Countless players and coaches on the move
The beginning of the new year is a season of change in the sports world, and Kern County athletes have taken full advantage. Numerous current and former local players have found new homes across a variety of sports, with many trying to break into the coaching field as well.
Seleisa Elisaia, a former first-team All-Big West setter at Cal State Bakersfield, went on to play at Penn State with her final year of eligibility and made her presence felt with the Nittany Lions as one of the top setters in the Big Ten in 2022. Now, she has moved on to playing professionally, announcing Dec. 31 that she would start her career with Las Criollas de Caguas in Puerto Rico.
Former Bakersfield College quarterback Logan Kilgore is back coaching at Arkansas State, after one year spent tutoring highly touted quarterback Arch Manning at Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans. Kilgore served as an offensive analyst for the Red Wolves back in 2021, but left for Newman for a “foundation year” for his family, during which his daughter Cooper was born. This time, he’s returning to Butch Jones’ staff as a full-fledged tight ends coach. In A-State’s press release from Dec. 20, College Football Hall of Famer Archie Manning, the grandfather of Arch, said Kilgore “has been destined to be a coach.”
Just now entering coaching, meanwhile, is Ridgeview alumnus Sheldon Croney, a former Iowa State running back who has now joined Matt Campbell’s Cyclones staff as a graduate assistant working with skill-position players.
After integrating himself so thoroughly into the culture of the Indoor Football League’s new San Diego Strike Force franchise, Bakersfield native
E.J. Johnson has moved on to one of the most storied teams in the sport. Johnson, who recorded 33 tackles, one interception and one forced fumble for the Strike Force in 2022, has joined the Iowa Barnstormers, who have existed in some form since 1995 and are perhaps best known for kickstarting the career of Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner. Johnson will continue his own career, which began in earnest in 2016 after his lone college football action in 2012.
The favorite son of the CSUB men’s soccer program is on the move once again. With 10 Major League Soccer seasons already under his belt,
Gyasi Zardes has joined a franchise that began play just two years ago: Austin FC.
The Verde and Black are adding an accomplished forward with 96 career goals and 25 assists already under his belt. Their season begins Feb. 25 against expansion St. Louis City SC.
Colorado Rapids, Zardes’ previous team, didn’t last long without a Bakersfield product, as it added
Marlon Vargas to its MLS Next Pro side Rapids 2 on Jan. 13. Vargas, an El Salvador international, shone for Tacoma Defiance (a fellow MLS Next Pro club, part of the Seattle Sounders organization) with 13 goals and six assists from his midfield spot last season.
A pair of former Garces soccer standouts transferred following their freshman seasons. On the men’s side, Alex Halevy, a former Gatorade Player of the Year who joined DePaul after a postgraduate year at the South Kent School, did not play for the Blue Demons as a freshman and decided to move to Bellarmine, a recent Division I addition in Louisville, Ky. Meanwhile, Stevie Reynolds saw extensive playing time for CSUN women’s soccer as a freshman (16 games, seven starts), but has returned home to CSUB for 2023 as part of its class of early enrollees.
Dave Rubio, the foundational CSUB volleyball coach who led the Roadrunners to the 1989 NCAA Division II national championship, has officially retired as of Jan. 17. He left Bakersfield after the 1991 season to join Arizona, where he accumulated a 570-380 record over a whopping 31 seasons, once reaching the Final Four. (His final roster, coincidentally, included a Liberty alumna in defensive specialist Jaleesa Caroccio.)
In other Arizona news, BC defensive tackle Armando Ramos, a Tucson native who accumulated 14 tackles and 2.5 sacks over two seasons, committed to join the Wildcats’ football team.
After four years at Wyoming, nickelback Keonte Glinton is moving from the Mountain West to Conference USA. Glinton will join New Mexico State, which enters the conference following an extended period of independence. He accumulated 48 career tackles and one interception with the Cowboys over three seasons, and maintains two years of eligibility.
Melissa Phillips, who began her women’s soccer coaching career at CSUB, is back in California as an assistant coach for the National Women’s Soccer League club Angel City FC. Phillips grew up in Roseville, went to Stanislaus State and coached at CSUB and San Francisco before her career took an abruptly non-Californian turn toward Penn and then English club London City Lionesses. For Angel City, she will serve as first assistant to manager Freya Coombe.
Liberty product and Oklahoma City University legend Kirk Walker was officially inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame at the American Baseball Coaches Association Annual Convention in Nashville last month. As a four-year starter at shortstop for coach Denney Crabaugh’s powerhouse Stars, Walker set numerous career hitting records that still stand at OCU.
The induction represented the culmination of Crabaugh’s “last performing task,” his longtime assistant Keith Lytle told The Californian in October.
Ahead of the CSUB baseball season opener on Feb. 17, here are some additional transfer destinations for players who moved on from the Roadrunners. Andrew Allanson, a designated hitter who burst onto the scene by hitting grand slams from both sides of the plate against Pepperdine last season, is at the JUCO level at College of the Canyons.
Pitcher Jaykob Acosta, who put together some strong starts at midseason, moved north to Fresno State. Fellow right-hander Cody Tucker transferred to Grand Canyon, while longtime starting infielder Aaron Casillas joined Big West Conference rival Cal Poly.