Rachel Banham, a member of the University of Minnesota women's basketball staff starting in the fall of 2022, will be leaving the program when she travels to Connecticut for the upcoming WNBA season. Banham spent last season as the Gophers' assistant coach and director of quality control.
“We are very grateful to Rachel for being an integral part of our coaching staff last season,” Gophers coach Dawn Pritzweit said in a statement. “Rachel has been an integral part of our program. An important alumnus, she has helped us in so many ways, including increasing alumni involvement.”
Banham, the leading scorer in program history, will be playing in her ninth WNBA season, returning to the Sun, the team that selected her with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft. She Banham played at Connecticut from 2016-19 and with the Lynx from 2020-23. She played in 222 games and averaged 5.2 points in 13.4 minutes.
kent youngblood
Gophers' Ayianna Johnson enters name into portal
Gophers women's backup center Ayanna Johnson has entered her name into the NCAA transfer portal. Johnson's freshman season ended with her missing five of the Gophers' WNIT Tournament games due to a concussion. She appeared in 32 games and started the final six games of the regular season in place of the injured Sophie Hart. Johnson averaged 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds. Johnson, who played at Jefferson (Wisconsin) High School, was originally going to play for Pritzweit in West Virginia, but she switched to the Gophers after Pritzweit was hired by Minnesota.
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Johnson is the second Gophers player to enter the portal, joining Ajok Madole. The Gophers acquired a player from the portal late last week when former Wayzata star post Annika Stewart announced she would be transferring from Nebraska to play for the Gophers as a graduate student.
kent youngblood
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— The Gophers wrestling program has added transfer player Tommy Askey to the roster, coach Brandon Eggum announced.
A native of Pine Bush, N.Y., Askey spent the past four seasons at Appalachian State University, where he was a two-time SoCon champion and earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships at 157 pounds. He has a 74-35 record with the Mountaineers, including a 15-0 undefeated mark in league play over the past two seasons. He was a two-time All-Conference honoree.
—John Bartz, former associate director of MSHSL, passed away on April 9th. Mr. Barts, a resident of Badnais Heights, was 89 years old.
Bartz worked at MSHSL from 1985 to 2001. Prior to that, he served as Tartan High School's athletic director for 16 years. He began his career as a teacher and coach at North St. Paul High School.
He is a member of the MSHSL Hall of Fame and the Hamline University Athletic Hall of Fame.
Joel Rippel