Soccer hires new head coach Jeremy Clevenger
Idaho has named the program’s fifth head coach. Jeremy Clevenger is set to take the reins at Idaho, with over 10 years of collegiate coaching experience under his belt.
“I was blown away by the University and the people in the athletics department,” Clevenger said in a news release. “I am looking forward to getting to work with this talented team and building on their success.”
Before joining the Vandal squad, Clevenger spent two seasons at Northern Iowa and led the program to unprecedented success. The team under Clevenger won 14 games in 2017, most in program history, recorded 11 shutouts and advanced to the MVC Tournament Championship game.
Jeremy Clevenger
With just weeks to go until the start of his first season at Idaho, he is no stranger to successful first seasons. In his first year at UNI, the Panthers finished the season with the highest conference finish in program history at the time.
Before UNI, Clevenger was the head coach at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo. and spent one season as the assistant coach at Fort Hays State.
Blake takes pro deal overseas
After a summer in the NBA Summer League with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Brayon Blake is set to play in Germany with Löwen Braunschweig in the German Basketball Bundeslinga.
The former Vandal is averaging 3 points per game and 2.6 boards per game for the Cavs in summer league play. Blake and the Cavaliers faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the semi-finals of summer league play Monday, losing 121-109.
Braunschweig finished in 12th in the Bundesliga, the German league, last season with a 14-20 record.
Idaho football ranked fourth and fifth in pre-season polls
In its return to the Big Sky, Idaho football is projected to finish fourth in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll and fifth in the media polls.
Red-shirt sophomore kicker Cade Coffey, senior Kaden Elliss, and junior Noah Johnson were named to the Pre-Season All-Big Sky team Monday.
Idaho garnered 101 points in the coaches’ poll, including one first place vote. In the media poll, the team earned 4883 points with three first-place votes. The 2018 All-Conference team was selected by media professionals who cover the league. The team is made up of 31 student-athletes – 15 on offense, 12 on defense, and four on special teams.
Elliss nabbed one of two spots on the All-Conference team at outside linebacker. He joins Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Josh Buss of Montana.
The rising senior is no stranger to conference accolades. Elliss earned All-Sun Belt recognition each of the past two seasons. With just weeks to go before the start of his senior season, Elliss has already tallied 228 career tackles, five pass interceptions, forced five fumbles, and blocked a kick. Elliss is expected to dabble on the offensive side at tight end, where he recorded seven passes last season for 156 yards and two touchdowns.
Coffey returns to the gridiron after USA Today named him a Freshman All-American. His 2017 44.6 yard-per-punt average would have led the Big Sky. Coffey kicked 20 of his 66 punts at least 50 yards and put the opponent’s offense inside its 20 on 23 different times.
Johnson is one of five offensive linemen on the All-Big Sky Preseason team. Ahead of his junior season, he already started in 22 games at Idaho and was named All-Sun Belt Second Team in 2017. In 2016, he was named to the Sun Belt All-Newcomer Team.
The 2018 season is just weeks away. Fall camp begins the first week of August, with the season opener at Fresno State Sept. 1. Idaho will get things going in the Kibbie Dome Sept. 8 against Western New Mexico.
Vandal men’s basketball adds RayQuawndis to roster
Idaho added another player to its 2018-2019 roster June 27 when RayQuawndis Mitchell signed his letter of intent to play as a Vandal.
“We are really excited to add RayQuawndis to our program,” Idaho Head Coach Don Verlin said in a news release. “We saw him play AAU in April and immediately began working to place him in a prep school with the hopes of signing him in the 2019 class. When we had a scholarship open up a few weeks ago, we arranged for him to come on a visit and he committed to us while he was here.”
Mitchell averaged 22.1 points per game, 6.7 assists, and nearly 10 rebounds per game in his senior year at Blaine High School. He earned All-Conference honors to cap off his high school career.
“His skill level and natural position is as a combo guard, but his size and length will allow him to play all three perimeter positions for us,” Verlin said.
Idaho athletes recognized in Big Sky Scholar-Athletes of the Year accolades
Idaho graduates Mark Kovacs (men’s tennis) and Nejra Solo (women’s basketball) were acknowledged as Idaho’s Big Sky Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
The award is given to one male and one female annually from each Big Sky school.
Solo excelled on and off the court in her senior season as a Vandal, earning her bachelor’s degree in molecular biology in the spring of 2017, finishing with a 3.82 GPA. In her final season as a Vandal, Solo had a 4.0 GPA as a graduate student working toward a master’s degree in plant pathology.
On the court, Solo notched in all 33 games, with 24 starts. The Zenica, Bosnia, native hit 55.9 percent from the floor to lead Idaho and concluded her career with the fifth-best field goal percentage in program history at 52.6 percent.
Kovacs graduated having earned Big Sky All-Academic honors all four years of his Idaho career. As a double-major in business economics and finance, he earned a 4.0 GPA in his final semester and graduated Cum Laude. His final cumulative GPA was 3.69.
Kovacs went equally above and beyond on the court. At the end of his Vandal career, he was a five-time All-Big Sky performer and the program record holder for individual victories at 97. Kovacs was named to the All-Big sky First team in both singles and doubles play the past two years. He helped lead Idaho to three Big Sky Championships in his time. He and partner Carlos Longhi Neto were ranked No. 4 in the ITA Mountain Region in doubles at the end of Kovac’s senior season.
Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2018 is set
Nine individuals will be welcomed into the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame as the Class of 2018, seven former athletes and two life-long financial supporters.
The 2018 class was selected by a committee after the nominations were solicited by the public.
Honorees include Dennis Erickson (football coach), Emily Faurholt (women’s basketball athlete), Howard and Tere Foley (contributors), Allix Lee-Painter (women’s track and field/cross-country athlete), Kayla Mortellaro (women’s golf athlete), Don Newman (men’s basketball athlete), Melinda Owen (women’s track and field athlete) and Chelsea Small (women’s soccer athlete).
The 2018 ceremony will take place Sept. 7 in the Bruce M. Pitman Center.
Football season opener to air on ELEVEN SPORTS
Idaho’s season opener against UC Davis on Sept. 22 will air on ELEVEN SPORTS, the league and network announced Monday.
It will be the fourth game picked up by a Big Sky television partner. Idaho’s contest with Montana State (Oct. 13), Eastern Washington (Oct. 27) and Montana (Nov. 10) will all air on ROOT SPORTS.
ELEVEN SPORTS broadcasts on Big Sky football game a week from Sept. 15 through Nov. 17. The channel is available on DIRECTV channel 623, Verizon Fios channel 597 and AT&T U-verse channel 1665. All Big Sky Conference games throughout the season will be available on WatchBigSky.com and Pluto TV.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]or on Twitter @mere0415