Well if there was any doubt as to the team to beat in the Emerald City League, those were put to rest in the Tri-District semifinals when the Owls boys routed No. 4 Cedar Park 8-0 on Tuesday Night.

That sealed the Owls’ second-straight trip to the 1A State Tournament in the spring… yes that’s right… a nice little 6-month layoff.  It doesn’t seem fair, in fact it’s not at all, for a dominant team like that to essentially go step onstage at the Big Dance ice-cold against a team that may have just won a District Title and has 20+ games under it’s belt. The Owls get 20 days of practice, but keep in mind a lot of those athletes will be involved with other sports and have to make scheduling adjustments to get back on the pitch together.

But regardless, they’re in, as are three other teams: Bear Creek Boys and Girls’ soccer as well as Bear Creek Volleyball.

The soccer matches will take place at Sammamish High School at 6pm (boys) and 8pm (girls) on Saturday night, so please come down and cheer for the Grizzlies as they seek to make a run for 2B soccer glory!

The Grizzlies’ volleyball team will be in Yakima this Saturday enjoying their first state berth ever with a young, energetic squad that defied the odds this season. Coach Sherrie Brown has been around the sport for a very long time and this is a well-deserved achievement for her and the program.

Last but certainly not least, the 1A Owl girls team (15-1-3) handily defeated Lakeside 5-1 on Wednesday to earn a spot in the state quarterfinals at Okanagan this Saturday at 11 a.m. Should they win, they will play the semifinals and finals at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup Nov. 20 and 21.

Enjoy the fall sports action left because sooner than you know it’ll be time to start all over again, lace up those Nikes and hit the basketball court!

Three teams, Girls soccer for The Overlake School (1A) and both the Boys and Girls teams for The Bear Creek School (2B) have all earned spots in their respective state tournaments. Click on the hyperlinks to view the State brackets!

And knock on wood, but there’s a great chance at making it a perfect four as the Overlake boys meet up with division rivals Cedar Park Christian Tuesday night at 7pm at Sammamish High School in a winner-to-state game, with the loser going to another winner-to-state (loser out) game against the loser of the Seattle Academy/Seattle Christian game which also takes place tomorrow.

And HUGE congrats to coach Sherrie Wilson and the Bear Creek School volleyball team that made the State Tournament for the first time in school history!  They came so close last year, one game away if I remember right, and I know this is a big moment for the program.  Let’s root for them to bring home a trophy!

Hope everyone enjoyed my feature on local Olympic hopeful Scott Macartney in last Friday’s issue (front page).  He’s definitely going to be one to watch in Vancouver in a few months.  I’ll be covering tomorrow’s Overlake boys soccer game and am also planning to cover Bear Creek soccer this weekend at Sammamish High School as they play the first round of their state tournament. I just got off the phone with Bear Creek A.D. and boys’ coach Chad Pohlman and he has some really insightful words to say about his team’s success this year and his hopes for the state tournament.

Just had a meeting with Scott Macartney, an Olympic skier born and raised in Redmond, for an interview in Seattle this morning.  He was selected as a Comcast Local Hero, a new campaign seeking to raise money for both local elite winter athletes and Special Olympics-Washington.

Macartney’s lifeblood has been skiing and he’s had great success coming up through the junior ranks and on the international World Cup circuit, which has enabled him to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team in both 2002 and 2006, while earning a spot on the U.S. Ski Team for 12 straight years.

He is perhaps best known, unfortunately, for his horrific crash at Kitzbuehel in Austria on one of the most dangerous downhill courses in the world, which has over nearly 1 million views combined on Youtube.  Watch it here at your own risk.

He’s really a great guy and had a very busy media schedule today so big thanks for him to take some time for the ol’ Reporter.  Look for the story in this Friday’s issue!

On the high school side, I’m just about to leave for the Overlake Owls’ girls soccer team’s Tri-District Opener against Charles Wright Academy at Sammamish High School.  It’s a loser-out game, but with a win tonight the Owls will be just one win away from a state berth.

While kiddies are busy getting dressed up and ready for a sugar rush tomorrow, a bunch of local teams have had brilliant regular seasons in league play and have earned the right to play for a chance to make it to the grandest of all stages, the state tournament… with many postseason games taking place on October 31.

Starting at 4A, Redmond’s soccer team finished fifth in the league and will face off against Woodinville on Halloween at 4pm at the Falcons’ home field in a loser out game.  Mustangs’ volleyball and football both narrowly missed the postseason this year, while Cross Country will be having its Bi-districts also on Saturday in Kelso, with the top 15 getting an automatic invite to run as individuals.

1A features the high-flying Overlake Owls, with the boys team locking up the #1 seed for Tri-Districts by virtue of going undefeated at 13-0-1, putting them into the state tournament this spring. The girls’ path, although they had a fantastic year at 12-1-3, will be much tougher as they have to go through the brackets at the Tri-District Tournament at Sammamish High School starting on the 4th.

The Owls and Bear Creek Grizzlies’ volleyball team each finished strong and earned postseason berths – the latter will be playing in the Sea-Tac 2B league tournament Saturday at Chief Leschi in Puyallup, with the Owls in the Emerald City League playoffs.

It can get confusing with so many playoffs and scenarios all going at once, but I’ll do my best to keep the community abreast of how our local teams are doing as the postseason progresses.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Playing in the tough 4A Crest Division of Kingco, the Mustangs may have become a beneficiary of playing in a league with not one (like Bothell in Crown) but two dominant teams, plateau rivals Skyline and Issaquah, incidentally the two teams that met for the state title last year.

In the league’s normal “round-robin” play, both the Spartans and Eagles have defeated every division foe that has come their way, and with the Mustangs’ upset of Eastlake in week 4, caused a three-way tie for the third and final playoff spot with Newport, Eastlake and Redmond all at 2-3 records.

To resolve the tie, the Mustangs will play tonight at LW in the first of two “mini games”consisting of two 12-minute quarters.  They will play Newport in the first round, and if they beat the Knights, they will have a re-match against the Wolves, who got a first-round bye, for their postseason life.

Being that Newport had the Mustangs’ number during their matchup earlier this season, a 21-7 Knights victory, and a very hungry Wolves team that will be looking to exact some revenge over the upset, it won’t be any stretch of the imagination to rule the Mustangs’ postseason hopes a longshot at this point in time. They will have to fire on all cylinders and avoid costly penalties which may prove deadly in a 24-minute game.

Nevertheless, this is an exciting time compared to last year, when the cellar-dwelling Mustangs were 1-7 heading into week 9.  Best of luck to the Mustangs tonight as they look to defy the odds against two very good football teams.

Here are the scenarios:

The loser of game one will finish fifth in the league and play Lake Washington in the week nine crossover game, with the loser of game two finishing fourth and playing Roosevelt.
The winner of the playoff will be the No. 3 seed and match up with Inglemoor at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell this Saturday, Oct. 31, at 12:30 p.m.

And speaking of crazy playoff scenarios, check out this scenario sheet I prepared for 4A Kingco girls’ soccer based on the outcome of league games tonight:

Team

Issaquah          9      1      0      27
Eastlake         8     2     0     24
Skyline         8     2     0     24
Woodinville     7     2     1     22
Redmond     5     3     2     17
Newport         3     4     3     12
Roosevelt     4     6     0     12
Inglemoor     3     6     1     10
Ballard         2     5     3     9
LW             2     6     2     8
Bothell         1     7     2     5
Garfield         1     9     0     3

Scenarios (assuming Woodinville beats Garfield and goes to 25 pts)

IF Redmond Beats Eastlake….
and Skyline wins OR ties, Redmond will re-match with Eastlake in the first round of the Kingco playoffs.

If Redmond ties Eastlake…
and Skyline loses, Redmond will play Skyline in the first round
and Skyline wins, Redmond will play either Woodinville or Eastlake in the first round
and Skyline ties, Redmond will play either Woodinville or Eastlake or Skyline in the first round

If Redmond loses to Eastlake…
And Skyline loses, Redmond will play Skyline in the first round
And Skyline ties, Redmond will play either Skyline or Woodinville in the first round
And Skyline wins, Redmond will play Woodinville in the first round.

I’ll be covering Mustang soccer tonight and follow up with Coach Pluschke tomorrow with how things went on the gridiron.

Hard to believe that it’s almost November… soon the football and soccer cleats will be put away and kids will be firing up three pointers on the basketball court.

But there’s a number of teams out there vying for a postseason spot so let’s highlight them here:

Both of the Overlake soccer teams have continued their strong starts, as the boys are still undefeated, now at 11-0-0 (Save a natural disaster they’ll be 12-0-0 tonight after their game against 1-7 Bellevue Christian) and the girls have lost just one to Seattle Academy and have a very important re-match with the Cardinals (11-0-0, 11-1-0) on Thursday which will likely determine seeding for the playoffs.

In Volleyball, both Overlake (4th, Emerald City League) and Bear Creek (3rd, Sea-Tac 2B North) have a good shot at the playoffs… and they had a pretty good match last night with Overlake squeaking out a game 1 win and then using that momentum to power past the Grizzlies.  Bear Creek lost a few notable players last year (Katie Wolfram anyone?) and made some untimely mistakes but they will be very strong in the upcoming years… while the Owls’ six seniors are ready to crash the State Tournament.  It is extremely hard to make state coming out of the 1A Emerald City League with the Tri-District tournament they have to get past but I think the Owls have a good chance to get there.

The Bear Creek boys’ soccer has also been extremely solid under the tutelage of Grizzlies’ AD Chad Pohlman at 6-1-1 and second place in the league behind Tacoma Baptist, Chad said at the beginning of the year that he’d have to change some things up and “play a different style” with the young squad he has this year and I guess it’s working!

Kingco Cross Country Championships are coming up this Thursday too at Lake Sammamish State Park, and that will be a good indicator of where front runners Mack Young and Devon McMahon stand in relation to their competition, as both have been putting up great times so far this season.

Good luck to our local athletes as they enter the tail end of the fall sports season!

I had the pleasure of attending a Overlake boys’ soccer game on Tuesday afternoon against Northwest School and was extremely impressed by the poise, aggressiveness and teamwork that this talented group of youngsters displayed.  Sure, NW school isn’t really a threat in the league at 3-5-1, but this team, like the girls’ squad, is a prime example of a group of experienced athletes coming together and finding themselves.  Coach Bob Bristol has 10 seniors ready to lead and a crew of athletic underclassmen getting some valuable playing time, with a program this deep they really look good not only for this year but the seasons to come.

And they just took down defending league champions Seattle Academy last night to go 10-0-0 (11-0-0) on the year.  The amazing thing is that scoring isn’t limited to a few, or at most four or five kids like on most teams, so far this season Bristol estimates that 14 of his 20 or so rostered players have scored a goal, which is incredible.

Of course, they still have to deal with playing their league season in the fall and the State tournament in the spring… but I do think we’ll be following them for a deep run when the time comes.

Congrats to the Mustangs for their 27-0 football victory at Garfield, Andrew Rohrbach with three field goals of 34 yards or more!

Coming up next week I will be covering some volleyball, which is one of my favorite sports to cover.  And it will be a Monday-night, all-Redmond battle between the Overlake Owls and the Bear Creek Grizzlies (non-league, of course) but should be a great match!

I witnessed one of the most spectacular single-game performances by any high school athlete that I’ve ever seen in any sport on Friday night when Issaquah’s star quarterback Ryan Bergman absolutely torched the Mustangs with his golden arm, passing for somewhere between 494 (official Issaquah stats sheet) and 531 (Redmond stats sheet, sent to the Times) yards on an amazing 26/35 completions.

A number of those 9 that he missed were right on the money as well but slipped out of the hands of the talented Eagles’ receivers, who were quite busy the whole game.  I mean Bergman was in the zone all night… throwing touchdown passes of 4, 11, 21, 29, 54, and a mammoth 79-yard bomb into the outstretched arms of Evan Peterson in a third-and-long situation, who caught three of the scores.

I had heard this kid was the real deal, but the Redmond stands and myself were left stunned at this kid’s accuracy and poise.  And once the Eagles get Grant Gellatly back and healthy, you can almost count on them being back at the Dome come November… they’re just that good.

Still waiting on word of whether his numbers from Friday are a school record, but it must be very close.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs look to rebound against Garfield during a Thursday night game in Seattle, as the Bulldogs are 1-17 for the last two seasons combined and have started out their league schedule 0-3 this year.

Featured game this week will be the Overlake boys’ soccer team (8-0-0, 9-0-0) as they look to stay perfect at home against Northwest School tomorrow night.

Stepping away from the Redmond sports scene for a bit, I was honored to do a feature story for this upcoming issue, “Hope through hoops,” during which I met Bill Hilf, the founder of a non-profit organization called High Five Hope.

Briefly, he uses the sport of basketball to enrich the lives of homeless children in rural Asia, while teaching them valuable life skills such as teamwork, self-confidence and leadership that can are attained by participating in team sports. Hilf, using money donated through the organization’s Web site, www.highfivehope.org, will soon be embarking on a trip to Manila, Philippines to conduct the second-annual Hope Sports Fest where he will work with approximately 300 homeless children and provide basketball instruction, shoes, jerseys, basketballs and food to as many as possible.  While I will encourage you to read the story here, I will say that Hilf is a phenomenal example of how people can make a difference and change the lives of those less fortunate.  This was without a doubt one of the most memorable pieces I have done in my (short) career so far and just hearing about the work that Hilf has done really inspired me, as I hope his story will do for you.

Also, while Hilf will be helping locals recover from the disastrous tropical storms that have battered Pacific Rim islands in southeast Asia lately, a couple of big-name Seahawks are doing the same.

Prior to this Saturday’s Seahawks game at home against the Jaguars, Medical Teams International will be teaming up with the Hawks to raise money for disaster survivors, and Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu will generously match the first $10,000 worth of donations collected out of his own pocket. Marques Tuiasosopo, former University of Washington quarterback, will also be on hand to help with the effort. Both have family in the Samoan Islands, which has been affected by the storms.

Great examples of charitable giving for worthy causes like these are great and set a wonderful example for today’s youth on the importance of helping those in need. Let’s give them a high five!

All in all, it was quite a disheartening weekend for the local sports scene.

The Seahawks got dismembered by Peyton Manning and the Colts, UW suffered a heartbreaker at the hands of Notre Dame… and you can add the Mustangs’ 21-7 loss to Newport last Friday to that list.

The Knights came ready and successfully contained quarterback Michael Conforto – to the tune of just 26 yards on 18 carries (1.4 average… ouch) with Cole Hardwick running for 96 yards, 81 of which came on a huge run leading to the Mustangs’ first and only score.

Although I didn’t attend the game, it’s clear that the Mustangs need to come up with something to prevent teams from ganging up on Conforto. I don’t know what the answer is, but we will see what Coach Pluschke has in store this Friday.

Speaking of which, that game against Issaquah is almost a must-win for the Mustangs, against one of the best teams in the league. Granted Eastlake, who lost to Redmond 24-21, nearly upset the Eagles 14-13 last Friday, Issaquah has a tremendous quarterback in Ross Quarre who has racked up an insane 756 yards passing (54 of 93, 10 touchdowns) through his first four games of the season.

And oh-so-clutch of Devin Schmidt during a tough Overlake boys soccer battle against University Prep which was knotted 2-2 at the end of regulation – Schmidt’s goal in overtime pushed the Owls to a perfect 6-0 in front of the home crowd. Unfortunately the girls lost to Seattle Academy (6-0-0 in league play) to break their unbeaten streak, and they greatly look forward to October 22 when they get a chance to re-match with the Cardinals.