Area roundup: Medrano new NC girls basketball coach

Gabe Medrano has witnessed considerable success during his career as both player and assistant coach. He’ll get a chance to apply it as the girls basketball coach at North Central.

Medrano moves from the boys program where he’s been an assistant and replaces Angela Huntley, who coached the Indians for two years. He’s had 11 years of assistant coaching experience at Liberty and NC.

“I contemplated it and thought now’s the time,” said Medrano, a 1992 Liberty graduate who assisted Dave Baird for two Liberty state qualifiers and Jay Webber with two NC boys state placers. “Jay and I talked a bit about this. I’ve been lucky to have worked with him.”

Medrano said he came to NC to assist football in 2003 – which he still does – and eventually was hired to teach full time.

“I’ve been teaching freshmen the last four years and watched most of those (girls basketball) kids,” he said.

The Indians bring back their entire team. He said he will emphasize a motion based inside-to-outside offense and man-to-man defense.

“We will do stuff I think will work and they must buy into a team concept,” Medrano said. “We played in the Kimmel Athletic tournament at Gonzaga Prep and they did some really good things.”

•Two Cougars arrested: Washington State football players Tyree Toomer and LeAndre Daniels were arrested by campus police Tuesday, accused of burglary of bicycles and a hacksaw.

The players have been suspended from the team and will go through the usual process involving student-athletes to determine what action could be taken, WSU Sports Information Director Bill Stevens said.

Both players are defensive backs. Toomer, a sophomore who started four games last season, is listed second on WSU’s spring depth chart at strong safety behind Xavier Hicks, who was arrested last week and cited for driving with a suspended license. Daniels, a redshirt freshman, is listed third at free safety.

•Shock top rankings again: The Shock are ranked No. 1 for the 13th consecutive week in the arenafootball2 coaches poll. Spokane received 23 of 25 first-place votes and 383 of a possible 384 points.