And in my four years of covering Redmond sports, there was no loss tougher than Redmond’s 45-42 overtime defeat to Roosevelt. It was a great high school basketball game, and came down twice to one final play.

If you’re been following our coverage of the team, you may already know that this team has 11 seniors, which for any high school program is a phenomenal number.  I remember in the 09-10 season when the Mustangs I believe had only 4 league wins, current starters Conner Floan and Jason Harrington were starting as sophomores and were learning what it took to be successful in the ultra-tough Kingco league at the Varsity level.  The next year, they improved and everything seemed to come to a head this year as the Mustangs went 10-4 in league.

But this was Kingco, and as head coach Jeff Larson said, any of the eight teams had a good chance to win. If you thought picking March Madness brackets was hard, I think the odds of picking a perfect eight-team 4A Kingco boys bracket would be about a million to one this year.

Who would have guessed that No. 3-ranked Skyline, one of the overwhelming favorites to make the state tournament, would go two-and-out, including scoring a season-low 38 points against Roosevelt in their second-round game?

Coming off their Skyline upset, the Roughriders were ready for Redmond, with both teams playing tough, tight defense and allowing very few open looks. Jason Harrington, with just a few seconds left in regulation and down by two, launched up a long shot that found the net, and the Redmond bench and stands went wild.  The officials conferred for a brief second before ruling Harrington’s clutch jumper a two-pointer instead of a game-winning three, sending the game to overtime.

I was sitting near the opposite baseline so I had no vantage point myself on the shot, but Larson, who was only about eight feet away, said the refs got it right.

The Mustangs, down by one with 10 seconds left in overtime, had a lot of trouble inbounding the ball from the Roughriders’ baseline, and fortunately got the ball back for another try with six ticks left. Unfortunately, the ball was turned over before a shot could be put up, ending Redmond’s season far too soon.

As fun as it is to interview a team after they’ve won a state championship, there’s the flip side of the coin, and even approaching Coach Larson after something like that, knowing that a 5 or 6-year ride with that group of players (since they joined Redmond Basketball in junior high and developed through the program) is now done, was extremely difficult.

But when one story ends, another begins… both of our Bear Creek teams are doing very well and will play for their respective Tri-District championships on Saturday in Puyallup, with berths to the Feb. 25 “Regionals” round secured. After winning the state soccer tournament (girls) in the fall, how exciting would it be to follow up with a basketball championship?

Unfortunately, Redmond got shut out of the Mat Classic and Gymnastics Championships this weekend, which is where I will be covering a whole bunch of kids from the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter, but we have a great diver, Eric Klassen, who hopes to bring home some hardware from the state swim/dive championships in Federal Way.

Best of luck to Eric this weekend and go Grizzlies!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

Fall also brings the excitement of a full slate of sports, and this week we just finished up our fall previews section highlighting the Redmond High girls’ swim team and previewed boys’ tennis also, which all three of our coverage schools are running this season.

Being that all teams are underway, let’s take a look at some interesting stories to watch as the season progresses:

1.  Can Overlake girls’ soccer prove third time’s the charm?

The Owls lost a few key players to graduation, but have more than reloaded, including getting two players back from their 2009 state runner-up finish that did not attend Overlake (Kendall Berg and Tess Edenholm) in 2010.  They are looking very good this year in all areas of the field and I think they will make it back to Sparks Stadium in November for their third straight 1A finals appearance.  From there, it will be calming the nerves, putting the past behind them, and focusing on the task at hand.

2.  Bear Creek Volleyball’s progression

The Grizzlies, as good as they looked last year in their 4th place state run, are absolutely loaded with offense for their 2011 campaign.  Hitters Makena Schoene, Elizabeth Fernandez, Nikki Peterson, Bethan Meyer, are all capable of swinging for 10 or more kills in a given match, and all-league setter Michele Brown puts them in position to succeed.  With a solid defense led by libero Morgan Cadigan, the Grizzlies simply do not have any holes, and with the progression they will see throughout this season working with their conditioning coach, the team may find themselves vying for that coveted 2B title at the cavernous Yakima Sun Dome.

3.  Can a golf team bring home a title?

Redmond has always been a hotbed for prep golf talent, and this year our two teams, Redmond High (4A) and Overlake (1A) both have excellent teams that will contend in the postseason.  The Mustangs, although they lost Charlie Mroz to graduation, are as deep as ever, with the senior Rudnicki twins, Lyle and Oliver, posting low numbers and a crew of players that can shoot lights-out on any given day including Jimbo Curtin, Jackson Safon, Cole Helgeson, Conrad Croshaw and Kirk Gysler.  Especially with the District Tournament being moved to Willows Run in Redmond next month, expect the Mustangs to send the maximum (six) players to state and make a run at the 4A title.

Overlake is led by a rock-solid player in Daniel Lee, a consistent medalist for the Owls that always seems to break 40 no matter where he’s playing. No. 2 and 3 are Noah Mayer and David Anderson, but it takes four to score a 1A match, and that final scoring spot is being fought by seniors Dean Poplawski, a multi-sport star trying out for golf, as well as Cody Kautz and J.J. Cardenas.  The Owls will need at least one of those three to improve over the course of the year and peak in the postseason, and then they just may have a shot.

Everyone enjoy the fall sports and go Redmond!

We here at the Reporter are on top of it (well, as much as we can be with our sports staff of one!) and we kicked off our annual Fall Previews section this issue with a feature on the Redmond High Football team.

Though football is certainly a fan favorite of the fall (and if you were in the south, it might as well be the ONLY fall sport), there are many many more talented student athletes taking to the trails, courses, fields and courts this season.

Here’s a list of everything going on this fall:

Redmond High:

Football, boys’ golf, volleyball, girls’ soccer, boys’ tennis, cross country, girls’ swimming

Overlake School:

Girls’ soccer, cross country, boys’ golf, boys’ tennis, volleyball

Bear Creek School:

Volleyball, boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer, cross country, boys’ tennis

As you can see it will be a tall task, but my goal is always to make sure each of those teams is represented with at least a small preview sidebar called “At a Glance,” with some teams getting a full feature story.

Enjoy the previews and hope everyone has a safe and fun start to the new school year!

This summer has sure flown by and I hope each and every one of you out there has had an enjoyable one.

Rest assured, however, that the Reporter will be on tap, starting August 26, for ALL the fall sports previews you can handle, where I will profile each of the 17 teams we have going for Redmond High, Overlake School, and Bear Creek School.

While Redmond did not have any Little League teams going on to the regional level, I also write for the Bothell Reporter and we had quite a thrill as the North Bothell Little League boys won state and went undefeated through the Regionals pool play, going 4-0 and just dismantling their opponents.

Sadly, last night in front of a nationally-televised audience on ESPN2, the Bothell boys lost a hard-fought battle to Oregon 4-3 in the semifinals to get eliminated.  But it was one heck of a run and congratulations to those boys for making it that far!

Locally, the Junior Softball World Series is a short jaunt on NE 85th street from Redmond at Kirkland’s Everest Park near downtown, and that starts up next week if you’re interested in checking out a great event featuring teams from all around the world.

But the skies cleared beautifully on Friday and I was treated to some of the most exciting action on two wheels as some of the world’s finest battled it out at speeds of up to 40 mph.  The crowds were great and the management at the Grand Prix (see:  Director Dave Mann) was more than hospitable, making sure I got all my interviews lined up and answering any questions I had.

Congrats to local hero Jennie Reed (two-time Olympian, national champion in the Keirin) for winning four times including three individual titles, and best of luck all of those amazing athletes as they set their sights on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

In other sports, we have Tom Sovay, a teaching pro out of the Golf Club at Redmond Ridge on the course right now at the U.S. Senior Open, he actually just made a birdie on the 2nd hole (his 11th hole of the day) to get it back to +4, hopefully he turn it around and make the weekend cut.

The great thing about summers is that you just never know what kind of great stories will surface!  If you think you have a good one for the Reporter, contact me at twatanabe@redmond-reporter.com.

Have fun and stay cool!

I hope everyone is enjoying our annual Awards series for Male and Female Athlete of the Year, as well as Team and Coach of the Year (the coach story will be printed this Friday, July 1).  It’s always challenging to choose the winners for these as there are usually a number of deserving student-athletes and others that did tremendous jobs, but in the end only one can win.  In case you missed them, here are links to the stories I’ve written so far:

Conforto: Strong roots fuel talented leader | Male Athlete of the Year

Bear Creek’s Rial: Three-sport star is one great Grizzly | Female Athlete of the Year

Overachieving Grizzlies came up big: Bear Creek’s third-place finish best in school history | Team of the Year

Redmond High’s Pudwill managed the Mustangs’ many talents | Coach of the Year

All in all, it was a fantastic 2010-11 sports year filled with lots of great memories for me.  But now, it’s summer (though Mother Nature hasn’t quite gotten the memo yet, I don’t think) and kids, teachers and coaches are getting a well-deserved break in the action before getting ready to do it all again.

I often get asked what I do during the summer with no high school sports… but with still a weekly paper to put out.  The summers around here are pretty feature-heavy, we get a lot of story ideas and news tips from local baseball and soccer teams doing well to current high school athletes traveling for tournaments, and that’s what makes up a bulk of our summer sports coverage.  And every once in a while we’ll get a unique, oddball story like this one!

So if you have something that you’d think would be a great story or at least worth a mention, drop me a line, and stay safe and have fun this summer!

I hope everyone enjoyed the sports package in today’s Reporter (I tied a personal record with three bylines, whoo!), as all three of Redmond’s fine golf programs had fine showings at their respective State Tournaments, but the big talk of the town has to be Redmond baseball, making their first state semifinal appearance since 1993.

In fact, as I write this the team is on its way down to Cheney Stadium, getting fired up for the 4 p.m. showdown with the Timberwolves.  I don’t know too much about Jackson’s squad this year, except for the fact that they have tremendous starting pitching, but it will be up to the Mustangs to take care of their own business on the mound and at the plate.

Should the Mustangs win, how cool would it be if Bothell also defeated Richland tonight, setting up an all-Kingco championship final?  Being the sports writer for both the Bothell and Redmond Reporters (lucky me) that would be a dream scenario.

The state track championships have already begun at Mount Tahoma – nothing too notable for Redmond yet but a bulk of the finals will be contested today and tomorrow.  Katie Lord has an excellent chance to place high or possibly win the high jump… could it be two state titles in three years for the Lord sisters after her sister Sarah won the gold in the 3200 meters in 2009?

Lord cleared 5-5 to win Districts, with a personal-best clear of 5-6 last year.

Too bad for the Overlake lacrosse girls’ team, in what was one of the most exciting championship games in state tournament history. They’ll be back next year, and the boys will also hope for a better showing after winning it all a couple years ago.

I’ll be down at Cheney tomorrow, possibly all day if Redmond and Bothell split (one wins, one loses), as the consolation final is at 1pm and the championship is at 7pm, so good luck to everyone and go Mustangs!

This was the most complete baseball game I’ve ever seen by any high school team – the starting pitching was outstanding as Zach Abbruzza pitched another gem with 8 strikeouts, the offense was firing away and the defense was unbelievable, as four or five times Mustangs players left their feet to make diving catches or stops to rob Tomahawks’ hitters.

Redmond is a program that really relies on confidence to go along with their talent, and it’s safe to say they’ll be on a high heading into the state tournament on Saturday against Olympia in their opening round matchup.

In other sporting news, Mustang fastpitch suffered a freak 8-7 loss to Inglemoor in the opening round of the Kingco tournament after… get this… three runs scored on a bases-loaded passed ball in the bottom of the sixth inning!  I’m not exactly sure how that could possibly happen, but regardless, just like the Mustang baseball team, their backs are to the well and the girls must win out now to force their 3rd-place pigtail game to state, a feat they were one game away from pulling last year after a similar early loss.

Also, Redmond girls’ track is looking very solid, particularly in the field events with junior Jessica Kinssies absolutely tearing up the discus and javelin events at the league meets and winning gold by a comfortable margin. She’ll be fun to follow at state with a real good chance to place on the podium.

Golf state tournaments are early next week, and again Redmond has a fine chance to do very well at state having sent all six District entries, with Overlake and Bear Creek also sending some top-quality talent to their respective events as well.

These next two weeks will be hectic for me as my editor at the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter, our sister paper I also write sports for, will be taking a two-week vacation so I will be over there most, if not all the time… but rest assured we will be continuing to follow the Redmond prep sports scene as these fine athletes prepare to shine on their sports’ grandest stages.

Most of those teams are in the loaded top half of the 8-team bracket, which pits Redmond (11-3) against Inglemoor (9-6) starting off action at 10am Saturday morning at Woodinville High, and then Bothell will take their league-best 13-2 record against Issaquah (6-8) in the next game at 1 p.m.

The winners of those games will meet on Monday in what will be a winner-to-state game essentially, as both teams in the Championship Finals will earn state berths.

After being the lone team in Kingco to remain undefeated, Redmond has hit a bit of a skid, losing three of their last five games to end the regular season and hopes to right the ship against Inglemoor, who will almost certainly be sending out their ace, Dustin Doucette, who flat-out dominated the Mustangs 7-1 earlier in the year to hand Redmond its first Kingco loss.

The annual home field for the tournament, Woodinville High is a very deep ballpark (almost MLB dimensions) so the Mustangs won’t be able to power pitches out as easily as they might be able to at Hartman… but either way I see a low-scoring pitchers duel in the works for Saturday as Dylan Davis brings his mid-90s fastball to the table.

The postseason is where everyone starts from scratch and the teams with something to prove finally get that chance, when every pitch, every at-bat, every defensive play, has the potential to derail a championship season.  Head out to Woodinville tomorrow, and later next week for some intense baseball action as the league’s top talents put it all on the line!

Click Here to view the 4A Kingco Tournament Brackets

Just as I pulled out of the parking lot at our office in Redmond, it started to rain.

A lot.

The closer I got to Newcastle, the darker the skies got… and the umbrellas were out as the girls were huddled up in multiple layers as the teams quickly announced their starting lineups. The weather only got worse as play got underway, as a heavy wind brewed up and rain, downpouring by the time the first group got to the second hole, turned into hail.  I was shocked that the girls were still playing in this weather, as I could no longer feel my ears and the golf cart I was using offered little to no protection from the elements, which were coming at me sideways.

Even the golf coaches at Newport were joking with me about how I must have drawn the “short stick” when called to cover this match… truth is we don’t have any sticks with our staff, it’s just me!

Anyway after several miserable holes the match was eventually called and postponed for Friday, May 6, barring Newcastle’s right to deny rescheduling since it’s a Friday afternoon.  I really hope they let the girls play even though they would lose some business, as this is a very important match that will decide the league championship.

Although it was a pretty miserable day, hopefully that’s the last of the bad weather we’ll see this Spring as the forecast does look pretty promising heading into next week.

Baseball will wrap up its regular season next week (as the Mustangs try to bounce back from Kingco losses in back-to-back weeks to unranked Inglemoor and Skyline) as does soccer – and fastpitch, which we will feature next week, has a couple weeks left to go.

Get out and enjoy a high-school ball game while you still can!

Still a bit nippy out there but I’m sure we will take it compared to what we’ve had to far this April… there are some fastpitch teams in the region that have had more rainouts than games played this year, wreaking havoc on scheduling, and no matter how good a shape you’re in, playing four games in a week is physically and mentally taxing on a 16-17 year old kid.

Anyway let’s see how we’re looking at about the midway point in the season:

Mustang baseball suffered their first 4A Kingco loss on Tuesday against a tough Vikings squad that has some top-tier pitching… and it was one of their aces, Dustin Doucette, that mowed down the Mustangs in a 7-1 Viking win, striking out 13.  Dylan Davis again struggled with control, walking eight, but he should come around in time for when it really matters.  Zach Abbruzza has cooled down a bit (though teams are understandably pitching around him) to .553, which still leads 4A Kingco, but a number of others have seen their averages rise, none more than Peter Hendron, a middle-of-the-order bat who has absolutely been clutch in the past 2 weeks, going 10-for-15 with 14 RBIs in a four-game stretch.  Also, Michael Conforto seems to have found his stroke, going 5-for-9 last week with three home runs and a double, scoring nine runs total.  That’s the kind of productivity they will need down the stretch – it might not necessarily be Conforto, or Hendron – whose sister Erika made her own mark on the diamond as one of the Mustangs’ best fastpitch hurlers in the history of the program, but someone will need to step up come the postseason and the Mustangs are deep enough to make that happen.

If the Mustangs ever needed a bounce-back game after two consecutive losses (one to Shorewood, No. 2 in 3A last weekend) they got it against a struggling Eastlake club (0-10 in league play). The Mustangs have historically been strong finishers in league play so hopefully it will begin a run of momentum they can carry into the Kingco Tournament.

Mustang fastpitch is showing some good signs at 4-2 in league play and 7-2 overall.  Although uncharacteristic mistakes victimized them in a tough 12-10 loss to Newport on Tuesday, they have, for the most part, beat the teams they should beat in the league. With Woodinville (the Mustangs’ opponent on Monday) bulldozing everyone in sight and a huge favorite to win a state title, the Mustangs I’m sure will settle for a chance to work their way through the Kingco tournament and find a way to the Big Dance, which will be in Spokane this year.

And how about Ashley Mitchell – four home runs on the year already!  Even when the Mustangs made the state tournament in back to back years in 2008-2009 the long ball was definitely not part of their game, I remember one year the Mustangs went the entire regular season without a home run (I think 2009, 17-5 record). The good thing is that the team has a pair of quality starters in Melissa White and Emily Graves which is essential to having a chance at the tournament, and at state.

Mustang boys soccer had been struggling mightily in league play at 1-4 after a spectacular preseason, but showed signs of life in a commanding 6-3 victory over Woodinville on Tuesday at home. Pat Scheibe, a veteran coach, knows his kids and after a couple underachieving years in a very tough league it’s time for the seniors to step it up, and it all starts with senior co-captains Shawn Cooley, J.T. Newton and Preston Horner.

Mustang girls golf… what can I say that hasn’t already been said about this group… 82 straight Kingco victories, but they have the biggest match of all slated for Thursday the 28th at Newcastle against Newport. This will probably decide the league championship, and I predict it will come down to a matter of strokes.  Will someone step up huge like Keira O’Hearn did last year with a stellar 1-under-par round of 35?  With 3 state returners for the Knights on their squad they may have to.  Either way the Mustangs will be in the pressure cooker on every shot and they will call upon all their experience to respond.

Good luck to all teams in the weeks ahead!

Zach Abbruzza is currently leading 4A Kingco with a .553 batting average. He is also back on the mound for the Mustangs after posting a 1.41 ERA last year.

Redmond was nursing an 11-0 lead through four and a half innings were just outs away from winning by the 10-run mercy rule.  Then, playing in the second leg of a doubleheader, the Bulldogs roared to life, tagging starter Dylan Davis for four runs and then obliterating the Mustang bullpen and capitalizing on a number of free passes.

After being down 11, the Bulldogs had the tying run on second base before closer Michael Conforto shut the game down for the save.  If that didn’t make head coach Dan Pudwill grow a few gray hairs, I’m not sure if anything will.

The Mustang offense has been firing on all cylinders this year as they’ve averaged 9 runs a game in their six league contests this season, but the starting pitching has been spotty and the bullpen, save for Conforto, has been struggling to get outs.

This season’s forgettable preseason games against Southridge, who tagged the Stangs for 35 runs in two games, showed the Mustangs’ weakness and pitching is something they will have to solidify to even have a chance to make a run at state.

And take a look at these mind-boggling numbers for Zach Abbruzza through 10 games:

.655 average (19-for-29)

.706 OBP

12 of 19 hits for extra bases

7 home runs

29 RBIs (Abbruzza batted in 23 all of last year, 42 is the school record)

1.621 Slugging %

Now that is a one-man wrecking machine!

We’re wrapping up our previews this week with Track and girls’ golf, both features on the RHS programs, and then Monday we’ll cover what will be a great matchup between the two unbeatens in Kingco, Bothell and Redmond (both 5-0).  See you at a (hopefully sunny) Hartman Park!

First off, sorry for the long delay between blog posts – I have been recovering from a severe bronchitis infection for the past week or so and am finally starting to feel a bit better.

Hope everyone is enjoying our preview sections so far!  And of course the Redmond Reporter jinx goes into full effect right away… as soon as we publish our piece on the Redmond Mustangs’ baseball team they head to Eastern Washington and get absolutely clobbered by Southridge in a doubleheader… but as many of the players said after the game it’s possibly a blessing in disguise because the losses showed them areas of needed improvement, and that they will have to earn every bit of their No. 1 ranking (now No. 3).  I think the Mustangs will do just fine in Kingco but again the test will be once they do get to state.  They may once again find themselves just innings, or outs, away from the bright lights of Safeco Field… how will they respond under the pressure?

Speaking of full swing, how about those bats on the Redmond High fastpitch team!  46 runs in 3 games is a phenomenal stat – don’t expect that kind of production against the quality pitchers of Kingco but the only way to see those kinds of crooked numbers if if EVERYONE in the lineup is contributing quality at-bats and that seems to be what the Mustangs are doing early on.  I think pitching will be the key for them as both returning starters Emily Graves and Melissa White have shown flashes of brilliance, but are victim to the occasional rough outing, which they will need to avoid particularly later on and in the postseason.

And this week we’ll be also featuring Redmond High’s soccer program with longtime coach Pat Scheibe at the helm of a VERY deep and experienced team… how about 96 turning out for soccer this year!  That’s almost as many as Bothell gets for their high school football turnout!  They’re looking solid and are hoping to rise to the occasion this year after a couple of underachieving years in 2009 and 2010.

And we won’t forget about Track, Golf and Tennis, those sports are coming up next in our preview sections so don’t miss em – get out and enjoy this nice weather!

The Grizzlies were down four at one point and came back to force overtime, and completely shut out the Waitsburg-Prescott Cardinals in the extra period to win 58-47.

Ryan Strandin had a MONSTER double-double, 20 points and 20 rebounds, numbers that I have never seen before in a high school basketball game, and Erik Domas, who sat out all last year injured, also had one with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Bear Creek will play tonight at 5:30pm against Napavine, who, just like the Grizzlies, have excellent shooting guards and a “beast that plays inside” according to Moe.

The Grizzlies had an off-shooting night (except at the the line, where they went 20-26) so they’re going to need some of those 3-balls to drop against Napavine and also to convert the layins they missed against Waitsburg-Prescott.

I’ll be updating our website nightly after the Grizzlies’ remaining games and then do a longer feature for next Friday’s paper about their state tournament run.

Hope everyone enjoyed the feature about the ultra-talented Zach Alleva today, he’s been long overdue for some coverage and it was a pleasure to get him some press for his accomplishments.

And as soon as the Grizzlies are done, we’ll jump right into our Spring Sports previews!  There’s one team in particular in our coverage area looking REALLY good coming into the season… they even got recognized in an ESPN top 50 poll recently.  You’ll find out who in a couple weeks!

Anyway we had some great action last weekend during State Tournament weekend, highlighted by Bear Creek junior Zach Alleva (who swims for Eastlake) capturing the state title in the 100 yard Breaststroke event!  Eastlake is not in the Redmond Reporter’s coverage area so Alleva kinda slipped under our radar, but we will be doing a full-on feature about him next issue so be sure to look for that!

Also, how about Phillip Klassen, as a sophomore, taking 3rd in the diving competition!  The Bothell Reporter editor Andy Nystrom did a nice piece on the Klassens, a true diving clan, as older brother Max won it all in 2009 and younger brother Eric placed 12th as a freshman.

Finally, Catherine Kelly ended her stellar prep wrestling career with a 6th place finish after moving up to the 119 weight class after placing 4th at 112 last year. Not quite the finish she wanted, but still she was one of the most successful wrestlers ever to suit up for the Mustangs and will be one to watch as she goes on to wrestle in college as planned.

Now, our attention turns to the only remaining teams left this winter, Bear Creek boys and girls, who both play Friday evening in their state tournament opening-round games.  A win by either will qualify them directly into the “Elite eight” quarterfinals in the new WIAA tournament brackets, which you can see here:

WIAA State Basketball Brackets

Let’s wish good luck to the Grizzlies and then get ready for the Spring Sports season!

It was a little bit of a down year for Redmond High, particularly in swimming and gymnastics, as the Mustangs will have just three representatives total at state for those two events (divers Phillip and Eric Klassen as well as state returner Cristal Spinrad on the bars), but Redmond wrestling looks to do some damage with returning state placer Catherine Kelly (119) and Kingco champion Joe Glass (189) looking really good, and state newcomer Simeon Simov (171) looking to gain some experience against the best in the state.

If you haven’t yet, check out our state wrestling preview here:  Mustang wrestlers set to take down Mat Classic

Tough, tough loss as well for the Mustang boys’ basketball team, who lost 42-41 to Newport to end their season.  My heart goes out to Jeff Larson and crew, I’ve been following them all year and I really thought they had a good shot to survive the consolation bracket.  They will be looking awfully scary on paper next year though as 4 out of 5 starters return, with much-needed big-game experience.

I’ll be making my annual trek to Tacoma to cover everyone participating in wrestling and gymnastics (which includes a Viking boatload of Inglemoor High qualifiers, as I write for the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter as well).  Should be some great action.

The Bulldogs had all their weapons out and played their typical NBA-speed game and the Mustangs just couldn’t quite keep up, though I saw a lot of good things. For example, the Mustangs dominated the physical, aggressive Bulldogs on rebounds, leading to a lot of second-chance points and preventing them for Garfield.

Jason Harrington, coming off a bout of hip burstitis from the Mustangs’ upset of Garfield Jan. 18, fired up 31 points in an unbelievable performance, and the team even shot 11 of 16 for a season-high 30 points in the 4th quarter, talk about no give up and a lot of heart.

Tony Wroten was the real deal too, I mean this guy, like the entire Bulldogs starting lineup, will play pressure defense that will make opponents’ head spin, and he is lethal with the ball in his hands.

A number of times it looked like he was going to drive the lane and then Wroten would post up and fire up a (sometimes NBA-length) 3 pointer and drain it, and then the other times he’d actually drive the lane and lay it in off the glass.  Sick, sick stuff… and I know he wasn’t just showing off for UW head coach Lorenzo Romar who was in attendance.

Redmond coach Jeff Larson was deservedly proud of his group for hanging tough against an all-world team, but the fact of the matter is that they will now have to win four straight pressure-packed games to make it back to the big dance.  Even Garfield coach Ed Haskins, who definitely knows talent when he sees it, unabashedly said that he thinks Redmond will be the one to make it out of the consolation bracket to state, and that’s quite a feather in the Mustangs’ cap.

It starts this Friday against Inglemoor at Juanita High School, and being that I’ve covered Inglemoor this year for the Bothell-Kenmore Reporter it know it will be a tough matchup for the Mustangs and a great game.  The Vikings are extremely solid in both the backcourt with a pair of 6-7 and 6-8 forward/centers and have some experienced guards up front that can make plays, so it will be which team can handle the pressure of the moment, knowing each game may be their last.

Best of luck to the Mustangs and to all of our student-athletes participating in District meets this weekend for Wrestling, Swimming and Gymnastics with the hopes of nailing down state berths.

Here is a schedule of everything that’s going on this weekend for Redmond High (4A Kingco)

4A Kingco Boys’ Swim and Dive Championships – UW Pavilion Pool

Preliminary heats – TODAY 2-5pm, 6:30-9:30pm

Diving Finals (Newport Hills Swim and Tennis Club) – Saturday 9:30am

Swim Finals – 3:45 pm

4A Kingco Gymnastics Meet – Ballard High School

Meet will be held in two sessions on Saturday, with teams assigned by random draw.

Session I – 10:20am-12:20pm

Session II – 2:20-4pm

4A Kingco Wrestling Tournament – Juanita High School

Preliminaries – TODAY 3:30pm

Semifinals/consolation – Saturday 10am

Championship matches – 5:30 p.m.

The double-elimination 4A Kingco basketball tournament starts next Tuesday, with Redmond looking to break out of a funk and make another run at the state tournament.

Speaking of basketball, the Grizzlies are looking unbelievable. I got to watch both the boys and girls’ squads on Tuesday night and was really impressed.  I knew about the boys’ explosive offense with their sharp shooting guards and aggressiveness in the paint, but I have never seen a more focused defense. The team was one step ahead of the Rainier Christian Mustangs all night, picking off at least six or eight passes throughout the course of the game, and just flat-out playing hard on the boards… which led to some pretty skewed numbers in their 78-28 rout.

In the second quarter, the Grizzlies went on a 20-1 run, out-rebounded the Mustangs 12-2 including SIX offensive boards, and forced six Mustang turnovers with their aggressive defense.

In the second half, the Grizzlies didn’t let off the gas one bit, and were nearly perfect from long range, going 9-of-11 from downtown and 15-22 (68%) from the field overall, while the Mustangs were 2-14 (14%).

It would be really cool to have both Grizzly squads make the state tournament, and I think this year that possibility is as distinct as ever.

Thank you to whoever it was that “gifted” me the hat… and have fun at your Super Bowl parties. Go Green Bay!

It was a very close game through three quarters but Skyline’s height and athleticism in the paint (two guys 6-6 and 6-7 along with Kasen Williams, UW recruit at Wide Receiver) just was too much for the Mustangs as they really had trouble penetrating the lane.  For the Stangs to have any chance they had to rely on their perimeter shooters to drain some from downtown, and for the third straight game, they struggled from beyond the arc going a dismal 3-for-18 (8-for-44 last 3 games, all losses). Williams was a beast, especially in the second half, coming out of nowhere for rebounds and key blocks down the stretch.  I guess nothing is beyond the imagination when you can clear 6 feet 10 inches on the high jump bar, though (4A state champion in 2009, runner up last year)

Their ball handling and defense was fairly solid and big man Conner Floan looked good inside, but the Mustangs will have to start hitting their long-range jumpers with regularity in order to be a threat in the postseason against bigger and stronger teams.  I think they can do it, and Coach Larson will have it no other way.

Next week we’ll be covering a team that’s tearing it up, the Bear Creek girls’ basketball squad, who have a perfect season going thus far at 6-0, 11-0.  Head coach Greg Cheever experienced loads of success as an assistant with the powerhouse boys’ program, and whatever he’s doing, it’s sure rubbing off on the girls.

As the regular season comes to a close, I’ll make another blog post detailing playoff scenarios for all teams still alive for state berths, so stay tuned for that!

First off, the Redmond High boys, after a tough 2009-10 season, are tearing it up right now in 4A Kingco, fresh off a 61-52 OT victory against Roosevelt. They moved up to 4-1 and 7-4 overall, which included a 3rd-place finish at the Slalom Slam Holiday Tournament at Seattle Prep, beating a pair of fine teams from the Reno, Nev. area in the process.

Jason Harrington, who played AAU summer ball with teammate Conner Floan is currently leading the team with 18.9 points per game and looks to be the Mustangs’ go-to guy, much like his brother Chris was when the team made their spectacular 5th-place run in the 08-09 season. The back half of their schedule, however, is loaded with some tough teams including Newport (6-0, 9-1), Bellevue College Tournament champions Inglemoor (3-3, 8-3), and the Tony Wroten-led Garfield Bulldogs (6-0, 9-1).  So the team will be tested in each of those games, and when the dust settles hopefully will be in position for a decent seeding heading into the postseason, where anything can happen.

Another team looking great as always is the Bear Creek boys’ team, who have a disguised record at 6-3 and get back into league play tonight against Tacoma Baptist.  I say disguised because head coach Scott Moe doesn’t pick on teams his own size. His rigorous schedule is all in preparation for the 2B state tournament in March, and involves playing teams that are bigger, faster and stronger than his Grizzlies are.

A team like Sammamish, ranked No. 9 in 3A, who handed the Grizzlies their worst loss in 3 seasons, a 65-43 rout. But for the Grizzlies’ young team it’s a growing process and they do have kids that can shoot the ball that need this experience to be able to perform well when it really matters.

Also, look out for the Bear Creek girls’ team at 1-0, 6-0. New coach Greg Cheever knows what he’s doing and can develop any group of athletes into a solid team.

While the weather has been relatively mild this winter so far *knock on wood*. escape into a local gym one night and take in the fun and excitement of a high-school basketball game!

Granted, some unevenly matched basketball games can be a real snoozefest, but this matchup, against a tough 1A University Prep squad, was anything but that.

After the Grizzlies stormed out to an 18-9 lead after the first quarter, the Pumas clawed their way back to tie it 19-19 and then the game was never separated by more than four or five points the whole rest of the way.

I was thinking after last basketball season ended… who is going to step up to replace superstar Jamie Meyer, who was really the Grizzlies’ go-to guy as far as scoring, and I got my answer in an unbelievably hot-shooting guard in FRESHMAN Luke Blankenbeckler, whose brother Kyle was a multi-sport athlete for the Grizzlies as well (he graduated last year).  Luke scored 27 last friday and followed it up with another 20 on Monday, including going 6-for-9 from beyond the arc.

Senior Lucas Peterson and another 9th grader, Jesse Leuenberger, can shoot the three as well so look for some big-time action on the perimeter as well.  Although they didn’t rebound particularly well due to some U. Prep giants banging them around down low, Ryan Strandin and Erik Domas at 6-6 and 6-5 respectively have been dominant at the post positions.

I really like this team and I’m sure we’ll be seeing them well into the postseason and *knock on wood* in Spokane again.

With this week’s boys’ swimming preview, our preview series is now complete and I hope everyone enjoyed learning about all of our local teams!  Big thanks to the coaches for completing their questionnaires – every single team was accounted for this year.

From now until 2011 we have plenty of Holiday hoops tournaments coming up so to everyone that’s traveling near and far, good luck and have a very Merry Christmas, everybody!

Bear Creek senior Lucas Peterson goes up for two of his 12 points during the Grizzlies' 62-60 Monday night win over University Prep at home. The Grizzly boys (1-0, 4-0 overall) were led by the hot shooting of freshman Luke Blankenbeckler, who scored a game-high 20.

As anyone that follows prep wrestling knows, Kingco is extremely weak, if not the weakest league at the 4A level compared to the rest of the state.  Numbers are down, which unfortunately means it’s simply harder to produce top-tier talent that can be found at wrestling powerhouses like Tahoma, Rogers and Graham-Kapowsin who seem to dominate the Mat Classic every year.

For example, last year 18 athletes made it to state from 4A Kingco and only FIVE of them placed (made it to Saturday’s finals, or winning two matches before losing two) in ALL of the weight classes combined.

Here is the post, which I think all Kingco coaches should send out to their kids.  Just replace “Inglemoor” and “Vikings” with whatever school you belong to.  To all wrestlers, good luck on the mats this year!

———————-

For Vikings that want to place in state or have the fortitude to push themselves to win a title, they need to understand there is a difference between ” a guy who wrestles” and “a guy who is a wrestler”. It’s very hard for a part-time wrestler–the guy who only does it from November to February, to even get a sniff at the Tacoma Dome.  If you are a Wrestler (capital ‘W’), you love to wrestle and can’t get enough of it. You don’t need “a break” after the season and, given your choice of a family vacation or competition, you’re fighting for a way to get on the mat. You live in the weight room, not in front of the XBOX. You make sacrifices and choose the ‘hard’ path because you know it’s going to make you better. If you can’t get a ride to practice, you ride your bike, catch the bus, or run. You MAKE it happen.  You don’t care if your parents can’t take you to a tournament, or your coach isn’t going– you don’t need them for YOU to compete–you FIND a way to get to the tournament. Social networking isn’t only FaceBook & MySpace….you’re ingenious and plan ahead. You’re systematic in making sure you hit every tournament because they’re the only ones between now and next year and you want to get every second of mat time possible!

Why? Because you’re from KingCo and being a KingCo wrestler puts you at a disadvantage. One that can ONLY be over come by doing more then the next guy and getting extra training.

UNDERSTAND, only 18 KingCo wrestlers made it out of Regionals this year to even go to State. Out of 112 placers (14 weights x 8 places = 112), only FIVE KingCo wrestlers placed in state: DeMatteo (Skyline -215 4th), McCanta (Newport- 152 5th), Ullery (LW – 140 6th), Chrysanthou (LW – 145 8th), Christenson (Skyline- 152 8th).

If YOU want to be a State placer (not just “go”) YOU NEED TO START NOW!!

Step One: Get in the weight room and PowerLift NOW.

Working-out at home is NOT going to do it. Guys need to be in a weight room or gym doing heavy squats, power cleans, deadlifts, rows, and bench— compound exercises. This is more weight then anyone can safely lift at home and frankly I get tired of hearing from guys that “they’re lifting weights at home”, when there are no noticeable results.
Build overall body strength. Get bigger. Get stronger. This takes TIME and most of all CONSISTENCY. It doesn’t occur in the week before practice starts. It occurs 3 to 4 times a week, EVERY week from now until next season.
The harsh reality is that we were smaller then every single one of our competitors. Undersized and under-gunned is no way to go into a combative arena.

Step Two: if you’re a “wrestler”….WRESTLE

Club wrestling & tournament competition is the way to get yourself better. The more you do it, the better you’re going to become. If you’re sitting around, you need to know your competition ISN’T.
99.9% of the wrestlers we see at state are the same ones we see all summer at freestyle/greco tournaments–that is NOT a mistake. [learn about the concept of  10,000 times to mastery]
Going to state doesn’t just “happen” you have to get used to wrestling in tournaments, in the heat of  tough matches, & under the fire of competition. You have to get used to the routine of travel and waking-up early; You need to become desensitized to being nervous,  wrestling, sitting, and wrestling late into the day–because that is how tournament’s are wrestled and the END of the day is where tournaments are WON.
If you’re too busy or too tired now, you will be too busy or too tired when it’s time to win the championship later. Condition yourself now!  363 days until State 2010-2011

Every day, you either get better, or you get worse–what’s it going to be?

On the boys’ side, the Redmond boys look to have come back with a renewed vigor and experience as they try to avenge a tough 2009-10 season, and how about Jason Harrington scoring 31 earlier this week!  That’s phenomenal, and with his hot shooting and the strong post presence the Mustangs have I look for them to make a real run at Kingco this year, where it seems every team has at least a fighting chance every night.

Bear Creek took a hit when Jamie Meyer graduated, but that program is so very strong Scott Moe has more than enough firepower brought up to replace him, and graduated seniors Michael Davisson and Kyle Blankenbeckler.  Ryan Strandin is one of the league’s biggest post players at a very muscular, athletic 6-foot-6 and they have a number of shooters that can torch the net on any given night.  Lock them up once again for the league title and barring a major upset, we’ll see them in Spokane again this March.  The Overlake boys program has been struggling, and was shaken up again when veteran head coach and the Owls’ athletic director John Wiley stepped down to spend more time with his young family, allowing assistant Justin Prohn a chance at the helm.  This team looks to be a scrappy, grind’ em out club that will need contributions from everyone to advance out of the Emerald City League.

As for the girls, two of our three teams have new coaches this year, Redmond’s Andre Barashkoff (wife of Julie, the Mustangs’ longtime swim coach) and Bear Creek’s Greg Cheever, who is featured in this week’s main sports article.  Redmond is looking fairly strong with a good mix of returners and young, up-and-coming players eager for their chance to shine at Varsity. They lost a key player in 6-4 post Marissa Pratt, leaving Jordyn Ohrt, at just 6-1, the tallest on the team – which may cause the Mustangs to hone their perimeter game this year if they have trouble working the ball inside against taller clubs.  Overlake girls, unfortunately, are on the outside looking in as they only have one returning player and just 13 girls total… for the first time ever every girl that tried out made Varsity.  But head coach Sara Wilcox has a great attitude about it and will do her best to get these girls competitive and having fun.

For the lowdown on the Bear Creek girls, read the article here:

New coaching era begins at Bear Creek

Take in a basketball game or two and check out our local teams for some exciting action!

All of those hundreds of hours of practice, conditioning, time on the field, balancing school and athletics… it’s hard to watch players deservedly get emotional, and often the coaches do as well.

Well this happened not once, but twice in a row to the Overlake Owls’ girls soccer team.  Last year I remember standing on the field at Sparks Stadium, watching Seattle Academy and their standout Sierra Keeler celebrate a 2-1 victory over the Owls.

This year, it was the same field, and a lot of the same players, but a different team (Bush) and a different standout player (Chloe Cross) who did the damage.

If you haven’t yet – read the story here:

But as head coach Sally Goodspeed said, it’s really amazing that this team, which only has 3 seniors compared to last year’s eight, is even here.  I definitely didn’t think they’d make it all the way to the finals myself but that is a testament to the program, Goodspeed and her girls who all contributed.

Well… that’s it for fall sports!  I hope everyone has enjoyed our coverage and we’ll start up Winter sports (one look outside will tell anyone it IS winter, after all) next week with some previews.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Both seniors wanted the title but Harper was able to out-touch Pleger in 1:03.92 to 1:40.01, a true bang-bang finish that you can watch here:

Harper’s golden touch: Senior wins breaststroke title in dramatic fashion

There’s been some surprises in the postseason for soccer as the No. 1 ranked Bear Creek boys were ousted by a determined Providence Classical Christian team, and also the Cedar Park upset over Overlake boys too.  At least the boys (about 2/3 of them) that play Spring sports won’t have to do dual practices this year, but we’ll miss them at the 1A state tournament in the spring.

Finally, the only team left this fall is the 1A Overlake Owls girls’ soccer squad who made it to the “Final Four” for the second year in a row, and I’ll be making the long trek down to Sparks Stadium in Puyallup to follow them on Saturday in (hopefully) the championship game or the 3/4 consolation finals.  They play Vashon Island, a team they handily beat earlier this season, 4-1, in the semis Friday night.

Go Owls!

First, I want to congratulate Redmond football on their 34-28 comeback win over Edmonds-Woodway last Friday, they’ve struggled mightily this year in league play and hopefully they can take that victory and close out strong against Ballard tomorrow. Coach Chandler said rebuilding this team will be a multi-year process – so Mustang hopefuls should be excited as the younger players develop in the next couple seasons hopefully into contenders.

I am REALLY looking forward to finally catching up with Coach Pohlman at the Bear Creek School and his boys soccer team, ranked No. 1 in the state for good reason – putting up a lot of crooked numbers in league play this year with an artillery up front led by Mark Phillips, who’s just tied school records for goals scored in a game (5) and career goals (45), a first-class goalkeeper in Jamie Clough and tons of talent all over the field.

In addition, all four soccer teams at Bear Creek and Overlake are running hot and will advance to postseason play – including the Overlake boys who have ONE game, on November 9th, to determine if they make the state tournament or not.  Kind of a shame it all comes down to one contest but I think it will work in the Owls’ favor with how dominant they hav been.

Everyone enjoy the rest of the fall sports action and let’s send these hard-working soccer players back to the Big Dance!

While the Mustangs ran a perfect 10-0 league record this season, in past years the team has struggled for one reason or another at Snohomish, which is a good, fair test of golf and a rather tight layout especially on the back side, like a lot of the courses that the Mustangs play.  This year, however, they came prepared, confident and experience was on their side as each Mustang was able to keep within themselves and avoid trouble, and we all know how one bad hole can cause the wheels to come off.

Case in point – Charlie Mroz had it to 3-under after 15 holes in the first round and had a comfortable lead, but bogeyed 16 and 17.  There have been scores from 4 to 8 recorded on the long par-5 18th, which has a very narrow landing area to a well-protected green.

Mroz laced a drive and had about 245 yards left, and decided to go for the green in two. He hit a draw with a 3-wood that trickled on the green to 12 feet, and he made the putt for an eagle and finish with a 3-under 69 for medalist honors… and ended up winning the tournament with a 69=73-142 (2-under) total.

Great stuff, and it’ll be great to follow the Stangs this May at state, with 5 (and maybe 6) players, they’re a sure fire bet to threaten for a state title.

Congratulations to head coach Chris Zimmerman and the 2010 Mustang boys’ golf team!

This year we have a number of teams off to fantastic starts once again and they’re definitely ones to watch as the fall progresses and the postseason draws nearer:

1.  Overlake Soccer

The boys are off to a perfect 6-0-0 (7-0-0) start after polishing off their first unbeaten season last year.  They only graduated TWELVE seniors last year, which has to be some kind of record in that program.  Depth and experience will be an issue though as the team enters the playoffs against players that have been there before, but never count them out.

The girls are also very young but have a number of girls that can score at any given time, as well as leadership.  After a season-opening loss to Seattle Academy, last year’s 1A state champions, the Owls have run 5 straight league wins while outscoring their opponents 18-3 in those wins.

2.  Bear Creek Boys Soccer

Out of any team this fall I think the Grizzly boys have the most experience returning and it’s showing with their 4-0-0 (8-0-0) record.  Mark Phillips is a goal-scoring machine and currently leads the league with 11, and Jamie Clough in goal simply puts a lock on the net, much like Ceci Votta and Chap Grubb did for their respective Overlake teams last season.  The girls are also perfect at 2-0-0 in league play but have struggled mightly outside their league at an 1-2-3 clip.

The Sea-Tac 2B league is hard to gauge since some schools are barely even able to field a program, so the true test will come in a few weeks when everything is on the line, and the cream rises to the top.

3.  Bear Creek School volleyball

I love covering volleyball, if you like non-stop action and some awe-inspring athleticism take in a prep volleyball game!  The Grizzlies have been nothing short of dominant this year about 1/3 of the way through their season, with each of their 5 wins coming via a 3-game sweep.  They have tons of height with two 6’1″ girls in front and a total of six at 5’9″ or taller, a great server and setter in Michele Brown and a solid defensive and set of hitters.  They are the complete package and if I was a betting man, my money is on Bear Creek to make a return to state this November and top their program-best 8th place finish.

Next week I’ll be covering the 4A Redmond Mustangs’ boys’ golf team as they play at the District Tournament over at Snohomish, they also have an outstanding team this year and hopefully will be sending a bunch to state.

One thing is for sure, there will be no room for mistakes, where an ill-timed penalty or turnover may very well cost them a football game.

Heading over to my first soccer game of the season, Overlake girls’ soccer against a tough Emerald City League opponent in Cedar Park Christian.  Once again small school (Overlake and Bear Creek) soccer teams are all off to a great start in 2010, keep it up!

I don’t know much about LW’s program other than that they have really been struggling with turnout after two 1-8 seasons, and had a coaching change coming into this season, though their roster looks pretty full with plenty of upperclassmen.

Oh, and evidently I’ve been living under a rock and did not realize that Lake Washington dropped to 3A during the offseason.  I was wondering why there was a team missing from the Crest division!

Next week we will wrap up our previews with Cross-Country, which all three schools (Redmond, Overlake and Bear Creek) have in the fall, along with the Redmond boys’ tennis team.

It will be nice to get back on the gridiron again, unfortunately with our deadline of Thursday night I won’t be physically attending many football games this season because it will be old news by the time our paper comes out, but we will strive to provide team updates and recaps for our Web site whenever possible at www.redmond-reporter.com.  Check back often!

Bothell will be taking on a very good Mission Viejo team from California at Qwest Field tomorrow (Saturday) at 8pm as part of the Fall Kickoff Classic, and our own Mustangs will take on one of the top-ranked teams at 3A, Juanita, at home tonight at 7pm.  Woodinville opened up its season in front of a raucous crowd at the new Pop Keeney Stadium in a 28-6 defeat to Mount Si last night, and I can only imagine how loud it will be next week when the Cougars take on Newport at PK on Friday the 17th.

I passed by there the other day when heading up to Bothell to talk with Tom Bainer for our Bothell Football preview, (I write for Bothell-Kenmore as well) and wow it looks great!  Tons of additional parking, great looking grandstands and even nice locker rooms for both teams.

I hope everyone has been enjoying our preview series so far, next week we have soccer and girls’ swimming to look forward to, and then will round up with boys tennis (Redmond) and Cross Country.

And best of luck to Redmond high golfer Lyle Rudnicki, who should be in the middle of his first round of play at the Home Care and Hospice First Tee Open at Pebble Beach this weekend.  He has been paired with Mark James, a very talented pro from England who has won 18 times on the European Tour. What a great opportunity for him, and we’ll be sure to include an update on how he does once the tournament is completed.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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…

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.

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 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.