mecham played club basketball for the Utah Hustle last summer.
Her family moved to Utah last summer after she played basketball for three years at Mountain View High in Mesa, Ariz. She also played volleyball and competed in track and field for the Darts.

Another Davis High star, J...

Salt Lake Community College's women's basketball team is still adding some firepower to its 2013-14 roster.
SLCC on Wednesday announced the signing of Natalie Lainhart, a BYU-Hawaii player who is from Las Vegas.
Lainhart, 5-11, averaged 2.0 points and 2.3 rebounds in nine games last season at BYU-H. She redshirted at the University of Idaho for a season before transferring to the Division II school in Laie, Hawaii.
Lainhart averaged 16.6 points and 13.7 rebounds per game at Silverado High in Las Vegas and will play the power forward position for SLCC.

Yes, the team really does feature a player by the name of Stockton Shorts.
And yes, the team is really good.
The boys basketball club team known as X Factor U-14 Black won another national tournament over the Memorial Day Weekend, claiming the Jam It On Memorial Day Tournament in Reno, Nev.
X Factor U-14 Black is ranked No. 8 in the country by Indivisible Hoops Rankings. The team went undefeated in Reno, posting an average margin of victory of 26 points.
In the championship game, X Factor defeated No. 12-ranked MVP Flight Elite by 32 points. Next up for the team is the AAU National Tournament from July 11-17 in Orlando, Fla.
Players include Jaxon Brenchley, Trevin K...

South Sevier basketball star Austin Clark has signed to play for Western Nebraska Community College in Scottsbluff, Neb., coach Russell Beck announced Friday.
Clark is a 6-foot-4 forward who becomes the sixth Utah high school product to sign with the Cougars.
"We are thrilled that Austin has joined the program," Beck said. Austin brings us some great versatility on the wing and we expect him to step right in and help us in our quest for a region title and a trip to the national tournament."
Clark was originally planning to attend Central Wyoming CC, but a coaching change there caused him to re-think his decision.
Beck said WNCC is still recruiting other Utahns and has ...

Salt Lake Community College women's basketball coach Betsy Specketer has announced the signing of American Fork High star Cassidy Fraughton.
Fraughton, a 5-9 guard/forward, averaged 10.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Cavemen last season. She added 2.2 assists.
American Fork went to the 4A quarterfinals and had an 18-6 overall record last season.
Fraughton scored 934 points in her 92-game prep career.
Earlier, Specketer signed Hillcrest's Whitney Nemelka and Sky View's Tara Goldman.



...

Western Nebraska Community College in Scottsbluff, Neb., continues to stock its roster with former Utah high school basketball stars.
WNCC coach Russ Beck announced recently the signings of two more former Utah preps.
The Cougars have signed Northridge High guard Preston Christensen and Joel Einfeldt, a former Cedar High all-stater who redshirted at Southern Utah University under coach Roger Reid before serving an LDS Church mission to Japan.
Christensen and Einfeldt will join the team this fall.
Christensen was recently named a Class 5A second-team all-stater. He scored 36 points in a single game last season against Davis.
"I am really looking forward to working ...

The X Factor 14-under Black club basketball team won the Las Vegas Grand Opening tournament division championship last weekend (Platinum Division).
It is the second high-level championship for the Utah-based team this spring. The team won the X Factor Invitational in March by beating three teams ranked in the West Coast Elite Top 25.
X Factor U-14 Black is currently ranked sixth in the West Coast Elite Top 25 in the West and 20th in the country by Indi Hoops. It will participate in four more tournaments this spring/summer in Reno, Salt Lake City, Orlando and Las Vegas.
Players include Jaxon Brenchley, Trevin Knell, Wynton Lamar, Nate Harkness, Marcus Draney, Dason Youngblo...

It appears that BYU's softball team will be loaded with pitching talent for a long time to come.
Earlier this week, senior Hannah Howell earned Pacific Coast Conference Pitcher of the Week honors after she threw a perfect game against Loyola Marymount on April 13. Howell has a career record of 38-25 with 336 strikeouts and a 2.87 earned run average.
Next year, the Cougars will have arguably the best pitcher in the history of the state of Washington.
Ashley Thompson of Connell, Wash. -- the same town that produced BYU linebacker Spencer Hadley -- is a high school senior who is rewriting the Washington state record books, according to an article on the website Maxpreps.com.

Western Nebraska Community College continues to turn to Utah to stock its roster with talented high school basketball stars.
The junior college in Scottsbluff, Neb., announced last week that it has signed Syracuse High's Diante Mitchell and Mountain Crest High's Tyler Crosbie.
The Utah prep all-staters will begin playing for the Cougars next fall. Western Nebraska CC is coached by former Utahn Russell Beck.
"We are absolutely pleased that these two young men have chosen to pursue an education and further their already decorated basketball careers here at Western Nebraska," Beck said. "Not only will these two provide us with one of the best freshman backcourts in the NJCAA,...

Four members of Snow College's volleyball team signed National Letters of Intent to play at four-year schools this past week.
Signing NLIs on Wednesday:
* Nicole Koehler, a 6-foot outside hitter from Sandy and Alta High School. Koehler signed with Dixie State College, which plays in the Pacific West Conference and will travel to Hawaii to face conference foes UH-Hilo, Hawaii Pacific and BYU-Hawaii. Koehler had 119 kills for the Badgers last season.
* Amy Sorensen, a 5-11 outside hitter from Sandy and Jordan High School. Sorensen has signed with Oregon State. She was named an...

A lot of women's college golf coaches take excellent athletes from other sports, then teach them how to play golf. With four major women's college golf programs in Utah and not enough high school stars to go around, the formula has proven rather successful. Of course, the coaches augment their rosters with plenty of players from out of state as well.
But Southern Utah University golf coach Richard Church won't have to do that with Richfield High's Carly Jorgensen. She's already an excellent golfer, and athlete.
Jorgensen signed a National Letter of Intent to play golf for SUU on Thursday, the school announced.
Jorgensen was the medalist at the 1A/2A state tournament last year ...

Hillcrest High guard Whitney Nemelka has signed to play basketball for the Salt Lake Community College women's basketball team.
Nemelka, 5-foot-7, was a 4A all-state first team selection in 2013 after averaging 17 points per game for the Huskies. She also averaged 3.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 5.9 steals a game.
Nemelka scored 784 points in her 85-game career at Hillcrest. The Huskies made it to the second round of the 4A state tournament last month.
...

The Utah Prospects, a club basketball under-17 team, lost in the championship game of the Platinum Bracket at the Big Foot Hoops Las Vegas Easter Showdown last week.
The Prospects defeated Southern California All Stars Red and Houston Hoops in their pool. Houston Hoops is ranked No. 8 nationally by Five-Star Hoops.
The Prospects then defeated Simply Fundamental YMCA, Southern California All Stars White and Marcus Banks Hard 2 Guard before meeting up with Houston Hoops in the championship game. Houston won the rematch, 57-48.
The Prospects team consists of Davis High's Abel Porter, Bountiful's Sam Merrill, Trevor Lloyd and Pere Leseuer, Roy High's Brekkott Chapman, Orem High's ...

Former Timpanogos High basketball star Tanner LeBaron is on a church mission in New York City (South) right now, but when he returns he will be heading to Nebraska.
LeBaron, a 6-foot-1 combo guard, will sign with Western Nebraska Community College when the juco signing period begins next month.
WNCC also produced BYU guard Raul Delgado and is coached by Russell Beck, a former Utahn.
"We are happy to add Tanner to the program," Beck said. "He will provide us with great leadership and I know that when he returns he will work his tail off.
Prior to his mission, LeBaron redshirted at Western Wyoming CC.
Beck cited LeBaron's excellent shooting skills, high basketball...

Two players from Utah, two from California, and one from Colorado have signed to play women's soccer for the University of Utah.
The Utahns are Hannah Hyde, a defender from Lone Peak High in Highland, and Tara Shipp, a goalkeeper from Cedar High in Cedar City.
Here is Utah's 2013 signing class:

Name Position Height Hometown High School Club Team
Hannah Hyde D 5-10 Highland, Utah Lone Peak HS Utah Avalanche
Tara Shipp GK ...

After making a run to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight, BYU's women's soccer program has signed seven new recruits for the 2013 season. The seven recruits hail from Utah, Texas, Arizona, California and New Jersey.

Here are BYU's new recruits:

Name: Avery Calton
Hometown: Ogden, Utah

High school: Ogden High School
Club Team: Avalanche

Name: Hannah Clark
Hometown: Danville, California

High school: Mo...

Former Syracuse High star Mylee Davis has signed to play softball for BYU, the Cougars announced Monday.
Davis is transferring from Salt Lake Community College and will play for the Cougars this spring.
The catcher earned second-team all-state honors at Syracuse in 2011 and was a standout at SLCC last spring, competing in 53 games.
The Bruins went 59-9 last year and made it to the NJCAA National Championship game before losing to top-ranked Chattanooga State.
Davis had a .317 batting average and hit 10 doubles and five home runs. She drove in 32 runs.
The BYU softball team begins its season on Feb. 7 against Colorado State in the Red Desert Classic.

...

To say Lone Peak High soccer star Hannah Hyde has BYU blue in her bloodlines would be an understatement. Hyde's father, Nathan, was an all-conference baseball player at BYU. Her mother is on the business college faculty at BYU, and both of her grandfathers have had leadership careers at BYU.
Naturally, Hyde recently committed to play soccer for the University of Utah. She will sign a national letter of intent with coach Rich Manning's program in February and begin playing for the Utes next fall.
Hyde was a Tribune second-team all-state selectee last fall and a first-team all-region pick. She plays center back for the Utah Avalanche U-18 club team.
Before moving to Utah in ...

Former Bingham High volleyball all-stater Danika Youngblood -- an outside hitter at Western Nebraska Community College -- has been named a first-team All-American by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA).
Youngblood has committed to play volleyball next year at Cal State Bakersfield.
The 5-foot-8 sophomore helped the Cougars to a 40-3 record and a runner-up finish at the NJCAA national tournament last month.
The daughter of former Utah State basketball great Kendall Youngblood, Danika finished the season with 474 kills, 401 digs, 37 blocks and 24 aces.
In Utah, Youngblood played for the Utah Elite v...

BYU women's basketball coach Jeff Judkins has received a commitment from Amy Harris, a 5-foot-9 guard at Snow Canyon High School in the St. George area.
Harris committed on Sunday after making her official campus visit a few days before that.
Harris was the 3A basketball MVP last season after helping Snow Canyon win the state championship. She averaged 16.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game for the Warriors, and also chipped in 3.2 assists per game.
She is expected to sign with BYU when the early signing period begins in November.
Harris also visited Nevada, according to The Spectrum newspaper.

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South Sevier senior Austin Clark, a 6-foot-4 swing man, has committed to play basketball at Central Wyoming College next year. Clark will sign with the Rustlers and coach Curtis Condie, a former Louisiana Tech assistant who coached at South Sevier and Wasatch high schools in Utah.
Clark transferred from Salina's North Sevier to Monroe's South Sevier before his junior year and earned all-state honors as the Rams claimed the 2A state championship.
South Sevier is favored to repeat as 2A champs under coach Scott Hunt. Another highly recruited athlete, Race Parsons, also returns.
Parsons took an official visit to Southern Utah ...

The Salt Lake Metro club basketball program has announced it will send 44 players -- 23 girls and 21 boys -- to college basketball programs in 2012-13.
The players will attend schools in Utah, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
The club reports that since its inception 338 players (216 mens, 122 women) have moved on to play college basketball, including 93 men and 35 women at the Division-I level. They've received more than $8 million in scholarships.
Here are the players, and where they are headed:

BOYS

Clint Bateman -- Dixie State College
Brady Borklund -- Weber State University

Former Layton Christian High basketball star Will Beard isn't done playing basketball, even if he had to take last year off due to torn ligaments in his ankle.
Beard, who graduated from LCA in 2009, will play for Medicine Hat College in Alberta, Canada, this coming season. He has two years of college basketball eligibility remaining.
Beard was a two-year starter for Wenatchee Valley (Wash.) College after graduating from LCA, then sat out last year.
He played point guard for one of the best teams in WVC history.
"It has been a long, tough road through injury but I plan on having a great career in Canada, and then who knows from there?" Beard said.
He's the son of Tan...

Four Utah high school girls basketball players -- two seniors and two juniors -- have been selected to participate in the prestigious adidas All-American Camp in Louisville, Kent., on July 12.
The camp will have approximately 100 of the top players in the country in attendance.
Here are the Utah participants:
* Snow Canyon senior Amy Harris, a 5-foot-9 guard
* Bonneville senior Emilie Volk, a 6-foot guard
* North Sanpete junior Taylor Gordon, a 5-foot-8 guard
* Olympus junior Rachel Vandertoolen, a 5-foot-11 forward

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The Utah-based X-Factor Under 13 boys basketball team won the 14-and-under division at the third annual Big Mountain Jam tournament last week.
The team is ranked No. 8 in the West in its age division according to the West Coast Elite 25 Rankings.
The team will travel to Las Vegas July 28-31 to play in the Fab 48 tournament in that city.
Team members include: Stockton Shorts, Dason Youngblood, Jaxon Brenchley, Bracken Falslev, Trevin Knell, Wynton Lamar, Nate Harkness, Marcus Draney and Ben Rigby. The team is coached by former Utah State great Kendall Youngblood.

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Snow College guard Connor Van Brocklin, a Davis High product, has been invited...

Seven rising juniors from the Utah-based Sparta United girls soccer club have already made their college commitments, with five bound for BYU, one headed to Utah and one headed to Utah Valley.
Sparta United has won the State Cup five of the past six years and is currently ranked 20th in the country in its age division.
Here's a quick look at each player, and where she has committed, courtesy of assistant coach Greg Phillips. The head coach is Dennis Burrows.

Bizzy Phillips: Alta High star committed to BYU last December. Was a consensus first team all-state selection (both SLC newspapers) for the state champs last fall. Center midfielder was in the US National Team...

Football is not the only program at BYU getting a lot of early commitments right now.
The women's soccer program got a pledge recently from Carla Swensen, a rising junior at Bingham High.
Swensen is a 5-foot-3 wing player who also drew interest from Boise State, Wyoming, Utah Valley and Northern Arizona.
New Mexico, Minnesota, Arkansas and Central Florida had also contacted Swensen.
Swensen plays club soccer fo La Roca Premier 96 and is coached by Ariel Bravo.
The Miners will be coached this fall by recent hire Jenni Clough.

...

Bingham defensive standout Durrant Miles committed to Boise State late Tuesday, passing onffers from Utah State and Hawaii and skipping a visit to Utah.

The linebacker and defensive end, who will be a senior, tweeted, "OFFICIALLY COMMITTED TO BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY! #BRONCONATION" and told the Idaho Statesman that he was sold by a weekend visit to the campus. Miles visited on Friday and received an offer from coach Chris Petersen on Monday.

Miles said he was scheduled to visit Utah on Wed...

Like clockwork, South Jordan's Bingham High consistently produces Division I football players.
Looks like this year is going to be more of the same.
The latest Miner star to see his recruitment pick up is rising senior Durrant Miles, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound outside linebacker/defensive end who also excels at basketball.
Miles received a scholarship offer from Boise State this past weekend, and now has three offers. Hawaii and Utah State offered Miles a few weeks ago.
So far, only one Bingham senior has committed. Towering offensive lineman Keegan Hicks committed to BYU in late January.
Bingham's Lowell Lotulelei, a 6-2, 300-pound defensive tackle, is probably...

A local star will be helping Loyola Marymount when the Lions take on BYU in West Coast Conference basketball action this upcoming season.
Former Davis High guard Chase Flint has signed to play basketball for LMU.
Flint played for USU Eastern (formerly College of Eastern Utah) last season, and made the All-Region 18 First Team as well as the NJCAA All-American Honorable Mention Team. He was named USU-Eastern's Athlete of the Year.
Flint suffered a major elbow injury the summer after his senior season at Davis while driving a 4-wheeler, and served an LDS Church mission to Argentina before enrolling at the junior college in Price.

Here's what Hoopscooponline...

The Davis County-based Utah Hoops Under-16 team won the inaugural Best Buy Mile High Classic near Denver over the weekend, beating nationally ranked Minnesota Pump-N-Run 60-58 in the championship game at Lakewood, Colo.
The Utah Hoops teams is comprised of Bountiful's Trevor Lloyd, Sam Merrill, Zac Seljaas, Pere Le Sueur and Jordan Bleak; Davis High's Abel Porter, Roy's Brekkott Chapman, Layton's Michael Hibbert and Woods Cross High's Luke Jowers.
Utah Hoops went undefeated at the tournament, defeating Colorado Chaos Elite in the semifinals.
Here's a recap of the tournament and a description of Merrill's gam...

The Thurl Bailey XFactor boys basktetball club teams were also highly successful last week in tournament in Las Vegas and California.
XFactor's 15-under, 16-under and 17-under boys teams went 13-2, and the 15-under team won the platinum bracket championship. The 16-under team lost in the finals to Seattle Rotary and the 17-under team lost in the semifinals.
Here are the teams:
XFactor 17-Under: Austin Anderson, Riverton; Cameron Bailey, Orem; Corbin Barnett, Emery; Alex Losee, Bingham, Sunday Owanda, Salt Lake City, Quinn Peters, Orem; Brandon Sly, Riverton. Coaches: Scott Fields and Charlie Schultz.

XFactor 16-Under: McKay Bowman, Spanish Fork; Jonathan Diener, ...

Here's a report from Utah Pump-N-Run on how its teams fared at the Double Pump Hoop Fest last weekend:
The program's teams went 18-8 overall in the first weekend of the spring AAU season at tournaments in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The 17U Elite team won the one-loss bracket championship championship, while the 16U Elite team and the 16U Black team made the final four in the Gold Bracket.
The 15U Elite team fell by two points in the Elite Eight to eventual champion LakeShow from the California Bay Area, while the 11U Elite team won the championship at the Big Foot Hoops Grand Opener in Vegas.
Pump-N-Run players Dalton Nixon of Orem (class of 2014) and Jared ...

A Davis County-based team of under-16 boys basketball players made it to the championship game of the Las Vegas Pangos Spring Spectacular last weekend before falling to the No. 9-ranked AAU team in the country.
The Utah Hoops went undefeated in pool play before ultimately losing in the finals 68-61 to the Las Vegas Prospects.
The Utah Hoops team is comprised of Bountiful's Trevor Lloyd, Zac Seljaas, Sam Merrill, Pere Le Sueur and Jordan Bleak, Davis' Able Porter, Roy's Brekkott Chapman, Layton's Michael Hibbert and Luke Jowers of Woods Cross.

The AAU basketball season is upon us the next few weeks, then picks up again for most of July. If your favorite club team did somet...

The spring signing period for basketball -- men's and women's -- is a week old, but Southern Utah and Utah Valley University recently announced signings to their respective women's basketball programs, in case you missed them.

Southern Utah has added three more players, including two Utahns.
The Thunderbirds have signed Cyprus High's Lori Parkinson, Salt Lake Community College's Marissa Robbins (from Stansbury High) and Sofia Hepworth of St. Anthony, Idaho.
Parkinson, a 6-1 forward, was a Tribune first-team pick last season after averaging 14.6 rebounds and six blocks per game.
Robbins, a 5-11 forward, averaged 10.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game for SLCC la...

Former Pine View High basketball star Louis Garrett has signed to play basketball for San Jose State.
A 6-foot-6 forward, Garrett played for Salt Lake Community College last season, averaging 8.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game for the Bruins, who went 22-9 under coach Todd Phillips.
Garrett, 21, signed a letter of intent with the Spartans last week. Six players on SLCC's team averaged between eight and 10.6 ppg. last season.
"Louis will be a very good addition to our program, said SJSU coach George Nessman.
Garrett played his freshman season at the College of Southern Idaho in 2008-09 before going on an LDS Church mission to Borneo.
He was a tw...

Jacob Gondrezick, a guard at Judge Memorial Catholic HIgh School in Salt Lake City, has signed with Fort Lewis College of Durango, Colo.
The 6-foot senior was a two-year starter for Judge and was recently named all-state second team in Class 3A by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Gondrezick is the son of former University of Utah star Gale Gondrezick and Lisa Gondrezick.
In a school news release, Skyhawks coach Bob Hofman said Jacob Gondrezick has a high basketball IQ and is "extremely competitive."
Gondrezick was the Region 10 Most Valuable Player this past season and a starter in the 3A All-Star Game.
He averaged 16 points per game as a senior and 10 ppg. as a junior whi...

Wasatch High's Matt Pelo, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, has signed a letter of intent to play junior college basketball at Snow College.
Pelo was a first-team all-state pick by The Salt Lake Tribune last month.
He played for the Salt Lake Metro club basketball program and is the third player from SL Metro's class of 2012 to make his college decision.

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Bingham High continues to pump out loads of Division I football prospects.
The latest Bingham football star to receive D-I interest is sophomore tight end Dalton Schultz.
Bingham coach Dave Peck said Schultz received offers from California and Colorado on Thursday.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Schultz is visiting Stanford today (April 6) and has said that Stanford would be at the top of his favorites list if the Cardinal make an offer. Schultz carries a 3.9 grade point average.
He now has offers from three Pac-12 schools because Utah offered him last September. Schultz will be a senior this fall at Bingham.
Two weeks ago, Schultz played for the Utah team that went 8-0...

Nick Robinson didn't waste any time before he began recruiting local players.

The Southern Utah basketball coach, announced six days ago as the successor to Roger Reid, extended a scholarship offer to South Sevier point guard Race Parsons this week. Parsons, a 6-foot-1 point guard, has led the Rams to back-to-back Class 2A state championships and won back-to-back MVP awards from The Tribune.

South Sevier coach Scott Hunt said Parsons has also received interest from Utah State and Weber State. Parsons appears set to become the first player since his grandfather, Lynn. Parsons' father, Rhett, also played at Southern Utah, but before it was a Division 1 school.

A Davis County-based team of high school basketball players known as Utah Hoops won the varsity division of the Idaho Prep Tournament in Boise, Idaho, this past weekend.
The players are all sophomores at Davis County schools. They beat the Hoop Dreams of Idaho in the finals. The Idaho team featured BYU commit Braiden Shaw.
The Utah Hoops teams was comprised of Bountiful's Trevor Lloyd, Sam Merrill, Zac Seljaas, Pere Le Sueur and Jordan Bleak; Davis High's Abel Porter, Roy's Brekkott Chapman, Layton's Michael Hibbert and Woods Cross High's Luke Jowers.
It was coached by Lynn Lloyd.
...

UCLA extended scholarship offers this week to three Cottonwood players, Colts coach Josh Lyman said, including quarterback Cooper Bateman, who is emerging as one of the top 2013 recruits in the West.

The Bruins also offered tight end Siale Havili and receiver Inoke Lotulelei.

Havili's continued recruitment may be of most local interest. A 6-foot-4, 215-pound tight end, Havili orally committed to Utah earlier this month, a move that apparently didn't deter the Bruins and first-year head coach Jim Mora Jr.

Lotulelei is a cousin of Utah nose tackle Star Lotulelei.

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Payson High sharpshooter Tanner Newbold has committed to play basketball for Central Wyoming Community College in Riverton, Wyo.
Tanner Newbold is the younger brother of former Utah State star Tyler Newbold.
He averaged 17.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game for the 18-6 Lions last season, connecting on 74 of 148 three-point attempts for a sparkling 50 percent from long range. Newbold shot 59 percent from two-point range as well (68 for 115).
Against Monte Vista, Calif., Newbold had seven three-pointers and 27 points.
Central Wyoming is coached by former Utah Valley and Louisiana Tech assistant coach Curtis Condie.
Condie was also a head coach at Wasatch and South S...

While they await their NCAA Tournament destination, BYU's West Coast Conference champion women's basketball team has added a valuable piece to its future.
Jessica Chatman, a 6-foot wing from Union High in Washington has committed to coach Jeff Judkins' program. Chatman just finished her sophomore season.
She is the daughter of former Cougar great Jeff Chatman and the sister of Jordan Chatman, a senior who signed with BYU last November.
Jordan Chatman already has his church mission call -- to Taiwan -- and will enroll at BYU in 2014.
Jessica Chatman is described on the ESPN recruiting website this way: "A young wing prospect with upside. Her 6-foot frame has a strong b...

Siale Havili Fakailoatonga, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound tight end out of Cottonwood H.S., has committed to the Utes for their 2013 class. He was also offered by BYU but chose the Utes because he felt at home there, he said.
"I could definitely see myself there," he said.

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Former Olympus High star Nicholas Paulos is playing his college basketball a long way from home, but he's flourishing as a freshman at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
Paulos helped UNCG recover midway through the season after the Spartans started 2-8 and then fired coach Mike Dement. They were 2-14 at one point, but interim coach Wes Miller got it turned around, and they won 10 of their next 14 games to finish 12-18, including 10-8 in conference play.
Paulos, who played at a prep school for a year after graduating from Olympus, is the teams sixth-leading scorer with a 5.6 average. In the last five games, he has averaged nine points and 17 minutes a game. In an early n...

Cale Strong, a senior at Wasatch High in Heber City, has signed a letter of intent to run track at Stanford.
Strong won the 3A state 110 meter high hurdles and the 300 IM hurdles last year as a junior with the fastest times in the state, 1A through 5A.
His personal bests are 14.59 seconds in the 110s and 38.35 in the 300s and broke 40-year-old school records at Wasatch.
Because he also plays basketball, Strong did not compete heavily in the winter indoor track season, but still ran a 7.62 in the 55-meter hurdles at the Weber State meet in January, the fastest time in Utah and one of the 20 fastest times in the U.S. this year.
Strong was also recruited by BYU, Air Force, U...

Cooper Bateman's mark as the state's most coveted recruit in the class of 2013 just earned more support.

Three more schools, including defending national champion Alabama, offered the junior quarterback a scholarship on Thursday. Pac-12 schools Arizona State and California also joined the running for Bateman. His list of offers also includes Auburn, Arkansas, Florida, Colorado, Maryland, BYU, Utah and Boise State.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban spoke to Bateman on Thursday and offered him a scholarship.

Bateman threw for 2,484 yards and 25 touchdowns last year for the 5-5 Colts.

— Bill Oram

...

One of the top girls volleyball players in the state of Utah has signed to play for Utah State.
Pleasant Grove's McKell Staheli, a 5-foot-3 libero, will enroll at USU this fall as a freshman.
Staheli was the Region 4 MVP in 2011 and a Tribune first-team all-state selection. She was also PG's MVP and defensive MVP last season.
Staheli recorded 518 digs last season, a state single-season record.

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