Men’s Basketball Adds Standouts to 08-09 Squad

[Michael Miller]

Oakland, CA - Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Dennis Jones, is pleased to announce the signing of two more student-athletes, Benjamin Clyde and Richard Westphaln. Clyde and Westphaln were teammates the past two years at East Los Angeles College, competing in the tough North Division of the South Coast Conference.
Clyde, a 6’5” forward, is an accomplished defender. He helped lead La Salle High School to back to back Santa Fe League Championships in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. While at ELAC Ben received the Team’s Hustler award as a freshman, and as a sophomore, he was awarded ELAC’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Westphaln is a 6’10” Center from Gardenia, California did not play organized basketball until he arrived on the ELAC campus. An accomplished Tennis player in High School and beyond, Richard grew more than 5 inches after his Graduation from Keppel High School. He would prove to be a major factor on the boards and defensively for the Huskies the past two seasons and has established a consistent medium ranger jump shot to complement his post game.
“Our staff continues to be very excited with our recruiting class,” said Coach Jones. “Rick and Ben are two more great additions to our program; they have tremendous character and will show up and compete every single day.”

Clyde and Westphaln join a Holy Names Team that went 16 - 16 overall in 2007 - 2008, including 8 – 8 (5th place) in California Pacific Conference play. The Hawks had won back to back California Pacific Conference Tournaments titles earning automatic bids to the 2006 and 2007 NAIA II National Tournaments. The 2007 season marked just the second time in Men's Basketball history that the team won the regular season and conference tournament title in the same year.