The first two commitments of the Jenteal Jackson era are on board for Weber State women’s basketball as two Utah-native guards made their pledges public in the last two days.

Margarita Satini and Kennedy Eskelson have committed to Weber State — the former via Instagram post on Thursday and the latter via a signing ceremony Friday at her junior college.

Satini is a 5-foot-8 guard from Salt Lake City who prepped at East High School. After three seasons at Southern Utah as a reserve player, she transferred to Westminster College where she started all 26 games she played for the Griffins.

“All glory to God for this next chapter, Go Wildcats!” she posted to Instagram with photos of her official visit to WSU.

In 28 minutes per game, Satini averaged 7.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 43.5% field goal shooting last season. She has one season of eligibility remaining.

Eskelson is a 5-foot-8 guard from Smithfield who prepped at Green Canyon with two seasons left to play after spending two years at Snow College and another at the College of Southern Idaho.

At Snow College, Eskelson started 45 of 51 games, averaging 7.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

In one season at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, she started 28 of 33 games, averaging 8.7 points, 3.8 rebounds. 1.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 43% overall and 35% from the 3-point line. She had two games where she made five 3-pointers. The Golden Eagles went 31-3 and reached the NJCAA tournament semifinals.

The Times-News in Twin Falls reports Eskelson participated in a signing ceremony Friday with three teammates also headed to Division I teams; WSU has not announced Satini or Eskelson as official signings as of Friday evening.

Eskelson told the Times-News she chose Weber State because of Jackson.

“The coach, for sure. She has been recruiting me for three years … and I just knew it was the right fit,” she said.

WSU is ostensibly set to return three fifth-year seniors in forwards Daryn Hickok and Jadyn Matthews, and shooting guard Laura Taylor, after a 6-25 season that brought an end to the five-year tenure of head coach Velaida Harris.

Lightly used center Tamali’i Fonoti is in the transfer portal after two seasons at WSU. Jackson previously told the Standard-Examiner she expects to add about five players to the roster this offseason. A little more than two weeks remain in the postseason transfer period where players can enter and be immediately eligible next season.

REVAZ LOOKS TO BREAK OUT AT WSU

After eight years of competing in track and field decathlon events in Switzerland, including winning a regional championship in the javelin, Arnaud Revaz picked up basketball at the urging of friends when he was 15 years old.

About six months later, he moved to France to play basketball for the JL Bourg club, where he competed for four years. As a 19-year-old in an under-21 league, he was approaching the time when continuing with the club meant signing a pro contract.

“I felt a little young in the game so if I stayed and went pro, I would just be a bench guy. So taking the challenge, going to the States and discovering a different brand of basketball — it was a great challenge, COVID was happening also, I just needed something and it worked out,” Revaz told the Standard-Examiner.

After three seasons at the University of Maryland, where he appeared in 14 games, the 6-foot-10 big man hit the transfer portal and quickly lined himself up with Weber State, where he announced his commitment Monday.

He’ll have two seasons left to play and turns 23 next month.

“It was mainly a playing-time question. Freshman year, I wasn’t too worried about playing time but … I just did my third year and I didn’t get any significant playing time, so at that point I wanted to go to a program where I can bring my intensity, my energy and my seniority because I’ve been doing it a while and I feel I can help a program,” Revaz said.

He says his time competing in track and field makes him an agile, mobile big man, and says his vision and feel for the game, and finishing at the rim, are also among his strengths on the court.

“I’m going to be new on the team so of course I feel like I have a lot to prove, whether it’s regarding my teammates or the coaches, or how I’m going to play,” he said.

Revaz says he spends downtime reading, listening to music (rock, rap and classical among many tastes), and playing video games online with friends back in Europe. He’s fluent in French, German and English.

He has yet to visit WSU and if his schedule doesn’t work out, he’ll arrive in June to begin summer workouts and see how the mountains of Utah stack up to his home country.

“Everyone is like ‘it’s not the Alps but it’s still pretty good,'” he said. “But here in Maryland it’s just flat, it’s terrible. So it will be good.”

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