UNLV’s cheerleaders and Rebel Girls & Company dance team were absent from the Thomas Mack Center Saturday where the Rebels routed San Jose State. But they had a good excuse. They were at Disneyworld winning national championships.
UNLV
After two tumultuous seasons, Stan Stolte has the Rebels at 19-3 and ranked 19th nationally as UNLV welcomes San Diego State for a weekend series.
The last time I saw Ken Johann, UNLV’s uber soccer booster, was at Johann Field — named for his son, Peter — on Oct. 18. The Rebels were playing Incarnate Word from Texas. Fellow humongous soccer supporter Tim McGarry, a former Rebels player who in recent years has continued what Johann started as a benefactor, asked if I had wandered over to say hello.
He still gets up at 5:30 a.m., only now there’s not much to do. It’ll probably take a couple more weeks to remove all the stuff from his office, because one accumulates a lot of office stuff over 35 years as coach.
The Rebels open play against Fresno State at 7 p.m. Thursday at Wilson Stadium as the No. 1 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, a co-conference champion whose roster includes 15 players from the Las Vegas valley.
It would have been much easier with one of those fancy motorized machines that can lay up to 2,000 square meters of turf per day without one worker breaking a sweat.
