John Blanchette
John Blanchette is a free-lance columnist for The Spokesman-Review in the Sports department.
Contact John
- Email: blanchettejp@gmail.com
- Phone: 509-844-5558
- Fax: 509-744-5655
Recent stories by John
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Spotlight finds teen
February 14, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 The next big thing in women’s boxing? Turns out Claressa Shields is the big thing now. The 16-year-old middleweight from Flint, Mich., turned the first U.S. Olympic Team Trials for …
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Blanchette: Crews, 23 others aiming for Olympics berth
February 13, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 At the orientation meeting Sunday for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women’s Boxing, the participants were first asked if there were any questions. “Can we get a free meal?” …
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Blanchette: Women’s boxing finally arrives
February 12, 2012 in Sports on Page C1 For the participants in the first U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women’s Boxing, the view from Spokane rivals the one from atop Everest – with one cruel irony. “For most …
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Blanchette: Women’s boxing finally arrives
February 11, 2012 in Sports For the participants in the first U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women’s Boxing, the view from Spokane rivals the one from atop Everest – with one cruel irony.
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Blanchette: Gonzaga showed its power in rematch
February 10, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 Game long over, a Gonzaga operative pushed a wheelchair through a ground-level corridor at the McCarthey Athletic Center and toward the court, where he encountered Randy Bennett – more resigned …
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Blanchette: GU women develop new identity with similar results
February 5, 2012 in Sports on Page C1 Steal, pass, layup. It can still be that elementary. In the deciding moments of Gonzaga’s 69-58 women’s basketball victory over San Diego on Saturday, it happened twice in the space …
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Blanchette: Motum deserves huge shout-out
February 3, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 PULLMAN – A defender overcommitted high above the key and suddenly a lane to the hoop as wide as the Brisbane River opened up for Brock Motum. Almost as spectacular …
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Blanchette: BYU enjoys WCC, for now
February 2, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 If you dialed up last weekend’s Saint Mary’s-Brigham Young basketball game to gauge what Gonzaga’s up against in the West Coast Conference’s ménage of the Id, Ego and Super-ego – …
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Recruiting process keeps getting dirtier
February 1, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 Mike Leach signs his first class of recruits today as football coach at Washington State and it’s ranked … 12th. In the Pac-12. 3
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Hawaii humbles Vandals
January 29, 2012 in Sports on Page C7 MOSCOW, Idaho – Seems as if the old Idaho box step is back in style. Up, sideways, back.
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Provodnikov KOs Torres at ‘Friday Night Fights’
January 28, 2012 in NBA on Page C1 Ruslan Provodnikov is a boxer who looks to be going places. Freddie Roach and Eric Brown are newly in charge of getting him there with his head attached.
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Guard hits seven treys as Idaho pulls away
January 27, 2012 in Sports on Page B3 MOSCOW, Idaho – The first step in settling into a shooter’s rhythm? Well, it helps when you get the ball.
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Women in spotlight
January 25, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 Papering the walls of the subterranean Howard Street Boxing Club are the usual posters from bouts and cards going back decades, and they suggest the musty odor of smoke and …
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Chiefs put on gloves to make bobblehead fashion statement
January 21, 2012 in Sports on Page C1 There will come a time – and it can’t be far off – that every man, woman and child will see their own likenesses on bobblehead dolls. As in athletic …
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Blanchette: Turns out, VIPs not the only BMOCs
January 20, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 It was a galoshes kind of day and a sneakers-in- a-snowdrift kind of night at Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center – not for basketball aesthetes, perhaps, but not to be thrown …
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Daugherty’s Cougars approach next hurdle
January 14, 2012 in Sports on Page C1 Smart coaches beg, borrow and steal from smarter coaches. June Daugherty also bought.
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M’s Wilhelmsen’s proves perfect mix
January 12, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 As we wait for the Prince to pick his city, it looks more and more as if the Seattle Mariners will again leave their constituency in a rage – or …
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Blanchette: Two games isn’t enough to decide title
January 9, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 Someone out there in the mediaverse had a great analogy the other day as to why anybody humbugging the rematch of LSU and Alabama tonight has it all wrong, and …
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Blanchette: Marquise back on the marquee
January 8, 2012 in Sports on Page C1 Students are not even close to being back yet – a quirk of the calendar has second semester at Gonzaga starting in March this year – so it doesn’t seem …
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Blanchette: So far, the water is just fine for EWU men’s basketball
January 4, 2012 in Sports on Page B1 His commute to the gym is 24 miles longer now and takes him close by his old one, a daily reminder of the plunge he’s taken. “I went from fresh …

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