One team, five individuals chosen for EWU hall

The 1949-50 team that Eastern Washington’s legendary coach Red Reese called “my best basketball club” will be inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame, along with five individuals – Holt Brewer, Rob Friese, Suzanne Vick Paulsen, Jack “Rabbit” Roffler and Richard “Curly” Rousseau – during 9 a.m. breakfast ceremonies in EWU’s Pence Union Building on Oct. 1.

The public is invited to attend, at a cost of $15 per person for breakfast, and can RSVP at (509) 359-2465 or 1-800-648-7697. The inductees will also be honored during halftime of the Eagles’ football game against Weber State later that same day.

The 1949-50 team finished 23-7 and won the Evergreen Conference with a 13-1 record, but lost to Puget Sound in a playoff game for the right to advance to the NAIA tournament. Reese and Dick Eicher, who led the team in scoring with an average of 15.1 points per game, are already in the school’s Hall of Fame.

Brewer was a track star who competed in the 1949 Olympic Trials following graduation and holds the school record in the 220-yard dash with a time of 21.2 seconds. His fastest 100 time of 9.6 is the fifth best in school history.

Friese was a four-year football standout at Eastern and key contributor as a senior on a team that finished 9-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA I-AA playoffs. During his college career, Friese had 169 tackles, nine interceptions and a 12.1-yard punt return average. His 84-yard touchdown return in a playoff game against Northern Iowa still ranks as EWU’s longest.

Roffler was a three-year starter at point guard and captain of the 1945-46 team that finished 31-4 and was inducted in the hall of fame in 2003. He led the Eagles to two NAIA tournament berths, and was a first-team all-WIAC selection as a senior.

Vick Paulsen, a record-setting setter on EWU’s volleyball team, was a second-team All-Northwest Region pick in 1989, when she also earned first-team all-Big Sky honors after leading the Eagles to 25-7 record and their first regular-season and conference tournament titles. She set a single-season school record with 1,367 assists that year, and also hit a school-record .284.

Rousseau, a pitcher, earned honorable all-American honors in 1970 when he went 6-2 and threw five shutouts while posting an earned-run average of 1.09 that ranks No. 2 in school history. He once held the school record for career strikeouts with 79, and his single-game school record of 13 still stands. Rousseau also spent five years (2002-08) as president of the Eagle Athletic Association, helping raise a record $371,476 in pledges for the athletic department in 2005-06.

Academics

Gonzaga University received the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2010-11 season.

  The award honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.3 cumulative team grade-point average.

The Bulldogs have a 3.3 GPA and posted a 3.47 GPA this past spring semester. Gonzaga was the lone West Coast Conference team to receive the AVCA Team Academic Award.

• Seven individual Idaho tennis players have earned ITA Scholar-Athlete honors, while the Vandals’ women’s tennis team was recognized as an ITA All-Academic team.

Molly Knox, Silvia Irimescu, Lauren Simpson and Jana Siwa earned ITA Scholar-Athlete status for the Vandals, while Jake Knox, Kevin Lee and Abid Akbar earned the honor on the men’s side.

Players must be a varsity letter winner, have at least a 3.5 GPA for the current academic year, and have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters. The ITA All-Academic Team award goes to programs that have a cumulative team GPA of 3.2 or above.

• Whitworth’s Ryan Young and Gonzaga’s Kyle Huus have been named Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholars for 2011.

To be eligible, an individual must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least two full years at the collegiate level, participate in 70 percent of the team’s competitive rounds or compete in the NCAA championship, have a stroke average less than 76 and maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2

In addition, Haley Owens and Darby Moberg have been selected All-American Scholars by the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA).

Baseball

Former Mead High School teammates Chris Allen (CCS) and Grant Fink (Mt. Hood CC), have signed letters of intent to play baseball for Missouri Western State University. 

Missouri Western is a NCAA Division II school located in St. Joseph, Mo.

Basketball

North Central High School graduate Riley Holsinger has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Boise State Broncos, head coach Gordy Presnell announced.

Holsinger, a 5-foot-9 guard averaged 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 3.8 steals and 3.0 blocks per game her senior season for the Indians, who placed third at the State 3A tournament. She is a two-time All-Greater Spokane League first-team honoree and made the WIBCA All-State team and received honorable mention to the Associated Press All-State team as a senior.

“We are looking forward to having Riley as a part of the Bronco family,” Presnell said. “She had a terrific high school career and we look forward to her bringing her skills and talents to Boise State.”

• Whitworth women’s basketball head coach Helen Higgs announced the hiring of Danny Beard as an assistant.

Beard played guard at Kansas State University and served as a men’s assistant coach at Samford and Eastern Illinois. He has coached local boys and girls teams, most recently serving as assistant for the State 4A champion Lewis and Clark girls.

Beard, an ordained minister, works full time as senior vice president and team camp director of NBC Camps in Spokane. He has also been the head coach of the NBC Thunder traveling team.

Soccer

Katie Schoene has been named a volunteer assistant soccer coach at Washington State.

Schoene spent the last three years at Idaho as an assistant coach. Last year, she helped the Vandals to their best season in school history with a 14-7-0 record, including a 5-3-0 mark in the Western Athletic Conference.

Prior to Idaho, Schoene was an assistant coach at Oregon (2007) after a four-year playing career at Portland State (2003-06).

• Annie-Brynn Stauffer (University) has signed a letter of intent to play soccer for Northwest University in Kirkland.

• Washington State University sophomore Micaela Castain is one of 26 players participating in the U.S. U-20 national team’s camp, which runs through July 31 in Carson, Calif.

Softball

North Idaho Cardinals catcher Shelby Gonzales has signed to play for the South Carolina Gamecocks next season.

Gonzales, a Moses Lake native, earned first-team All-Region honors last season. She is the Cardinals’ all-time leader in home runs and holds single-season records for runs batted in, slugging percentage, walks and runs scored.

Track and field

University of Idaho track and field athlete Eugenio Mannucci was awarded the Western Athletic Conference’s Stan Bates Award, which is given annually to the league’s top male and female student-athlete.

Mannucci, who finished his career in 2011, was a five-time first-team all-WAC honoree, three-time WAC champion, two-time NCAA qualifier and a 2011 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Second-Team All-American in the shot put.

Mannucci joins fellow track and field athletes Allix Lee-Painter (2010), Jonathan Marler (2010), Melinda Ouwerkerk (2007) and Jason Giuffre (2006) and football player David Vobora (2008) as the Vandals’ Stan Bates Award winners.