Two familiar faces at
Southeast Community College are taking new coaching positions with the Storm.
Lynn Schlake was named the new head women’s basketball coach, and Vicki Wooton
is starting up SCC’s first men’s and women’s cross country teams.
Schlake was the assistant
coach for the men’s basketball team for the past 12 years. He is an instructor
in the Agriculture Business & Management Technology program. He says being
a head coach will bring new challenges, such as recruiting.
“My goal is to get more young
women from the area to come and play basketball here,” Schlake said. “Junior
college is very competitive, and people don’t realize the quality of athletes
that we come across.”
Schlake has a team of 16
women, including 12 new players. He’s got women from as far away as New
Zealand, England and Las Vegas, as well as some Nebraska natives.
“The team is going to be very
athletic and physically strong,” Schlake said. “It will be exciting to see how
they all blend together, coming from all over.”
Schlake is working on ways to
get the local community more involved in the Storm basketball program,
including youth basketball clinics and possibly having the Beatrice High School
dance team perform at games.
Courtney Eltiste is the new
assistant women’s coach. She was a student assistant last year for the Storm
and is now a student at Peru State College.
“She’s a great young lady, so
I welcome her to the program,” Schlake said.
The team starts conditioning
Aug. 15, practice begins in October, and the first game is Nov. 5.
Wooton, the former women’s
head basketball coach, is taking on the challenge of starting up the newest
sport at SCC: cross country. Wooton ran cross country and track in college at
Midland University in Fremont, and is excited about her new role.
“I am ecstatic,” Wooton said.
“I walk around with a grin on my face all the time. I’m excited to have this
opportunity.”
Wooton spent 12 years
coaching women’s basketball at SCC and enjoyed it, but her real passion is
running. She previously coached cross country at the middle school, high school
and college levels. She was the head cross country and track coach at Iowa
Wesleyan and Northwest Missouri State. She is excited to add this job to her
resume.
“From the moment (SCC
President) Dr. (Paul) Illich said we would be adding a cross country team, I
told him I would like to coach,” Wooton said.
Wooton has been working hard
the last few months, trying to recruit new and current students to the team.
She has nine members on the men’s team and is trying to find a few more women
to round out that team.
“It’s been a challenge, but
we’ll have a team,” Wooton said.
The team starts practices on
Aug. 15, and the first meet will be Sept. 2 at Northwest Missouri State
University. There will be no home meets this year as the team is still a work
in progress.
“Mostly we want to be as competitive
as we can,” Wooton said. “We want to get the word out that we have a program,
and you can get a good education and then go on.”
Wooton is a business
instructor at SCC.