Riley confident entering first season as Eagles head coach

CHENEY – The Eastern Eagles basketball team enters the 2021-22 season with a new head coach.

David Riley is a familiar face , and has enjoyed watching the program grow through his 10 years serving in various positions. Now, he is excited to hit the ground running as head coach.

The team also added three assistant coaches with varied experience levels that are new to Eastern.

Assistant coach Mark Darnall comes into his first season with the Eagles having more than 10 years of coaching experience with teams like Chico State University and University of California-Davis.

Arturo Ormond is another assistant new to Eastern, and Riley said his resume shows productive efforts while he worked with universities such as Fresno State, and University of Texas-El Paso.

Roberto Bergersen joins the Eagles coaching staff this season, and his son Rylan Bergersen also transferred to play for Eastern after previously playing for Brigham Young University and Central Arkansas.

Spending a lot of his coaching career in Boise Idaho, the head coach said Roberto Bergersen was the co-founder, director and coach for Hoop Dreams, a program that helps young players develop collegiate level basketball skills.

Prior to that, the assistant coach was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 1999 and played for the Continental Basketball Association and in the NBA D-League for the Idaho Stampede.

Riley said he is confident in the team and staff going into the season even after losing the first two games to Nevada and University of California-Davis, and says the team has realistic goals to compete in and hopefully win the Big Sky championship.

“We have to recognize the mishaps in the early games in order to grow and learn from them,” he said.

Statistics from the first game showed five players scoring in double digits for the Eagles.

Riley said the team needs to build on those positive notes and avoid mistakes moving forward.

“The team needs to do more of the things they are doing right, and avoid mental errors,” the coach said.

Game 3 success

The team went into Game 3 and dominated Walla Walla, 111-71 in Eastern’s home-opener.

Collectively, the Eagle’s shot more than 56% from the field, stats show, and that factored into the overwhelming win.

Redshirt freshman Steele Venters was efficient during this game, and had 27 points, 6 assists, and a handful of rebounds and steals.

Riley said the Eagles have a young team and have been putting a lot of work into player development through the off-season.

The coach also said senior transfer players like Angelo Allegri and Rylan Bergersen have been incredible leaders and teachers for the less experienced players. Bergersen scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds for a double-double against UC-Davis and racked up seven assists, too.

Redshirt junior Linton Acliese III scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds putting up a double-double in the season-opener.

Acliese scored 22 points with 11 rebounds in the team’s second game, and another 20 points against Walla Walla.

Coach Riley said Eastern needs strong performances from upperclassmen to help motivate and give direction to the younger players like 6-foot 10-inch freshman Ethan Price from Bury St. Edmunds, England, who also ended up with a double-double against UC-Davis with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Price is a “big guy that can effectively pass the ball,” Riley said.

Price ended up with another double-double in the big win at home scoring 19 points and bringing in 11 rebounds.

Eastern has a bigger team physically than other conference teams, the coach said. That can be advantageous if size mismatches can be effectively factored into the game plan.

The Eagles have a “well-balanced intelligent lineup that can run a high-octane offense or slow the tempo down to focus more defensively when needed,” Riley said.

Reporter Matthew O. Stephens can be reached at [email protected] .