Four 'Hounds sign with four-year schools

Fort Scott Community College sophomores (from left) Valencia Kelly, Brittany Demery, Kasey Teich and Sherokee Bloodworth signed letters of intent with four-year schools Monday afternoon in the board room on the FSCC campus. Kelly and Demery both signed with NCAA Division I Western Illinois. Teich and Bloodworth signed with Lindenwood-Belleville, which is starting up an NAIA program next season. (Scott Nuzum/Tribune)

Four sophomores on Fort Scott Community College's women's basketball team signed their letters of intent with four-year schools Monday afternoon in the board room on campus.

Valencia Kelly and Brittany Demery signed with Western Illinois, a member of the NCAA Division I Summit League located in Macomb, Ill. The conference includes Missouri-Kansas City, so both will play close to their junior-college home at least twice in their careers.

Kasey Teich and Sherokee Bloodworth both singed with Lindenwood-Belleville. This is a branch campus of Lindenwood University, located in St. Charles, Mo. The Belleville, Ill., campus will start up an athletics program in 2010-11 and Teich and Bloodworth will be part of that program's first-ever season of competition.

Seeing her players sign with their new schools is "better than any season record we can have," according to FSCC head coach Diana Couch. "One thing that I've always been proud of is that when ladies come into our program, they get opportunities to move to the next level. And when I came to Fort Scott, I knew it would be even more of a possibility because Fort Scott has a great reputation in basketball and so many coaches call based on that. And they see these young ladies and know they're academically ready, know they're athletically ready and the best part is, they're getting great kids."

Kelly and Demery had been thinking about attending the same four-year school together and got the opportunity at Western Illinois.

"We were thinking about being at the same school together," Kelly said. "But if it didn't work out that way, that would have been all right, too."

Demery will be returning to Division I as she played at Texas-Pan American for one season before coming to Fort Scott.

"I'm excited about going back to that level," Demery said. "It's where I want to be."

"I'm going to be there for the first time," Kelly added. "And I can't wait. I think I'm ready."

Both players experienced growth on and off the court in their time at Fort Scott and reflected on what they've learned here that they can take with them to Illinois.

"My outside game," Kelly said. "Discipline. I know the game a little better. And in the classroom, everything will be all right all around."

"I can say I will take my outside game because I developed it a lot more while I was here," Demery said. "And I've learned discipline in the class room."

Western Illinois' head coach, Leslie Crane, has ties to the Jayhawk Conference, which includes Fort Scott. She was head coach at Kansas City Kansas from 1993-97 and won 117 games, three Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division titles and finished fifth in the nation in 1997. With a record of 173-144 at Western Illinois, Crane is the program's all-time winningest coach. She is also the only coach to lead a team to four consecutive Summit League regular-season titles (2003-06).

There are four more sophomores who are in the process of making their four-year choice: Shadara Hampton, Joy Hathaway, Tashanda Jackson and Chioma Okoronkwo.