For a sports reporter, at least for me, is right now – and I’m literally flying by the seat of my pants while trying to get all of our fall previews organized.

By my count, I have 14 teams from 3 different schools I have to cover just for Redmond, on top of that as most you may know I also write sports for the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter as well… and they have a pretty darn good football program over there!

If it seems like too much for just one person, it is.  I do my best to make sure every team is included in our previews though, at least with our special “At a glance” sections which profile each team with top returning players and other useful info.

I’m going to stop by Redmond High’s football practice tomorrow evening and meet the new coach Jeff Chandler for the first time and get his thoughts on the new gig and what lays in store for the 2010 Mustangs, and in the upcoming week look for the scoop on local soccer squads from Redmond, Bear Creek and Overlake.

During the season, and even the playoffs at least is more organized in my opinion and you aren’t relying on coaches to return questionnaires and arranging interviews around practice times which is quite a hassle… but that’s part of my job.

READY, SET, HIKE!

Hope everyone enjoyed this weeks’ feature on Dylan Davis getting selected for the AFLAC All-American High School Baseball Classic!

This is a great opportunity for him, and hopefully he’ll get a chance to shine on the mound and at the plate.

This was actually quite a hectic week for me here as our usual editor, Bill Christianson, was on vacation and I had to lay out the entire 24-page paper in his absence – hopefully nobody could tell the difference!  This was my 5th paper I’ve done completely myself in the over 2 years I’ve been here so it’s getting old hat for me

And I had bylines all over the paper too – if you’d like a change of pace read this story about a local costume-making business that creates animal mascot costumes, like sports mascots with a personal touch:

Anthropaws brings “furry” characters to life

And I also wrote a story on the First Friday Coffee Chats at the Redmond Senior Center, where presenters from the Redmond Historical Society talked about their organization:

Coffee Chat celebrates Redmond’s unique history

Never a dull moment here at the ol’ Reporter!

On that note, it’s almost time to start fall season previews!  Just a couple more weeks of filler stories and then it’ll be back to the gridiron, soccer field, swimming pool, volleyball court and cross-country trails (yep, lots of fall sports to follow!).  Enjoy the summer while it lasts!

For the first time since the 1998 PGA Championship (won by Vijay Singh), the Pacific Northwest is hosting a major golf championship, the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee Country Club, which hosted the ‘98 PGA as well as the 2002 World Golf Championships.

Who do I like this week?

It’s hard to root against local favorite Fred Couples, who has played this course more than anyone in the field, and will have the entire gallery behind him.  But there is so much talent on the Champions Tour now with names like Tom Lehman, Mark Calcavecchia (who can forget his implosion at St. Andrews a few weeks ago after being in contention), defending champion Fred Funk, 39-time titleist Tom Watson… the list goes on.

I also think Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin will have a very good week. For one, he’s coming off a runner-up finish at the Senior British Open at Carnoustie last weekend, and secondly, length is not needed to score well at Sahalee, which is the epitome of a shotmaker’s course.  Pavin is towards the bottom of the list in driving distance on Tour and has been his whole career, but his ability to hit the fairway and great short game have won him 15 PGA titles including the memorable 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

If you’re not one of the 140,000 expected to head out to Sahalee and watch the action live, everyone be sure to watch the coverage, which gets underway on Thursday and Friday on ESPN2 from 2pm-6pm local time, and will get picked up by NBC for 3rd and final round coverage from 1pm-4pm.

Tim’s Picks to Click (top 5)

1. Fred Funk – I believe he can win back-to-back Senior Opens, though on a wildly different course. Been playing better than ever since knee surgery.

2. Fred Couples – Has experience, and knows his way around Sahalee. Will be overwhelming crowd favorite, will be in contention if he can get putts to drop on the fast and tricky greens.

3. Corey Pavin – His accurate tee ball and solid putting is a huge advantage at Sahalee.

4. Tom Watson – He may be advancing in years, but can still hang with the big boys.  If you watched the 2009 British Open, you know what I mean.

5. Loren Roberts – My outside pick. “Boss of the Moss” will have his putting skills tested at Sahalee, and he’s a shotmaker. Don’t be surprised to see a top-10 from him this week.

Winning Score:  -8, 272.  There’s no way we will see a repeat of -20 (Fred Funk at Crooked Stick) last year.  This course is just too punishing and the greens are too difficult… and there are just two par 5s in the layout (4 last year) and neither are gimme birdies.

Tennis lovers – if you haven’t been by Marymoor Park’s courts recently do yourself a favor and go play a set or two!  Overlake girls’ head coach Jim Uyesugi, the founder of the local nonprofit Northwest Sports Foundation, spearheaded a movement to get the county to resurface Marymoor’s old, cracked, aging courts and the work was just recently finished this week, and the courts look great!

I’ll be doing a feature story on this next week so you can learn a little more about this.

And best of luck to our local EBC AAU team playing in Vegas right now.  With guys like Jason Harrington, Ryan Strandin, Lucas Peterson and Inglemoor standout Andy Nwaelele they have the talent to hang with anybody.

Well I hope everyone liked our awards series that ran for the last month, if you missed any of them here are links to the Web versions of the stories:

Male Athlete of the Year – Jamie Meyer, Bear Creek School

Female Athlete of the Year – Jessica Elliott, The Overlake School

Team of the Year – Girls’ Golf, Redmond High School

Coach of the Year – Bob Bristol, The Overlake School

I really enjoy doing these stories and think they’re a unique part of our coverage here at the Redmond Reporter.

But now it’s the dreaded down time… summer!  No high school sports to write about, so what’s a sports writer to do in order to stay local?

Now is when I rely heavily on submitted ideas for story material, so if you have something newsworthy that has to do with SPORTS in REDMOND (not just one or the other, must have both) run it by me via e-mail and we’ll see what we can do.

Everyone enjoy the weather, stay hydrated and take the time to enjoy some of Redmond’s fine parks while the sun is shining, as we all know it will not last forever!

Hope everyone enjoyed our first awards feature – Jamie Meyer of the Bear Creek School earning the Male Athlete of the Year.  There were a lot of athletes that were just as deserving but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone be as dominant on the basketball court as Meyer was.  This guy had so much talent he easily would have started and been all-league at the 4A level as well, and he goes out and proves his athleticism by picking up a tennis racket in March and making the state finals.  Yes, he had a darn good partner, but Jamie still had to serve once every four games and you can bet that most of the balls hit by the other team went his way.

Coming up next is our Female Athlete of the Year – this one was more of a no-brainer to me, and after talking with her coaches and the athletic directors for this particular school, I know I made the right choice.  Who is it?  Read Friday’s Redmond Reporter to learn all about this amazing young lady…

Wow, what a crazy weekend it was – but when the dust settled after state weekend we had some notable performances by many teams that are deserving of recognition.

First, how about the Owls bringing home FOUR state trophies from 1B/2B/1A state tennis?

Both of the girls entrants, Lana Robins in singles and the sister team of Stephanie and Caroline Roush in doubles, ended up as champions and on the boys’ side, Trym Torvund placed second and the doubles team of Trevor Partington and Marcus Munoz battled to a sixth-place finish, even as their soccer team was soon to get underway in their own championship match 150 miles away.

Speaking of soccer, too bad for the Owls as they just got outmatched by Wahluke in the finals 3-0… and a tough break for Bear Creek tennis as Jamie Meyer and Jake Imam came just short of their goal of a state doubles title, falling in the final as Imam’s back evidently started to flare up and Jamie suffering an injury of his own late in the mach after falling backwards and hitting his head.

Bear Creek did well in track, with Madelyn Magee earning a state title in the high jump (clearing 5-5), and unfortunately the Mustangs didn’t fare as well as hoped with Mack Young feeling ill going into Star Track, but still battled to fourth in the 1600, Devin McMahon placing seventh in the 3200 and Katie Lord 10th in the high jump at 5 feet even.

It was quite a ride for local teams this year with a number of storylines emerging, so if you happen to see any athletes or coaches around be sure to thank and/or congratulate them for their hard work and efforts this year.

Now… this is the hard part… the end-of-year awards for the Redmond Reporter!  As always it’s a brutally difficult call, but the series will start next week, so stay tuned for that.

There’s so much going on this weekend it can be hard to keep track of it all, but I’ll try lay out the state events that local teams are participating in here:

TRACK AND FIELD

Mack Young has to be one of the favorites to win the 1600 this weekend at Star Track, which will be held at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma this weekend through Saturday.

Bear Creek’s Maddie Magee has crushed fields all season in the high jump, and her and her teammates will be over at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

BOYS SOCCER

The Overlake Owls are two games away from a state title and will play the 1A semis this afternoon at what will probably be a very wet and wild Sunset Chevrolet Stadium in Sumner, start time 4pm.  If they win they will play in the championship game tomorrow at 2pm, or if they fall today they’ll be in the 3/4th place final at 10 a.m.

Either way, I’ll  be there, so don’t be afraid to say hi and/or buy me a latte! 

TENNIS

Jake Imam and Jamie Meyer will be playing Doubles for Bear Creek, in fact they’re probably playing right now as I type this, at the 1B/2B/1A state tournament in Yakima.  The Overlake Doubles teams of Trevor Partington and Marcus Munoz (both soccer players missing out on action in Sumner this weekend) and Stephanie and Caroline Roush both have already won their first round matches, the boys  winning 6-2, 6-3 and the girls 6-4, 6-2.

In singles, Overlake’s Trym Torvund is scheduled to play this afternoon, and Lana Robins just swept her first round match 6-0, 6-0.

And if anyone picked up a Redmond Reporter today and flipped to the sports section, it’s obviously been a busy week here at the sports desk as I racked up FOUR bylines this week for all of our great teams wrapping up great seasons and those still to play.  Yeah it’s a lot more work this time of year, but we have to give our hard-working athletes the coverage they deserve.

Good luck to everyone at state!

The Seattle Mariners only wish they had this much power…. heading into the 4A state tournament which begins this Saturday against Gig Harbor at Memorial Stadium in Kent, the Mustangs have belted a total of 31 dingers, led by Dylan Davis with 11 and Michael Conforto with 9.  The long ball was never more crucial in the team’s Kingco Championship game as they hit three of them, including the two team leaders, with sophomore Peter Hendron joining the fun with a solo shot.

The Mustangs will need to bring their whooping sticks and ride their golden arms of staff aces Zach Abbruzza (1.11 ERA) and Dylan Davis (winner in championship game) to come away with two wins on Saturday which will send them to Safeco Field for the first time in school history and their first trip to the semifinals since 1993, when they won it all.

Can they do it?  I believe they can, and I’m not saying that just because I love this school and this program.  Gig Harbor has a tremendous pitching staff, led by an unflappable junior Michael McCall, who will certainly put the Mustangs’ year-long mantra of waiting for the right pitch to hit to the ultimate test, but this year the green & gold have proven themselves in big-game situations over and over again, and now it’s time for them to shine and punch their ticket to the Safe.

Good luck Mustangs!!!

And let’s not forget aobut Track, which runs the District II/IV Championships this Friday at Southwest Athletic Complex, where state berths will be earned.  Redmond has a number of hopefuls, particularly in the distance categories as seniors Mack Young and Devin McMahon look to go out with a bang.

The sweet swing of lefty infielder Michael Conforto launched a two-run homer to right on Thursday night, propelling the Mustangs to a 6-2 victory over Skyline to claim the Kingco Championship and a No. 1 seed to state

When I talked with Redmond head coach Dan Pudwill at the beginning of the year, he was cautiously optimistic of his powerful lineup this season, saying that it kind of goes away from Redmond High’s tradition of focusing on defense and pitching, but he added that they might just have to rely on those big bats should the time come.

The Mustangs did just that last night in the biggest game the program has seen since 2008, punching their ticket to state witha 6-2 victory over the Skyline Spartans.

Redmond’s super sophs turned jammin’ juniors, Michael Conforto and Dylan Davis, each went deep and sophomore Peter Hendron hit one out as well in the 2nd to start the scoring.

Davis battled back from a tough 1st inning, giving up 2 runs and four walks, to earn the victory.  Last year, a start like that may have snowballed into a lopsided loss but the Mustangs have learned from going “one-two-barbecue” last year and did what it took to move one step closer to their goal of Cracking the Safe(co Field) in a couple weeks.

They next play against the No. 5 seed from the South Puget Sound/Narrows League which will be determined by the end of the weekend, at Memorial Stadium in Kent on May 22 at 10 am.