Gould, a Maize High School graduate, had signed to play for Wichita State’s baseball team, and would have likely been a starter for the Shockers as a freshman, perhaps a weekend starter. But I was under the impression for awhile he would be picked really high in the Major League Baseball draft and he never would set foot on the WSU campus.

Gould is getting a $900,000 signing bonus. After signing, he immeditely got to work attending a Dodgers rookie practice in Arizona this weekend. He could be heading for the Dodgers minor league team in Ogden, Utah.

It was reported the $900,000 figure Gould received is $337,500 more than what MLB recommends paying the 65th draft pick. Guess the Dodgers really wanted him to sign.

Tobin Mateychick, another WSU signee chosen in the draft, has not signed with the Detroit Tigers. He has until tomorrow’s deadline to sign, but it appears he is bound for WSU.

The Shockers went undefeated in conference play last year, and return several key players.

WSU was chosen for first on 9 or 10 ballots, and picked second on the other one. That gave the Shockers 99 total points.

Missouri State and UNI appear to be the Shockers greatest threats. Missouri State got the other first place vote and 87 points overall. UNI had 83. Creighton was a distant fourth.

Also, three of the eight preseason all-conference selections were Shockers. Senior outside hitter Emily Stockman, junior middle blocker Sarah McGee, and sophomore setter Mary Elizabeth Hooper all were chosen for all-conference honors.

Here’s the complete poll and all-conference team:

2009 MVC Preseason Coaches Poll
1.    Wichita State (9)    99
2.    Missouri State (1)    87
3.    UNI            83
4.    Creighton        67
5.    Southern Illinois        49
6.    Evansville        47
7.    Illinois State        42
8.    Drake            33
9.    Bradley           24
10.    Indiana State        19

Preseason All-Conference Team
Jessica Houts, Creighton
Peggy Riessen, Illinois Sstate
Cara Hackmann, Missouri State
Calli Norman, Missouri State
Shannon Aschoff, UNI
Mary Elizabeth Hooper, Wichita State
Sarah McGee, Wichita State
Emily Stockman, Wichita State

Volleyball Magazine’s preseason poll had WSU ranked 17th along with St. Louis University. Penn State was ranked No. 1 followed by Texas, Nebraska, Washington and Stanford. WSU lost to Texas in the NCAA tournament a year ago.

Iowa State is the third Big 12 team in the poll, ranked 11th. K-State was not listed in the poll.

The 2009 American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll has not come out yet. A year ago WSU did not make the top 25 preseason poll, but received votes. They entered the poll Sept. 1 and did not leave the rest of the season.  

WSU opens the season Aug. 28-30 with a tournament in Louisville against Belmont, Pittsburgh and Louisville.  

Here’s the complete Volleyball Magazine poll:

1. Penn State
2. Texas
3. Nebraska
4. Washington
5. Stanford
6. California
7. Hawaii
8. Minnesota
9. Florida
10. UCLA
11. Iowa State
12. USC
13. Illinois
14. Oregon
15. Michigan
16. San Diego
T17. Wichita State
T17. Saint Louis
19. Utah
20. Santa Clara

Young is now moving on having agreed to become the head women’s coach at Oklahoma State. He leaves WSU with a record of 94-38 as women’s coach and three MVC conference titles.

“Chris has been instrumental in rebuilding the Shocker tennis program to the level it is at now, winning MVC Championships and competing at the national level in NCAA Tournaments,”  said WSU Athletic Director Eric Sexton in a news release. “Under his leadership, our tennis program has reached out into the community and been a source of pride.”

Young said he will miss WSU a lot.

“I definitely want to say thank you to Eric Sexton, Becky Endicott and President (Don) Beggs for helping us build a strong program at Wichita State,” Young said. “I think the program at WSU is in a very good place, leading the Missouri Valley Conference, and has a good foundation.”

Before Young’s arrival, Wichita State had never made the NCAA tournament. That changed in 2006 when the Shockers won the Valley tournament. WSU went 27-3 in 2007 and the Shockers beat South Carolina in the NCAA tournanment before falling to Miami. It was the first time an MVC team had won an NCAA tournament match.

This past season the Shockers won 21 of 27 matches and made it back to the NCAA tournament. They lost to Stanford in the first round.

Young leaves behind a deep and experienced Shocker roster, with five key players returning including sophomore Lutfiana Budhiarto, and seniors Stephanie Dalmacio, Florentina Hanisch and Lenore Lazaroiu.

Young also had coached the men’s team during previous seasons but those duties were turned over to Brad Louderback last season. He went 57-36 with two Valley titles as men’s coach.

Louderback will continue as men’s coach and WSU will search for a new women’s coach 

“We have begun an active national search for a new women’s head tennis coach and I am confident we will soon find a quality individual to continue to lead our program at the highest levels,” Sexton said.

Stromgren chose Texas State over Wichita State and helped the Bobcasts perform well the past two season. But the Washburn Rural graduate, was thinking about her career after college.

“I just couldn’t find the right fit for me,” Stromgren told the Topeka Capiral-Journal. “I’ve been thinking about it almost all year. About three weeks ago when it got closer to school starting, I just kept thinking about nursing and not wanting to go back there if there was nothing for me to do about that (at Texas State).”

While WSU women’s golf team hasn’t had the success Texas State has experienced, with Stromgren and several other new additions, the future is looking brighter for the Shockers.

Stromgren had a 78.7 stroke average the past season. Her low round was a 72 and she had two top 20 finishes at the end of the season in the Ryder Canes and Cards Classic and the Southland Conference Championship.

Was considering being the key words. Minnis told WSU Coach Gene Stephenson last week he was coming to Wichita State. Minnis visited Wichita July 29 and got a chance to talk with some of the players. He told the Lawrence Journal-World, he fell in love with WSU.

Minnis was 7-0 with a 0.59 ERA last year. He had 73 strikeouts in the 11 games he pitched. Lawrence High won the Class 6A baseball championship. Minnis had 11 strikeouts and a save in the state tournament.

Minnis had pitched for Park Hill high school previously. He has one more year left at LHS before joining the Shockers in 2010-2011.

 That’s also when Wichita Northwest catcher Bob Arens should join the Shockers. Arens gave his verbal commitment to WSU over K-State. Arens hit .507 with 11 doubles as a junior this past spring. He was an all-state and all-City League selection.  

The two Kansans join Zach Beringer, a Missouri player, who gave WSU an oral commitment earlier this summer.

This week three WSU teams were honored for what they did academically. All three were pretty darn good in sports last year, so this is refreshing seeing they got it done in school, too.

The men’s and women’s tennis teams received a 2009 Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team award. Both squads had cumulative GPA of over 3.2. This is figured by averaging the GPA of every player that appeared in at least one match.

In addition, seven WSU tennis players were named ITA Scholar Athletes for getting at least a 3.5 GPA and being awarded a varsity letter this past school year. The players are Adrian Chermaci, Jonathan Obrist and Scott McCormick from the men’s team and Torrie Browning, Laryssa Ferreira, Lenore Lazaroiu and Lily Wakim from the women’s squad.

The women’s team won the Missouri Valley tournament last season and played in the NCAA tournament at Stanford. The men’s team won four of six regular season conference matches.

Meanwhile, the Wichita State women’s volleyball team was awarded a 2008-2009 American Coaches Association Team Academic Award. The award goes to teams with a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher.

WSU volleyball went undefeated in regular season matches last year and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The 2009 volleyball season gets underway Aug. 28 with a tournament in Louisville against Belmont, Pittsburgh and Louisville.

Maggie Zakrezski became the national champion by knocking over 9,491 pins in a weeklong tournament this month in Indianapolis. Zakrezeski is a junior at Wichita State, and a key member of the WSU bowling team that won the team championship in April.

WSU junior Maggie Zakrezeski won the junior national amateur championship after 44 matches in Indianapolis

“Winning it was the best way to leave the tournament and youth bowling as a whole,” Zakrzewski said in a news release. “I have no words to describe how it feels to be recognized as the best women’s youth bowler. I guess I never thought it was possible, but it feels great to know that I competed with the best and came out on top.”

Zakrezeski, a Palatine, Ill. native, had to bowl consistently well over five days. In fact, she had to compete in 44 matches before being crowned champion. This was her final chance to be eligible to earn a spot on Junior Team USA.

She will be joined on the USA squad by two other Shocker bowlers, juniors Erik Gulbrandson and Jake Peters. Gulbrandson, a member of the 2007-2008 WSU team, took third in the men’s championship. Peters was selected by a committee to join the team. 

A total of 38 WSU bowlers have been selected to Team USA or Junior Team USA.

They didn’t fare well- at all. The U.S. one of the six finalist teams in the FIVB World League championship in Serbia, but the Americans made a quick exit.

Serbia defeated the U.S. on the first day of tournament in a sweep, 25-20, 25-23, 25-22. Then the Russians knocked USA out of the tournament with another sweep, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23.

“We had a good process in the World League but a better end was expected,” said USA coach Alan Knipe. “We leave knowing a lot more about our team and the others as well. A lot of work has to be done and we have to be able to add some more experience with other players and develop into a better Volleyball unit.”

Of course, the end goal for the Americans and every other team is victory at the 2012 Olympics in London, still  three years away.

In other World League action, Cuba beat Argentina, but then lost a match to Brazil. The tournament concludes Sunday with the championship match. The U.S. was the defending champion.

Both of those players along with Andrew Letourneau received significant playing time last season for WSU. But because of changes to NCAA scholarship rules, they along with pitchers Carmeron Maldonado and Clint Maune were not going to have athletic scholarships for the upcoming school year.

All five players would have to pay out-of-state tuition to remain enrolled at WSU. They have elected to transfer. Brown will transfer to Central Oklahoma and Rosecrans is heading to Grayson County College in Texas. Maldonado elected to transfer to Colorado State-Pueblo while Maune will attend Oklahoma City University, an NAIA school.

The new rules limit WSU to 35 players on the roster and 27 scholarship players. WSU only had one senior on the roster, and thus 32 guys returned to the team prior to the transfers. The Shockers added 10 newcomers (9 freshman and UNI transfer Travis Bennent) although Garrett Gould may elect to sign with the Dodgers, who drafted him in the second round last month.

Nonetheless, it’s still ended up being too many players and too many scholarships so something had to give. Gene Stephenson told the Wichita Eagle that other players on WSU’s roster also gave up scholarships but will remain with the team and pay their own way.

All five players had up and down moments during the 2009 season. Brown led the team with.338 average. He got off to an en fuego start where he was hitting above .400 most of early part the season. He started 43 games and had 52 hits.

Rosecrans appeared in 37 games, hitting .258 with 28 hits. He had 10 RBI and scored 9 times. Letourneau started in the outfield in early season games as Stephenson looked to find the right outfielders to pair with Ryan Jones. The freshman hit .176 though he scored 16 runs, the most of any reserve. He stole five bases and had 7 RBI.

Maldonado went 1-1 with 5.60 ERA as primarily a mid-week starter. He started six games and came out of the pen twice. He had 19 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched. Maune was 1-1 with a 7.53 ERA in 12 relief appearances.