Fast Break

Coming event

Russell will speak at the MAC

Hall of Fame player and coach Bill Russell, voted as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, will speak at Spokane’s Museum of Arts and Culture on Nov. 3 at 6 p.m.

Russell, the national spokesman for “Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers” museum exhibition, will speak about the significance of sports in American history.

Seating is limited for the event, but the $15 tickets are still available at TicketsWest outlets or at ticketswest.com.

High school football

Sandpoint can’t catch a break

McLoughlin High (Milton-Freewater, Ore.) football coach Daryl Stavros resigned abruptly Tuesday and the school canceled its football game against Sandpoint.

So that makes two games Sandpoint lost. Originally, the Bulldogs were scheduled to travel to Bonners Ferry tonight. But Badgers coach Ed DePriest forfeited, fearing his team – comprised of 16 players – couldn’t compete against Sandpoint and would suffer injuries that would affect their Intermountain League season.

So Sandpoint scrambled and found a game with McLoughlin. But then Stavros, a former Post Falls assistant coach, resigned.

Rogers High School had a bye this week. Sandpoint athletic director Cheryl Klein said she called to see if Rogers would be interested in playing, but the school declined on such short notice.

Olympics

Torch on Everest a prickly subject

Chinese mountaineers will carry the Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest, making the final assault on the world’s tallest peak from a staging camp some 500 yards from the summit, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

From base camp at 17,000 feet, the torch will be taken to a staging area at 27,400 feet and from there to the 29,035-foot summit.

Aside from the physical challenge of climbing the mountain, which straddles the border of Nepal and Chinese-controlled Tibet, the torch had to be designed to burn in bad weather, low pressure and high altitude.

Groups critical of China’s often harsh 57-year rule over Tibet have decried the torch route as a stunt meant to lend legitimacy to Chinese control.

In April, five American activists were expelled from China after unfurling a banner at Everest base camp that read, “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008,” in a dig at the Beijing Games’ official slogan “One World, One Dream.”