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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Former LC standout will play in Germany

Staff And News Services

Brittany Kennedy, the Greater Spokane League’s most valuable player for Lewis and Clark during the 2007-08 girls basketball season, has signed a professional contract with the Saarlouis Royals of the DBBL in Germany. The league, Germany’s highest level of competition for women, began the 2013-14 season on Saturday.

Kennedy, who played her last two years of college ball at Florida Gulf Coast University after playing the first two at Oregon State, was a first-team All-Atlantic Sun selection as a senior and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.

“BK was an outstanding point guard and leader for us the past two seasons,” said FGCU coach Karl Smesko. “I am excited that she has this opportunity. … I have no doubts that she will have a great year.”

Kennedy averaged 9.7 points, shooting 49.1 percent from the field, and 5.2 assists per game during her senior year.

Baseball

Eric Bell from Spokane (Northwest Christian), profilied in the announcement as one of the hardest hitting players ever to don a George Fox baseball uniform, was inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame last Saturday in Newberg, Ore.

Bell excelled both on the field and in the classroom for three years at George Fox. He capped his stellar career as a senior in 2003 by being named a first-team American Baseball Coaches Association NCAA Division III All-American at first base and the Northwest Conference Player of the Year after batting .390 with 17 home runs and 62 RBIs. He was a three-time All-NWC first-team selection.

In the classroom, Bell was a 2002 and 2003 Verizon/CoSIDA first-team Academic All-American and All-District VIII first-team choice.

• Dodgertown, the iconic facility in Vero Beach, Fla., that was the spring training home to Spokane Indians teams for 14 seasons beginning in 1958 when they were the Triple-A farm team of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has had a metamorphosis.

When the Dodgers left Vero Beach to train in Arizona in 2008, the complex was briefly shuttered and renamed the Vero Beach Sports Village. But Peter O’Malley, former Dodgers owner and Indians general manager in 1965 and ’66 and a partner in a group that has entered into a lease agreement with the city, announced that an agreement has been reached and the facility will be known as “Historic Dodgertown – Vero Beach, Florida.”

College scene

Kristen Hansen, a Western Washington sophomore from Mead, is one of the returning veterans the Vikings are looking to to help them regain the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s golf title after a two-year absence.

Hansen earned All-GNAC honors as a freshman after finishing sixth in the conference championship tournament and averaging 80.8 strokes per round.

Golf

Area golfers claimed two of the top three spots in the Pacific Northwest Pro-Amateur last week at Salish Cliffs Golf Club in Shelton, Wash.

Professional Corey Prugh of Manito and his amateur partner, Reid Hatley of Hayden Lake Country Club, shot 62-64 for an 18-under-par 126 and three-stroke victory. It’s the second title for both Prugh and Hatley. Prugh won the event in 1998 as an amateur and Hatley won in 2007 as a professional.

Sharing second were pro Derek Siesser of The Creek at Qualchan and Erik Olson from Riverbend in Kent, Wash. They combined for a 64-65 and 129.

Hall of Fame

Medical Lake High School will induct its sixth class into its Hall of Fame next month.

Amie Poteet, John Musser, Michael Dunn, Arnold Brown and Jonny Varona will be inducted in a ceremony Oct. 19 at St. Anne’s Parish Hall in Medical Lake. The event begins at 6:30. Cost is $20. For more info: 565-3293.

Softball

Paul Clary, a 17-year umpire, has been named the new Spokane Amateur Softball Association umpire in chief, Spokane ASA commissioner Fuzzy Buckenberger announced.

Clary, who will begin Oct. 1, replaces Randy Harnasch, who stepped aside after four years in the position.

Clary’s resume includes nine ASA national tournaments, three state high school tournaments and twice working games for U.S. women’s Olympic and national teams when they visited Spokane for exhibitions. He has also worked the college level, from community colleges to NCAA Division I.

Wrestling

The Inland Empire Wrestling officials association is recruiting officials for the upcoming season.

Anyone interested should contact the association’s assigning secretary, Rich Tschirgi, at spokanewrestling@q.com.

Tschirgi said training sessions will be conducted Mondays in October at West Valley High School beginning at 6 p.m.