With the warming weather (hard to believe we’re barely into February, it feels like April!) comes the end of the regular season for all our Winter sports, and starting this weekend begins the league championships and tournaments for basketball, gymnastics, swimming and wrestling.

The big story around these parts is basketball, however, as the Redmond Mustangs will be among eight teams from Kingco vying for one of three spots to the Regional tournament, with the Kingco tournament getting underway next week.  The Mustangs (8-4), with two games left to go – tonight against Inglemoor and tomorrow against Eastlake – have secured second place in the Crest Division behind Skyline (12-1),

That means that they will face off against the third seed from the Crown Division, which is very tight right now for second and third place between Roosevelt (9-4) and Bothell (8-5). The best part is that Redmond will have home-court advantage for the pivotal opening game, and should they win, they will be only one win away from a Regionals berth. In earlier meetings this year, Redmond lost to Bothell, 83-72, to open up the league season while holding off Roosevelt, 57-52 at home.

The Overlake boys team (5-6, 9-10) will likely take the No. 4 seed into the Emerald City League tournament, which will see them playing University Prep (4-7, 8-10) on Monday in a loser-out game.

The Bear Creek boys (10-0, 16-2) will try to finish off a perfect league schedule on Tuesday against Chief Leschi before beginning their Bi-District tournament for which they will have the No. 1 seed. Four teams from that eight-team event make it to the Regional portion of the state tournament.

Just getting underway as I write this up is the Kingco swim and dive championships at the University of Washington, also this afternoon will be the league wrestling tournament at Issaquah High school starting at 3:30 and running through tomorrow, and tomorrow morning we will also have the 4A Kingco Gymnastics Championships at Roosevelt High School all day.

On Monday we’ll be sure to pick up the pieces and see who did what from this weekend’s action and who will be advancing on to Regionals next weekend, and from there hopefully onto the “Big Dance.”

Best of luck to all athletes this weekend!

After last week’s winter storm wreaked havoc on prep sports schedules with cancellations, I’ve just posted the most up-to-date basketball schedules for all our Redmond-area teams here:  2012 season schedules

The boys’ teams in 4A Kingco lost 2 games due to the weather and the girls’ teams had to have 3 games rescheduled to later, which will all be contested later this week and next week prior to the league playoffs beginning.

Tonight will feature a marquee matchup between our own Redmond Mustangs (6-2, 11-3), who recently moved up to No. 4 in the rankings, against No. 3 Skyline (7-1, 12-3) on the Spartans’ home court at 7:30.  With both teams having not played a competitive game in a week and a half, it will be a challenge to shake off the rust. Earlier this season, Skyline held Redmond to just 44 points in a 58-44 Spartan win.

But that was back on December 13, and Redmond was the hottest team in the league heading into the snow layoff, having won five straight league games and seven of their last eight, with Skyline nearly as hot at four straight Kingco wins and six of their last seven.

The Spartans have one of the deepest programs in the league, and they have NBA-quality height with an astounding SEVEN players rostered at 6-foot-5 or better.  That will present a big challenge for the Mustangs, who I think will have to shoot the ball well tonight, particularly from the perimeter, to have a chance for a win.

Right after their biggest game of the season, however, there is no rest for the weary as the Mustangs hit the road again (specifically, East Lake Sammamish Parkway) and go even farther to Issaquah High on Wednesday, which will be our featured game of the week for the Reporter.

As tough as Skyline will be, Issaquah is no slouch either at a 10-4 overall record, which included a sweep of some fine competition at the Les Schwab Holiday Tournament in Bend, Oregon.  Just like the Mustangs, they have a high-powered and fast-paced senior-laden offense that can score, as evidenced by putting up point totals of 86 (vs. Inglemoor) and 79 (vs. Bothell) earlier this season.

In other leagues, the Overlake boys are starting to play well, with senior Dean Poplawski really taking control of that squad, and the Bear Creek boys (6-0, 12-2) are tearing it up as usual and getting ready to peak in the playoffs.

The Redmond and Overlake girls are having tough seasons unfortunately, but hopefully they can finish strong with some wins, and the Bear Creek girls (5-1, 8-5) have been streaky this season, with two sets of back-to-back losses during which they averaged just 27 points a game.  That won’t get it done in the postseason, so they’ll be hoping to shore up things to prevent a repeat of last year when they went two-and-out during the Regional portion of the state tournament.

Everyone head out to a game or two, support your local prep sports teams and enjoy some fine competition.

Hello all you Redmond sports fans and Happy 2012!  I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and wish every one of you a happy and prosperous new year.

I do however need to address something that has come up a lot in just the past few weeks.  I’ve been the sports writer for the Redmond Reporter for almost four years now, and have very rarely, if ever, gotten a complaint about our coverage.

In just the past 2 or 3 weeks, however, I have received a number of messages and e-mails stating that I’m not covering Redmond High School sports (particularly basketball), or not as much as some readers deem worthy for our newspaper.  I understand how someone can come up with that conclusion, but first of all let me clue everyone in on some facts and statistics.

I am required to run season preview articles for every sport offered in the season before attending any games to run in print. For Winter, that means Basketball (girls and boys), swimming, wrestling and gymnastics.  Those previews started the first week of December and ran through the 23rd (four weeks) and featured five articles in total, and four of them were on Redmond High teams (boys basketball, and the other three sports).

Due to new guidelines imposed at our company (mostly due to the struggling economy), we on the editorial side are dealt a very small news hole each week, and often this means that we don’t have room to run a full version of what we call the “Prep Report,” the most up-to-date scores and highlights come press time.

However, looking back at the December 16th, 23rd and 30th issues, we did indeed run reports of the Mustangs’ scores in the rail (left hand side) of the main sports page, and sometimes they are the ONLY sports results of any school that makes it into the paper!  Multiple times a week I post updated scores on our website, www.redmond-reporter.com. Since we come out Fridays, obviously not every score can be put in the paper, so check online for the most up-to-date results, such as here:  Redmond boys basketball notches fifth straight win

Redmond is home to three high schools: Redmond, Overlake and The Bear Creek School.  I understand that Redmond High is the heart and soul of the city, and doesn’t draw students from other communities like the two private schools do, but the fact of the matter is, the other two schools are located in Redmond and are doing some great things too, and they deserve every right to be covered by us, Bear Creek in particular. The Grizzlies have one of the strongest athletic departments, across the board, at their level in the state, and it shows in their teams’ continual high placings at state tournaments.  We can’t ignore these kids when they do well.

Something many of you may not know is that I also write sports for the Bothell and Kenmore Reporter, which covers Bothell High, Inglemoor High and Cedar Park Christian School. In the spring time for example, my three 4A schools run seven sports each, with Cedar Park, Overlake (1A) and Bear Creek (2B) running five sports each.  Doing some quick math, that’s 36 teams in my coverage area that I am assigned to cover, yet I am only able to run one full on feature story for every print issue of each paper.

As much as I would love to feature RHS every week, that just isn’t possible. But now that we’re into the new year and previews are done with, rest assured we will be able to cover RHS much more both in feature stories and in score reports as the season progresses and the postseason nears. We are your community newspaper and I am doing my best to make everyone happy, with what I have to work with.

One final fact I wish to share is that we have no staff photographer and that we rely a lot on volunteers and submitted photos. With all I’m asked to do I generally am unable to make it to late night games unless it’s part of our scheduled coverage.  If you’re a photographer and would like to support your local teams, please feel free to submit any high-resolution photos you take at games to my e-mail at twatanabe@redmond-reporter.com.  We can’t guarantee that your photo will run, but we graciously accept all submissions and will be sure to credit you for your work should they appear in print or online.

Thank you for reading my blog and for all of you waiting for a Mustang basketball feature, your wait will be coming to an end very shortly as we have a nice spread planned for next issue, after their big game on the road against Garfield, so keep on the lookout for that!  They’re playing great basketball right now and hope they can ride the wave into the postseason.

As for me, I’ll be in San Jose for the next several days visiting friends, attending a convention and taking a much needed break… but upon my return I hope to see you at a game or two.  Above all, thanks for your input, comments and compliments, I take each one to heart and appreciate hearing from our readers.

Hope everyone has enjoyed our Winter sports preview sections the last few issues, we’ll be finishing that up this week with Redmond High’s boys’ swimming and gymnastics teams.

After observing the 4A Kingco boys basketball league this year, it’s amazing how this league seems to just get tougher and tougher every year.  This year we have Bothell, ranked No. 2 heading into the season and possessing an absolute D-I stud in Zach LaVine, that has already lost three games in league play to Skyline (now No. 3), Ballard (unranked, now No. 10) and Roosevelt (unranked). And let’s not forget about our own Redmond Mustangs who look very, very good this year.  They had a tough 2011 portion of their schedule with their season opener against Bothell and also playing No. 3 Skyline which has them at a 1-2 record, but I think they’re on the outside looking in.

It’s going to be a dogfight (of which the Garfield Bulldogs will be in the mix as always), but it will be interesting to see which teams can gel the best over the course of the season and peak in the Kingco tournament for a coveted state berth.

Quite a few teams play tonight or tomorrow, and also after Christmas at some holiday tournaments so try and catch a game if you can!  Happy Holidays!

They’re definitely not over yet for 4A Kingco teams Woodinville and Skyline, who are in the football semifinals at the Tacoma Dome this weekend… but at least at my end here in Redmond, it’s time to turn the page to the hardwood, wrestling mats, swimming pool (boys) and gymnastics floor for winter sports.

But not before I got a glimpse of the emotional roller coaster that can occur during a state championship.

Covering the Bear Creek boys’ 3rd/4th place finals game, I was getting ready to head down to the field and interview head coach Chad Pohlman and a few players on how important it was to end the season on a win, and how the team was able to bounce back from an absolutely devastating loss in Friday night’s semifinals.

In fact, I had already written my questions down in my notebook and was simply waiting for the final 15 minutes of the game to end.

Bear Creek had gotten a 2-0 lead early on a pair of goals by superstar senior Mark Phillips, and the St. George’s Dragons hadn’t even hardly had a sniff of the goal for the next 46 minutes of play after those goals.

But they got one in, and with 10 minutes to play, I didn’t panic.

Then they scored another, on a terrible break for the Grizzlies as keeper Michael Worley deflected the ball, which caromed off the crossbar and into the goal.

Now, I’m getting nervous.

In the final minute, the whistle blows just outside the Grizzlies’ penalty box, and my heart skips a beat. The Dragons, with 16 seconds left, had a short free kick for the game, and they converted on a very nice header play.

I’m supposed to be more or less objective in my bias on who wins or loses a game I’m covering as a reporter, but I sat there in the press box in absolute shock as the Dragons celebrated an incredible comeback victory, as Providence Classical Christian did in almost identical fashion the night before.

The page I wrote with my questions on it I ripped in half because none of them were even valid anymore… but thankfully Pohlman, a class act, gave me some good quotes after I decided to focus on the graduation of his fine senior class instead of the loss itself, which stung as bad as the 40-degree chill in Sumner that afternoon.

Thankfully, as hopefully you read online and will read this Thanksgiving (or Friday, if you’re too busy cooking and eating), the girls’ team won the 1B/2B state title in a thrilling title match over Napavine, that was decided on a penalty kick shootout.

I think most in attendance of this game would agree it should not have even gone to a shootout, as the Grizzlies absolutely dominated the Tigers in time of possession and out-shot them 14 to 2 over the game, but for some reason just couldn’t finish off a goal.

Thankfully, the Grizzlies staged a come-from-behind victory in the shootout, converting their last three kicks while the Tigers missed their final two, to win 3-1.

While the worst part of my job is talking to a coach or team after they have lost a state championship finals game, my favorite part is getting to talk to players and coaches after they’ve won the state championship in something, and it doesn’t happen very often.

I was fortunate to be able to do so after Bothell won the baseball championship last year, and I can’t even remember the last time before that.

I was grinning ear to ear while interviewing first-year head coach Brandon Gonzalez and players Kristina Engelstone and Morgan Rial, and I knew the story would be a good one.

It was quite a way to end the 2011 fall sports season, filled with memories I’ll never forget, and hopefully more great prep sports moments to come this winter.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hope everyone has been enjoying our coverage of the Fall Sports state tournaments so far: Cross Country (Nov. 5), Swim and Dive (Nov. 11) and Volleyball (Nov. 11) – the latter two with local results will be featured in tomorrow’s Redmond Reporter.

After traveling to Federal Way last weekend for what was a thrilling (as always) state swim meet, I’ll be traveling even farther this Saturday, to Sunset Chevrolet Stadium in Sumner, to follow both the Bear Creek School soccer teams in their run for the 2B state championship.

The boys are a powerhouse program and most recently made it to the title game in 2009, when they fell to Tacoma Baptist. The Crusaders have been a thorn in the Grizzlies’ side, but Bear Creek was able to dispatch their rivals from the tournament in the opening round, setting up what will be a good matchup against Providence Classical Christian on Friday night. The Grizzlies also have a history against Providence, as that is the team that ousted Bear Creek from the tournament last year after a dominating season.

The girls, under new head coach Brandon Gonzalez, made the state semifinals for the first time in school history when they routed Seattle Lutheran 6-2 last weekend.  They aren’t as deep roster-wise as any of the other schools that are in the semifinals, but they have a lot of talent, and heart, that has carried them this far.  They have a great track record against their semifinal opponent, Crosspoint, which is also from the Sea-Tac 2B League – the Grizzlies own a 3-1 season record against the Warriors going into Friday.

We’ll see if either team has what it takes to conquer the state’s best small-school soccer teams on what will be a VERY chilly afternoon.

Congrats to Aly Davis for signing with Texas Christian University last week!  From my experiences talking with her and from what others have said, she is a really great kid and a tremendous athlete that deserves this opportunity.

If you know of any other kids that signed NLIs… let me know and send a photo!

Starting this weekend, various state championships will be held for fall sports around the state.  Here is a complete schedule, along with a list of Redmond teams that will or will possibly be represented.

Sport: Cross country
Teams:  Redmond (4A), Overlake (1A), Bear Creek (2B)
Date/time: Saturday, Nov. 5, starting at 9:30 a.m.
Location: Sun Willows Golf Course, Pasco

Sport: Volleyball
Teams:  Overlake (1A), Bear Creek (2B)
Date/time:  Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12, starting at 8 a.m.
Location: Yakima SunDome, Yakima

Sport: Girls’ swim & dive
Teams:  Redmond (4A)
Date/time:  Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 10-12, 4A finals begin at 1:30 on Saturday
Location: King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way

Sport:  Boys’ soccer
Teams:  Bear Creek (2B)
Date:  Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19
Location:  Sunset Chevrolet Stadium, Sumner

Sport:  Girls’ soccer
Teams:  Overlake (1A), Bear Creek (2B)
Date:  Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19
Location:  1A girls at Shoreline Stadium; 2B girls at Sunset Chevrolet Stadium

Best of luck to all our runners as they take to the courses on Saturday, and we’ll see if Redmond, ranked No. 1 in 4A, can bring home the title!

With the regular-season sports schedules winding down, the favorites and front-runners for the fall postseason have emerged – and I’m happy to report Redmond is home to many teams that have a great shot to do some damage!  Some of these teams we’ve covered a lot but there’s one out there that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage so let’s start with them:

1.  Redmond Cross Country

The Mustangs’ perennially strong XC team had one of the highest turnouts in the league and is as deep as ever this year. The girls went undefeated in 4A Kingco at 7-0 and the boys more than held their own, with both teams performing extremely well at the recent 4A Kingco Championships.

The girls won by a landslide, with 44 finishing points (add up finishing places of top five runners), with the next highest team being Issaquah with 89. Megan LeGresley and Kelsey Dunn crossed the finish line together in 18:39 to place second and third, respectively.

The boys finished second behind powerhouse Garfield, with junior Johnathan Stevens obliterating his season best time, running 15:54 to place fourth overall. Max Dunn set a personal best, running 16:06.  In total, according to head coach Denis Villeneuve, 69 out of 73 runners posted season best times at the Kingco meet, an amazing statistic.

They look to be a shoo-in to make the 4A state meet, so after a disappointing 12th (girls) and 10th (boys) finish last season, the Mustangs are eager to get another shot at a state banner, and I think they will succeed.

2.  Bear Creek Boys Soccer

I covered my first TBCS boys’ game of the year on Monday and wow, this is one good soccer team, led by Mark Phillips in the front. That guy will plain out-hustle and out-work any defender to create his own scoring opportunities, and after wondering how he could have 34 goals this season, now it makes perfect sense.

The Grizzlies are solid in all areas of the field and are actually only 3 wins away from a state title at this point, because they have already secured a berth to the state tournament with the way the brackets play out from the District Tournament and their outstanding 10-1-1 overall record.

3.  Bear Creek Volleyball

This other Grizzlies team placed fourth at the 2B state tournament last November and will certainly be back.  They’ve only given up two sets all year, both to Christian Faith, which just happens to be the No. 1-ranked team in the state at the 1B level… who the Grizzlies eventually beat.  Being that all the starters have been to state before I don’t foresee nerves being an issue, so if the team can settle down and let their talent shine they will have a great chance to better their 4th place trophy from 2010.

4.  Overlake Girls Soccer

This is another team that has the goods but will need to exorcise some postseason demons… the Owls are two-year defending state runner-ups in 2009 and 2010, losing by one goal each time. Loaded with offense including all-leaguer Adrianna Gildner (19 goals this season), the key down the stretch will be the defense’s ability to prevent the opposition’s scoring opportunities and getting off to fast starts (the Owls are characteristically a second-half team).

Go Mustangs, Grizzlies and Owls!

For all you golf fans out there, the league’s top players will be heading to the city’s own Willows Run Golf Club on Tuesday and Wednesday next week to vie for the coveted 12 berths to the 4A state tournament which will be held in the spring.

In the four years I’ve covered high school golf in this area, I must say that this year is by far the deepest, most talented class of golfers across the board.  At the beginning of the year I said that Redmond has a great chance to five or maybe even all six players to state, but I just don’t see that as realistic anymore with the talent pool in Kingco.

Woodinville (Kyle Lindor, Garrett Foss), Eastlake (Li Wang, Spencer Weiss, a few others), Skyline (Brian Mogg); Newport (Kevin Zhao)… all of those teams and players have the ability to go low at any time and give the loaded Mustangs team a real tussle.

That’s where Redmond’s home course advantage comes in, being that the Mustangs’ six Districts starters have played Willows more times than they can count, being practically in their backyard. If the weather holds up, I see scoring to be rather low for the tournament this year, I actually believe the cut to state will be no more than six or seven over par for 36 holes which is saying a lot about the talent in Kingco this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see some players in red numbers.  That will be our coverage special for next week so stay tuned for that!

In other sports news, hope everyone enjoyed our feature on the Overlake girls’ soccer team!  They definitely have a great thing going and hopefully can get over their slow starts in the postseason, where the teams are much less likely to give them an opening in the second half like Northwest did on Tuesday.

Here’s hoping that Mustang Football can get the monkey off their back against Issaquah tonight as well after just getting pummeled every game this year so far.

Out of all the prep sports, volleyball is one of my most favorite sports to cover.  It’s almost non-stop action and there’s nothing like an outside hitter getting major air to swat a game-changing kill or a libero making a gravity-defying dig to save a point as her teammates scramble to get the ball back into play.

I covered my first volleyball match of the year on Tuesday night, and even though the two programs were struggling (Redmond was 0-5 and Inglemoor 1-4 heading into the match) it was still a treat.

Momentum is EVERYTHING in a volleyball match, and unfortunately Redmond lost it in the middle of the first set, losing eight and then six points in a row, and never got momentum back until the third set before the Vikings came from behind yet again to sweep.

The Mustangs are lacking in height (and no matter what people say, height matters more in volleyball than in any other girls’ sport, except maybe basketball) but they have tons of athleticism and talent, and it seems to be a confidence issue they will have to overcome. Once things start going bad, the wheels come off… and coach Ross Johnson told me after the match it seems to happen time and time again, they get close but still haven’t won a set this entire season outside of a tournament a couple weeks ago.

Bear Creek volleyball is absolutely rolling, and the Grizzlies are actually ranked No. 2 at the 2B state level.  Not counting the Yakima tournament they played to open up the season, they are now 8-0 and usually winning via a 3-0 sweep. Once the postseason hits we’ll start following them a bit closer as they look to better their 4th place state finish last year.

Finally Overlake is quietly having a good season, at 6-3 overall right now although they suffered a tough non-league loss to Darrington that went to a 15-12 fifth-set tiebreaker.

Led offensively by hitter Kirsten Parris and defensively by libero Carly Silvernale (who had an unthinkable 37 digs during the Darrington match… she must have been sore waking up the next morning!) the Owls are among the Emerald City League Leaders and just may earn one of those coveted berths to the 1A state tourney.

If you want some great prep sports action, take the time to check out a volleyball match!

Redmond hitter Joy Zhang goes up for a kill during the Mustangs' 3-0 loss to Inglemoor on Tuesday night. Zhang and Heather Smith led the team offensively with six kills each.