Local notebook: New beginnings this spring for numerous Kern athletes
Mar. 2—The start of spring sports provides a great opportunity to check in on a variety of local athletes playing at new schools for the first time.
Centennial alum Lexi McLeod is continuing her beach volleyball career at nationally ranked Pepperdine this year as a graduate transfer. She previously played at CSUN, where she was teammates with two other former Golden Hawks in Mikaela Maughan and Lauren Eknoian. In three seasons with the Matadors from 2019-2021, she went 31-27, most recently pairing with Seyvion Waggoner for all 25 matches as a junior in 2021. Noelle Rooke, who was CSUN's head coach in previous years, also joined Pepperdine as an assistant ahead of this season. Maughan and Eknoian are still in Northridge, where the Matadors will be overseen by their indoor coach John Price, the former longtime Cal State Bakersfield leader, who was elevated to a broader "director of women's volleyball" role in June. Pepperdine and CSUN play each other on April 8.
In other volleyball news, Hailey Plugge is back playing closer to home after joining Sacramento State as a midyear transfer. She appeared in just 10 matches over three years at Wichita State. Joining the Hornets will also give her the opportunity to play beach volleyball, a sport the Shockers do not sponsor. Indeed, after Wednesday's season opener, she has already picked up one win in the No. 5 spot paired with Caty Cordano. Sacramento State doesn't play in Bakersfield this year, although the Hornets are part of the Big West for beach volleyball and will take on CSUB at the Big West Challenge in San Luis Obispo later this month. Plugge is also the older sister of Travis Plugge, the former Garces quarterback who now plays at St. Thomas.
Sacramento State also obtained the services of Gamiez Helm, the do-everything skill-position player for the 2022 section champion Kennedy football team. He will now become the second Thunderbird to join Sacramento State in recent years; the Hornets' starting right tackle, Ivan Garza, will be a redshirt junior for the team in 2023.
Diamond sports are kicking into gear, and the Missoula PaddleHeads of the unaffiliated Pioneer League announced in February that they have added Evan Berkey to their roster. Berkey earned All-Big West second-team honors as an infielder for CSUB in 2021, when he hit .324 with a .500 slugging percentage in the Roadrunners' first-ever campaign in the conference. He then transferred, fittingly, to Evansville (before Ziggy Siegfried made the same move to become the Purple Aces' athletic director) and started at second base for a year. Now, he is expected join a team that already has Kamron Willman, a product of Ridgeview and Bakersfield College, on its roster. The PaddleHeads open their season at the Billings Mustangs on May 23.
On a similar note, Lawrence White IV signed with a familiar arena football team, the San Diego Strike Force of the Indoor Football League, which used to be home to fellow Bakersfield native EJ Johnson until he left for the Iowa Barnstormers. White, another Ridgeview product who spent the 2021 preseason with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, participated in an XFL showcase last summer but didn't catch on with any team in that league and will now try his hand at the indoor game.
Xabi Iparraguirre was one of the few bright spots in BC's 2022 baseball season. The catcher and first baseman from Highland earned all-conference honors after batting .376 with nine home runs and 36 RBIs. He parlayed that performance into a spot at Chico State, and the step up to NCAA Division II competition doesn't seem to have hampered him much so far. Iparraguirre already has four multi-hit games in the Wildcats' first eight.
Conagher Sands has resurfaced. The former Centennial standout excelled for Cal Poly as a freshman in 2019, putting together a 23-game hitting streak, but chose to leave the school midway through his sophomore year to be close to home after his mother and grandfather both developed cancer. He was initially slated to join CSUB in 2021 but ended up playing JUCO ball at Howard College in Texas instead. After briefly attending New Mexico, Sands returned to the field for the Clarinda A's, a summer collegiate baseball team in Iowa, last year and now attends Division II Angelo State. He has one at-bat so far this season in his penultimate year of eligibility.
Logan Kilgore's second stint at Arkansas State was even shorter than his first. After initially agreeing to join the Red Wolves' staff for next year as a tight ends coach — he previously served as an offensive analyst in 2021 — the former BC quarterback has instead moved up to the NFL level as a quality control coach on Sean Payton's Denver Broncos staff. Payton was Kilgore's head coach when he briefly played for the New Orleans Saints in 2014.
As her former teammates prepare for the Big West Conference tournament, Tatyanna Clayburne announced on social media Wednesday that she is transferring to Texas Southern. As a freshman in 2021-22, Clayburne averaged 4.5 points in 20.7 minutes per game for the CSUB women's basketball team. Now, Clayburne will join the Tigers next season. They are 2-26 this year with one game to go.
Kaylee Covert, who authored a memorable senior night for CSUB women's soccer in October when she scored her first career goal and assisted on another in her final home game, has one year of eligibility left and will use it at Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference. She joined the Gaels as a midyear transfer.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
