Urban signs letter with Friends

            Jenny Urban is very happy to have her basketball career extend beyond Barton County Community College. Especially after an injury-plagued sophomore campaign for the Cougars. Urban signed a letter-of-intent to play basketball next season for Friends University in Wichita. It sounds like a perfect match.

            "I wanted to play basketball really bad and they wanted to me to play for them," Urban said of Friends.

            One of the main reasons for Urban, a native of Burrton, wanted to continue her career so badly was this year's season was cut short. Urban played in just 16 games this season -- only two in the Jayhawk Conference -- before suffering a knee injury that ended her career at Barton.

            "I am ready to play again," Urban said. "As soon as I found out that my season was over, I wanted to play basketball again so bad. It worked out I am going to."

            With Friends, Urban gets a school that has been very successful the past several seasons. In the past nine years, Friends has been the NAIA Division II National Tournament three times. Last year was the first time in the last five years the Falcons did not finish in the top three in the KCAC.

            This season Gayla Soyez steps in as the head coach for Friends after five years as an assistant with the Falcons.

            "Jenny is a very hard-nosed player, and I like hard-nosed players," Soyez said. "She is also very intense and will bring a lot to our basketball team."

            In her limited time last season at Barton County, Urban started five games, averaging four points and four rebounds.

Stats

            Game boxes and cumulative stats can be found at the following website.

Barton County Women's Basketball at http://www.barton.cc.ks.us/sports/WB_01-02/wbasketball_01-02.htm