By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Mallory McDermott needed to get a passport.

“Never been out of the country,” the Western Illinois fifth-year senior guard said.

Raegan McCowan had to do the same.

“We’ve got (the passports) already,” the sophomore said, smiling. “So we got that out of the way.”

The Leathernecks are taking a summer trip to Costa Rica beginning next week, a chance to get to know each other before the season starts.

“It will be an awesome team-bonding experience, just to do something really cool outside of basketball,” McDermott said. “With a brand new group, there’s nothing better to bond a team together.”

“This is something that’s good for this program and this university,” said McCowan, who was the Ohio Valley Conference’s freshman of the year last season. “Honestly, it’s pretty groundbreaking for us. It shows us how important that women’s basketball is to this university.”

The Leathernecks leave July 23 on their eight-day trip which will include two games against club teams, but coach JD Gravina said the benefits will start coming even before they leave.

Under NCAA rules, teams making foreign trips get 10 practices without the summer restrictions of four hours per week that teams usually get.

“That’s probably the most important thing,” Gravina said. “Honestly, for this trip, the basketball is kind of secondary. It’s that time before the trip where we get the full practice hours. That’s a huge difference.”

The Leathernecks return three starters from last season’s team that went 18-12 overall, 9-9 in the OVC, losing in the first round of the conference tournament.

“I’m excited,” McDermott said. “I think we have a group that plays pretty hard. Even on day 1, you could feel that, and you can feel there’s some extra drive in this group. Nobody was happy with how we ended last year. I think we’re building something really good here.”

“Last summer, not everyone was here,” said McCowan, who ranked third in NCAA Division I play in scoring among freshmen. “This summer, it feels more complete. We have every single person we’re going to have in the fall. It’s nice to have all of our pieces here.”

Gravina said the benefit of the trip will be more about the education for the players than the basketball.

“It’s kind of a bucket-list trip for all of these kids,” he said. “We’ll do some community service there, see some things we normally wouldn’t get to see, get to do some fun things.”

“It means a ton,” McDermott said. “It means a lot to us that our boosters provide these opportunities for us, and it will be just a fun thing for everybody.”

McCowan said it will be important to see different competition.

“I’m excited to compete against somebody,” she said. “I haven’t played against real competition in a couple of months, so it will be good for all of us to see where we’re at before the season starts.”

“We’ll rotate players in when we play,” Gravina said. “It will be more like an exhibition game.”

If anything, McDermott said, it will be a chance to be together as a team.

“When I was a freshman, we didn’t have summer practice because of COVID, and we really saw how we struggled, and that’s such a big time for everybody to get to know each other as players and as people,” she said. “I think, for me, not only will it be good to get some games and the extra practice time, but more importantly it will be a good team experience. I want to get to get to know the younger kids. Being away from here, we’ll all be in the same place, and I think that will be great.”

Photo: Western Illinois coach JD Gravina (right) instructs his team during a practice last week.