Northwest Notes May 23, 2024
Monson adds three assistants to EWU men's basketball staff
CHENEY, Wash. — Eastern Washington men’s basketball head coach Dan Monson announced the hiring of three assistant coaches to his 2024-25 staff Wednesday.
Ryan Lundgren joins Monson as an associate head coach and Larry Anderson will be an assistant coach. Ben Beauchamp will stay in Cheney, retaining his position as assistant coach.
Lundgren spent last season as the head coach for Carroll College, where the Saints went 12-3 in the Frontier Conference and 19-12 overall. Carroll defeated the University of Providence in the conference tournament semifinals to advance to the championship where they fell to Montana Tech. The Saints were then selected to play in the NAIA National Tournament against Cornerstone University (Mich.) in the first round.
Prior to Carroll, Lundgren was the associate head coach at the College of Southern Idaho from 2019-23. In the 2022-23 season, Southern Idaho went undefeated (29-0) and finished as the No. 1 team in the NJCAA Rankings. The team won the regular season titles in 2023 and 2021, with the tournament title in ‘23. CSI qualified for the NJCAA national tournament in 2021 and ‘22 as well.
Lundgren’s first head coaching job was at Vallivue High in Caldwell from 2015-19. He led Vallivue to the Idaho 4A state title game in 2017.
Anderson follows Monson from Long Beach to Eastern after working as an assistant coach for the 2023-24 season. He was key in helping LBSU’s run to the Big West Tournament Championship and a NCAA Tournament berth.
Before working at LBSU, Anderson was an assistant coach at Cerritos College (Norwalk, Calif.) in the 2022-23 season.
Anderson played under Monson at Long Beach from 2008-12 under Monson. In 2012, Anderson was named Big West Defensive Player of the Year as the team won the conference and appeared in the NCAA Tournament. Anderson ranks seventh in LBSU history with 1,538 points, while ranking eighth in assists (362) and ninth in rebounds (591). He was just the second player in program history to have 1500 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists.
Beauchamp will stay in Cheney after serving three years on former Eastern head coach David Riley’s staff. Beauchamp was elevated to assistant coach last season after working as the Director of Player Development (2022-23) and as a Graduate Assistant coach (2021-22).
Before moving to Eastern, Beauchamp spent two seasons (2019-21) as the head assistant coach at Western Colorado University.
McCliment-Call, briefly a Vandal, signs with Montana
Tyler McCliment-Call, who helped Post Falls High win the state 5A girls basketball title as a sophomore in 2018, is one of three transfers who recently signed with Montana, the school announced.
McCliment-Call, a 6-foot guard, played two seasons at Post Falls and two seasons at University High in Spokane Valley. After high school, she spent one year at Portland, the last three at Stephen F. Austin. She will have one year of eligibility remaining at Montana.
McCliment-Call played in the Women’s Basketball Invitational with the Pilots in 2020-21 and was part of Stephen F. Austin teams that went 77-24 the last three seasons and played in one NCAA tournament, one WNIT.
She was a starter at SFA the last two seasons, when she averaged 7.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and made 101 3-pointers.
“She will bring a level of experience at the guard spot that we need,” Montana coach Brian Holsinger said. “She is physical and tough and has played a lot of college basketball games. She has played on really good teams that have won at a high level.”
McCliment-Call originally planned to transfer to Idaho from Stephen F. Austin this spring, but opted out when Vandal coach Carrie Eighmey left after one season to take the head coaching job at South Dakota.
McCliment-Call’s mom, Regan, played basketball at Gonzaga, and her dad, Pat, played baseball at Eastern Washington.
“She wanted to get closer to home,” Holsinger said. “She’s excited to be part of this program. We’re getting an experienced guard on the wing who I think we’ll be able to count on. She does everything you want her to do.”
Mountain West football title game slated for a Friday
The Mountain West football championship game will be nationally televised on FOX for the fifth consecutive year, as announced by FOX Sports.
The championship game is scheduled to kick off Friday, Dec. 6 at 5 p.m. PST.