Local notebook: More old faces in new places
Jun. 24—Another Bakersfield native has joined the professional baseball ranks, as Ridgeview and Bakersfield College alum Kamron Willman made his debut with the Missoula (Mont.) PaddleHeads of the independent Pioneer League on Sunday.
Playing second base, he went 2-for-3 with a home run and a sacrifice fly in his first game against the Glacier Range Riders, then stayed hot in the following series at Idaho Falls with a total statline of 5-for-13 with five RBIs.
During a discontinuous college career that included a season lost to valley fever at BC, Willman showed steady improvement during stints at Kansas State and New Mexico, culminating in a final season hitting .310 for the Lobos that ended May 21.
Less than a month later, he found his way to Missoula, where the Pioneer League regular season continues through September.
A Jent of change: Five years after it ceased to exist, the Bakersfield Jam continues to carve out some small presence in the NBA world. Chris Jent, who was the team's final head coach during the 2015-16 season before it moved to Arizona, was hired last week by the Los Angeles Lakers to serve as an assistant on new coach Darvin Ham's staff. Jent most recently served in a similar capacity with the Atlanta Hawks, but will head back to California to rejoin LeBron James, whom he tutored closely during a late-2000s stint with the Cavaliers. Another ex-Jam coach, Nate Bjorkgren, is listed as a "coaching consultant" for the Toronto Raptors.
Former Condor soaring: In possibly the least surprising move of the offseason, Jay Woodcroft officially signed a three-year contract to stay on as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday. After he and assistant Dave Manson came up from the Bakersfield Condors in mid-February, the Oilers surged to a 26-9-3 record down the stretch and made a rare appearance in the NHL Western Conference Finals. No news yet on Manson, whose job was not officially confirmed in Woodcroft's press conference, although the assistant received a lot of credit in the media for the improvement of Edmonton defensemen Cody Ceci and Darnell Nurse down the stretch.
There is even less clarity as of Friday surrounding the status of Condors head coach Colin Chaulk, who took over upon Woodcroft and Manson's departure and kept Bakersfield steady into the playoffs, but still has an "interim" before his title.
Ford accelerates: It was a big week for Cal State Bakersfield women's basketball, between the acquisitions of two key guard transfers (Taylor Caldwell from Grand Canyon and Shaunae Brown from Canisius) and the announcement of the Big West Conference schedule (beginning Dec. 29 at home against UC Riverside). One other piece of news came out Monday: the promotion of director of basketball operations Ciarra Ford to assistant coach. A native of Long Beach and former Roadrunner point guard herself, Ford previously held an assistant role at CSU Dominguez Hills during the 2018-19 season after coaching high school for several years. She now joins longtime assistants Zack Grasmick and Xavier Johnson on Greg McCall's staff. CSUB has not yet announced a new director of basketball operations.
Hurdle cleared: CSUB's track and field team is one of the school's most prolific local recruiters, and a pair of Stockdale alums had little trouble adjusting to the college level this season. Coach Marcia Mansur-Wentworth declared thrower Matthew Garrett, a redshirt freshman, and hurdler Jaztyn Greer, a true freshman, the Roadrunners' Newcomers of the Year. Greer posted marks of 15.03 in the 100-meter hurdles and 64.75 in the 400-meter hurdles (the latter already 10th all-time at CSUB), while also competing in the 1600-meter relay; Garrett's best results were 51 feet, 3 inches in the shot put and 175 feet, 2 inches in the hammer throw. The Roadrunners' roster for 2022 also included two additional Stockdale graduates: pole vaulter Kassidy Neptune and thrower Jacob Whitby.
Portals: Catcher Bailey Seeger is leaving CSUB after just one season to join those same New Mexico Lobos. Seeger, a transfer from Pima Community College, showed promise offensively and ended the season with a .301 batting average (28-for-93) but started just 23 of 52 games, splitting time behind the plate with Angel Saldivar while picking up sporadic playing time at designated hitter.
Shaun Williams arrived at CSUB from Kansas State with plenty expected of him at the point guard spot and made a strong impression coming off the bench in the shortened 2020-21 season, averaging 9.3 points per game with a 24-point showing in 25 minutes against UC San Diego. Upon returning to the Roadrunners the following year, though, Williams had a few strong appearances in the early going but saw his playing time diminish dramatically in December, before leaving the school. Now he will join the Division I University of Illinois-Chicago Flames.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
