Chiefs open preseason with two games at Everett

Hockey: The Spokane Chiefs play their first two preseason games this weekend at the annual Everett Silvertips tournament.

The Chiefs have 34 players remaining on their roster, including 15 rookies and 19 veterans (five goalies, 11 defensemen and 18 forwards). The team reassigned forwards Dustin Gorgi and Dylan Robertson on Friday.

Spokane plays the host Silvertips tonight at 7 and Seattle on Sunday at 1 p.m.

A number of veterans, including 19-year-old goaltenders Mac Engel and Eric Williams, will not make the trip. 

Overage players Blake Gal and Brenden Kichton and 19-year-old forward Marek Kalus will also be held out of play for Spokane this weekend.

Jess Brown

Prep team enters ‘Black Hole’

Prep football: Boise State is known for its blue football field, and at Eastern Washington University it’s red.

Now, at West Salem (Ore.) High School, the old green turf has been replaced with a new hue: black.

The field is so striking that it has quickly been nicknamed “The Black Hole.”

Workers finished installing the turf Thursday, the day before the season began against South Medford.

The new field is noticeably softer, a significant improvement over the worn-out field that was becoming dangerous for players, said Shawn Stanley, the head football coach.

“I think it’s cool that we have a field that’s uniquely different,” Stanley said. “The goal was not to have something nice or have something different, but to have something that is safe for our team and safe for our opponents and the community.”

In an ideal world, Stanley said, the team would play on a green-grass turf that never gets muddy.

But this is the real world, where Salem gets an average of 11 inches of rain in September, October and November.

Associated Press