Guevara: Mauk twins ‘seemed unhappy’ during season

• Tweet
• 

CMU women’s basketball coach Sue Guevara challenged her team to re-evaluate themselves and their situation at the end of the season.

Two players, freshmen guards Rachel and Stefanie Mauk, did so and made the decision to leave the team after one season at CMU.

“I found out the Sunday evening before the start of workouts,” Guevara said. “They just walked in, (said they were) not real happy and wanted to go home. I asked the both of them if there was anything that would make (them) happy.”

Guevara said the Mauks seemed unhappy and things became worse for the twins when both sustained injury and illness during the season. Rachel played minimal minutes in the beginning of the season following a back injury suffered in the weight room.

Stefanie missed four games toward the end of the regular season with flu-like symptoms and pink eye.

“Sometimes after you go through a whole season, you kind of sit back and look over everything, and (they) just decided this wasn’t where they wanted to be,” she said. “I think it was a decision they made together — I don’t think it was one or the other.”

During an interview in February, Rachel told CM Life she was unhappy at the start of the 2009 season, citing homesickness and a lack of playing time as the primary reasons.

“I don’t think Rachel was lying when she did that article,” Guevara said. “At that time, she wasn’t happy, and then she was a playing a little bit more. But I think, underlying, this wasn’t where they wanted to be.”

Guevara said the team has continued off-season workouts like normal.

“I worked the kids out Tuesday and Wednesday for about an hour each day and nobody’s down about it,” she said. “The response has been, ‘If they don’t want to be a part of this team, then they’re not a part of this team.’”

Senior guard Kendra Holman said she did not know Rachel and Stefanie were planning to leave the team.

“They didn’t say anything to me,” Holman said. “I thought they were going to stay because they were thinking of leaving at the beginning of the season and decided to stay.”

Asked if she thought the Mauk twins felt comfortable during their time at CMU,
Guevara said: “If they did, I didn’t see it.”

Other players could not be reached for comment.

RAMIFICATIONS

With the Mauks’ departure, two scholarships have opened up for future use. Guevara said there are no plans to fill them with the 2010-11 recruiting class, but will put them to use in the 2011-12 class.

The loss of Kendra Holman and Heidi Warczinsky due to eligibility opens up the guard spot.

Returning in 2010-11 to the Chippewas is 2009 MAC Freshman of the Year Brandie Baker, who sat out all of last season following ACL surgery. Freshmen Jalisa Olive and juniors Shonda Long and Camille Ramsey also return.

In addition, Lauren Bellamy (Davison High School), Nichole DiGuilio (Mount Vernon, Ohio) and Taylor Johnson (Belding High School) will join the Chippewas next season.

“It puts a hole as far as the contributions that both kids could have brought to us, but I
think we’ll be OK,” Guevara said. “If I’m a freshman coming in, I’m looking at the guard spot – there’s minutes to be gotten.”