Alex Barcello will begin his professional basketball journey in Toronto.

The former BYU guard went undrafted on Wednesday but worked out for several NBA teams previous to the draft. On Friday, Barcello earned a spot on the Toronto Raptors Summer League team.

Barcello joined the BYU men’s basketball team in 2019-20 after two seasons at Arizona. For his three-year career in Provo, Barcello scored 1,319 points and averaged 14 points per game. He also made 194 3-pointers, shooting 46% from distance.

As a senior, Barcello averaged 16.8 points, 3.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game while shooting 42% from the 3-point line.

Football adds more staff

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake has announced Patrick Hickman as the director of recruiting and the hiring of Jan Jorgensen as a defensive analyst, Christiana Roberts as executive assistant to the head coach and Anna Lamb as the football office manager.

“I’m excited to welcome Patrick back to BYU,” said Sitake. “He brings 20 years of experience working on college football staffs at three different schools, including a decade here in Provo under Bronco (Mendenhall). Jan, obviously, was a Cougar great on the field and has excelled in his career as a coach. Like Patrick, he will be a great addition for us, as will Christiana and Anna. I’m grateful for the talents they each bring to our program.”

Hickman returns to BYU after working the past six seasons at the University of Virginia, where he served as UVA football’s director of scouting from 2018-21 and the Cavaliers’ director of player development from 2016-2017.  Hickman went to UVA with former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall after working 10 years under Mendenhall on his Cougar football staff.

During his first stint in Provo beginning in 2006, Hickman contributed to the success of BYU’s program under Mendenhall as the director of football operations, director of player development and high school relations coordinator. Hickman first came to BYU after working four seasons at Boise State, where his responsibilities with the Bronco Athletic Department included game management, facility management and operations.

Hickman graduated from Boise State with a bachelor’s degree in health promotion in 2001, and earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from Idaho State in 2005.

Jorgensen also returns to BYU, where he was a star defensive lineman from 2005-09 and later served as a graduate assistant for the Cougars for three seasons from 2015-17. He rejoins Sitake’s staff after serving the past three years as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. His coaching resume also includes one season at the defensive coordinator at Orange Coast College and one year as the head coach at Carbon High School.

As a player at BYU, Jorgensen started every game of his four-year career and earned All-Mountain West First Team honors three times while finishing his eligibility as the league’s leader in sacks (28.5) and tackles for loss (44). Jorgensen earned a bachelor’s in social science teaching from BYU in 2009 and an MPA from the BYU Marriott School of Business in 2017. From Helper, Utah, he prepped at Carbon High School.

Roberts, a BYU alumna with a degree in geographic information systems, joins the football staff as the executive assistant to Coach Sitake after working as the administrative assistant to BYU deputy athletics director Brian Santiago since 2016. Lamb, who graduated in April from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in English, has been promoted to her position after excelling four years as a student office assistant for the football program.

Vaka sisters to play for Tongan national soccer team

BYU’s Laveni and Daviana Vaka will be traveling to Fiji on July 10 to compete with the Tonga women’s national soccer team in the OFC Women’s Nations Cup 2022.

“I’m extremely thankful and humbled to have this opportunity,” Laveni said. “I’m looking forward to playing with some of the best players from Tonga and bring my own experience that I’ve gained here in the U.S. to the team. My hope for this tournament is to help Tonga accomplish their goal on qualifying for the World Cup. It’s a privilege and honor to go back to my roots and represent Tonga, the land of me and my sister’s ancestors.”

The OFC Women’s Nations Cup will take place between July 13-30, with nine member associations taking part in a bid to earn qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023. Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga and Vanuatu will play for the chance to join New Zealand, who qualified automatically as the co-hosts, as the Oceania representatives at the World Cup. The tournament format will see three groups, each made up of three nations, play each other once, before the top two sides from each group, as well as the two best third-placed teams from the group stage, advance through to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will all be single-leg matches, with the two losing semi-finalists also contesting in a playoff for third place.

“I look forward to making friendships with the women on Tonga’s national team and to play against the other pacific islands,” Daviana said. “I wanted to do this in order to help contribute what I can on the field. Most of all, to make memories and experiences that I’ll remember forever. I feel comfort knowing that I’ll be playing with my sister, because it makes this whole experience that much better.”

Laveni and Daviana have been on the BYU women’s soccer roster since 2019. Laveni will be a junior this season and Daviana will be a sophomore since she redshirted in 2019. Following BYU’s appearance in the 2021 NCAA Women’s College Cup, Laveni was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team. The Vaka sisters are twins from Sandy, Utah and attended Juan Diego High School.

Shurts claims second at US Championships

EUGENE, Ore. — BYU thrower Dallin Shurts took second in the discus at the U.S. Track and Field Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field on Thursday.

Shurts’ mark is a new personal-record and good for No. 6 all-time at BYU, surpassing one set by Lars Sundin in 1986.

While the collegiate season has ended, competition has not for Shurts and a handful of other BYU athletes who qualified for the chance to advance to the World Athletics Championships in July.

Kenneth Rooks advanced the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final with a 10th-place first round finish at 8:29.44. Garrett Marsing joined Rooks in the steeplechase, finishing 23rd.

Lauren Ellsworth-Barnes and Sebastian Fernandez competed in the women’s and men’s 800m, respectively, though both failed to advance beyond the opening round.

Former BYU mid-distance national champion Anna Camp-Bennett ran 2:02.34 in the 800m and advances to the Friday semifinal.

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