Jim Meehan

Mead High product Alexis Olgard wanted to get away when she made her decision to attend USC, but she’s looking forward to returning to the Inland Northwest. Olgard, a 6-foot-5 freshman middle blocker who is seeing considerable playing time on USC’s fifth-ranked volleyball team, will be back in her home state this week with matches against No .10 Washington on Friday and Washington State on Saturday.

Former Mead High School volleyball star Alexis Olgard returns to Washington with USC to play the Cougars and Huskies.

Quarterback Kyle Rowley, who is 2 for 2 in leading the Spokane Shock to arena football championships, wants to make it 3 for 3. Rowley made his return official Thursday afternoon, signing a contract at Shock team headquarters. Then, true to his exhaustive workout and training regimens, Rowley planned on throwing passes to returning receiver Greg Orton.

Quarterback Kyle Rowley, who is 2 for 2 in leading the Spokane Shock to arena football championships, wants to make it 3 for 3.

Max Komar figured good news was on the way when the Arizona Cardinals gathered for a team meeting 10 days ago. It was cut-down day across the NFL and Komar noticed team officials earlier pulling selected players from running and weight-lifting drills to inform them they were no longer on the team. At 1 p.m., head coach Ken Whisenhunt entered and told the players that everyone in the meeting room had made the team. Komar, a rookie free agent and former Idaho Vandal, handled it with veteran aplomb. On the inside, however, he was doing back-flips.

If the Northwest Conference football coaches preseason poll is correct, the Whitworth Pirates will do something this fall that hasn’t happened in the last six seasons: Finish below third place. The coaches picked Whitworth as the fourth-best team in the new-look NWC (associate member Menlo exited and Pacific restarted its program after nearly two decades on the sideline). The last time the Pirates finished out of the top three was in 2003, a fourth-place finish that coincided with the program’s last losing season.

Brigham Young University men’s basketball coach Dave Rose has always given his time generously to support cancer-stricken patients and assist fundraising for cancer research, but it’s taken on new meaning over the last 14 months. In June, 2009, Rose felt light-headed on a flight to Las Vegas. By the time the plane landed, Rose was sprawled over three seats and had to be helped from the cabin by emergency medical staff. He was vomiting blood when he reached the hospital. Doctors removed a softball-sized tumor from his spleen and also removed part of his pancreas and six lymph nodes. Two days after the surgery, he was told he had pancreatic cancer, which usually carries a bleak prognosis.

Brigham Young University men’s basketball coach Dave Rose has always given his time generously to support cancer-stricken patients and assist fundraising for cancer research, but it’s taken on new meaning over the last 14 months.

The best team in the Arena Football League saved its best for last. The Spokane Shock, despite losing two defensive starters in the first 5 minutes, put together their most complete performance of the season, punctuating their inaugural AFL campaign with a convincing 69-57 ArenaBowl XXIII victory over the Tampa Bay Storm on Friday in front of a franchise-record 11,017 at the Arena.