Now that the roller coaster ride that was basketball season is officially (mercifully) over and not yet having ventured east to witness spring football myself, we’ve officially reached a pretty slow time to write about Cougar sports. With that in mind, I wanted to take some time to catch up on some former Cougs making waves at various levels of professional athletics. There are loads of former Cougs living the dream across a handful of sports so I’m going to make this a two-parter with more to come next week. For now, I’ll start with basketball and baseball alumni. Being that it’s the opening weekend for Major League Baseball, our national past time seemed like a good place to start. Click on the jump for a little “Where Are They Now?”.
Mark Hendrickson, P
The big lefty from Mount Vernon was set to enter his 10th season in the Bigs with the Baltimore Orioles, but they recently designated him for assignment. He’s weighing the option to to see if he’ll play for the O’s Triple A affiliate or try to find another club that will have him. The baseball odyssey can be a rough one when you’re on the periphery of major league rosters, but hopefully Hendrickson will find his way back to the majors soon.
Jared Prince, OF
Working his way through the Texas Rangers organization, Prince is currently listed as a member of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Class A Carolina League. Incidentally, I once worked at a concession stand at Pfitzner Stadium in Prince William County, Virgina, home of the Potomac Nationals also of the Carolina League. If this were 10 years ago, there’s a good chance I’d have made Jared Prince nachos at some point, which would have been awesome.
Matthew Way, P
Way’s baseball journey has landed him in Clearwater, Florida, home of the Threshers. Evidently a Thresher is a shark. The minor leagues are chock full of mascots that you have to Google. I guess this is part of the charm.
Jeremy Johnson, P
Johnson, a right-handed pitcher, was drafted by the Indians in the 13th round of the 2009 draft. He now finds himself listed with the Lake County Captains of the Class A Midwest League, still in the Indians organization.
Alex Burg, C
Another 2009 draftee, Burg is on the Augusta GreenJackets roster. On another personal note, I used to own a GreenJackets hat. It’s very likely I was the only eighth grader at my school with that distinction.
Shea Vucinich, 2B
A 2010 draftee, Vucinich hit .265 last year for the Helena Brewers of the Rookie Pioneer League in the Milwaukee organization.
Michael Weber, 3B
Still finding his baseball home in the state of Washington, Weber played last season for the Yakima Bears in the Diamondbacks organization.
Professional baseball is a tangled web with players all over the country at various levels so I may have missed someone. If I did, please feel free to add them to the comments.
Moving on the basketball, there was some big news on the alumni front this week. Cougar great Kyle Weaver was plucked from D-League obscurity to sign a 10 day contract with the Utah Jazz. In his first game with the Jazz, Kyle scored two points, both from the free throw line and added two assists in 10 minutes of action. Let’s hope that one 10-day contract turns into another, but at the very least it’s great to see Kyle is still very much on the NBA radar.
Here’s a rundown of some other Cougs getting paid to play basketball:
Derrick Low
First a quick Derrick Low anecdote. Did you know that Low committed to Washington State without ever having seen Pullman? That’s crazy! You know what else? Jermoe Bettis is from Detroit! I digress. In more current news, Low is averaging 6.5 points for Maccabi Haifa in Israel. Most impressively, the Hawaiian and Cougar legend is shooting 47.5% from three point range.
Ivory Clark
I seem to remember hearing that Clark was playing professional basketball somewhere in Europe, but couldn’t find any recent articles about him that are actually written in English. If anybody has better information about his whereabouts, please help me out.
Taylor Rochestie
Hey look! It’sTaylor Rochestie playing basketball! It seems pretty clear he’s playing professionally in Germany. Any German translators out there?
Aron Baynes
The Big Aussie has also found his way to Germany, playing for a team called EWE Baskets Oldenburg. For the 2010/11 season, Baynes is averaging 6.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game in about 16 and-a-half minutes of action. In other news, he’s still huge and the Baskets have a pretty crazy mascot.
Nikola Koprivica
The Class of 2010 graduate out of Serbia has made his way to Greece teaming up with former Laker Smush Parker to play for IraklisThessaloniki. I imagine he’s pretty comfortable there, what with Greece’s uncanny resemblance to Pullman and all.
Notable Others
The are a couple others who had brief stints at WSU before moving on to less green pastures that are kicking around. Josh Akognan has made his way to China to play for Dongguan. He’s apparently brought his scoring ability with him, as he dropped 43 points in the CBA quaterfinals the other day. Thomas Abercrombie who departed Pullman to play professionally back home now finds himself with the New Zealand Breakers in the Australasian National Basketball League. Another Cougar import/export Rodrigo de la Fuente is playing in Italy for something called Teramo Basket. They appear to be in last place and the team photo gives no indication that they should be faring any better.
Basketball is truly a global game and it’s great to see so many players with Cougar ties still out there practicing their craft. If you’ve ever read former NBA and Euro journeyman Paul Shirley’s book, “Can I Keep My Jersey?” you know that the life of a basketball nomad can be a trying one, but loving the game keeps these guys going. It’s a far cry from the soon to be locked out NBA.
I’ll be back next week to update you on the whereabouts of some more Cougs across the world’s sporting landscape. Until then….
Go Cougs.
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