CWC CATCHES FIRE WITH WEEKEND TOURNAMENT

Article courtesy of WyoToday Media

Over the course of the past month the Central Wyoming College (CWC) Lady Rustlers basketball team has been helping out local girls with their basketball skills clinic and team camps, ending in a large tournament this past weekend. Along with many coaches from all over the state, teams from towns like Lovell, Jackson Hole and Cheyenne all showed up to put their skills to the test against the rest of the girls from around Wyoming.

Not only did the team camp tournament give coaches a chance to see some of their talent for the upcoming season, but it gave CWC coach Layton Westmoreland a stage to see the skill and talent around the county and the state.

“There were definitely some talented players,” Coach Westmoreland said. “It gave me an opportunity to see what the talent pool looks like in the state … There are a couple teams I’m going to be watching a little closer next year.”

Westmoreland, who will be entering his second season as the CWC Lady Rustlers’ basketball coach, has done nothing but get invested and intertwined in the local basketball community with events, camps and clinics. Now Westmoreland has put on his first real tournament full of local talent, and he says he knows what to do next year to make it even bigger.

“We had teams from all over the state,” Coach Westmoreland said. “Of the 17 teams only three were from Fremont County … Next year I want more local coaches and more Fremont County representation.”

Ironically, the two different divisions in the team camp tournament (varsity and junior varsity) were both dominated by a local Fremont County school: Wyoming Indian High School. The Lady Chiefs’ varsity team (below) went undefeated, beating Powell, Burlington, Cheyenne South and Lovell while the Lady Chiefs’ JV team also went undefeated with wins over Jackson, Thermopolis and Saratoga.

They were not the only local team that did exceedingly well though, the new Riverton Lady Wolverines head coach, Mike Bozner, was ecstatic about his girls’ 3-0 record after the weekend.

“The girls came out on fire,” Coach Bozner said.

Both coaches were able to see some of the play they can expect this upcoming season, both of them looking for very different performances considering their time with their respective programs, but one thing that was common between them was their appreciation for what CWC and the Lady Rustlers have been doing around the county.

At the end of the weekend, when the CWC Lady Rustler Basketball Clinic was officially over and Coach Westmoreland now looks to the future.

Now comes the hard part of the offseason for Coach Westmoreland, as well as the rest of the coaches that participated in the weekend. This is the time of year when recruiting, as well as serious weight and skill training, begins and starts to ramp up. Hopefully some of the local talent that Coach Westmoreland has already recruited, along with the transfers and Texas-based players, will all collaborate to create a successful 2023 season for the Lady Rustlers later on this year.