Western State College of Colorado

GUNNISON, Colo. – The Western State College women’s basketball spent the time before last Friday’s practice to meet with members of the Gunnison Middle School girls basketball teams, answering questions and signing autographs for roughly 25 young basketball players.

"This was a great opportunity for our players to meet several young girls in our community," said Western State Head Women's Basketball Coach Latricia Trammell. "As coaches, we visit with our players about doing the right thing and being role models for young girls and I think they really got the point when we had this autograph session. These girls knew how our team did the week before, what players had a great game, they knew several of our players uniform numbers. This was a blast for our team. They found out these girls really look up to them. "

During the question and answer session, questions ranged from why the Mountaineers wore the ankle braces, why there weren’t any numbers on the practice jerseys and how long each Mountaineer has played basketball (answers were, in order: injury prevention, the ideal of putting the team ahead of the player, and as long as 20 years).

The Mountaineer athletes and coaches also spent time signing team photos for each of the young Mustang players before giving a few closing words on practice and determination.

"It was special to see these kids get so excited about our players and it was neat to see our players have a great time with these kids," Trammell said.