Shadle picks Emory to coach girls basketball
Shadle Park went the club basketball route to fill its girls basketball coaching position.
Tom Emory has been hired to replace Chad Dezellem, who resigned in the spring.
Emory has coached five years in the Northwest Blazers club program. His daughter, Sydney, was a three-year letterman and two-year starter at Central Valley.
“Everything I’ve learned I’ve learned from Steve Klees (NW Blazers director),” Emory said. “I’ve learned how to run a program, how to manage girls from different backgrounds and the Xs and Os.”
Emory was chosen for the job over longtime girls assistant and Shadle graduate J.T. Johnson. Two others also interviewed.
“He’s a complete package of experience, energy and enthusiasm,” Shadle athletic director Bruce Hafferkamp said of Emory. “We had some good candidates and picked the one we thought would move the program forward.”
Emory takes over a program that will be favored to be the top 3A team in the Greater Spokane League with University’s move to 4A.
“Their desire is to get to state,” Emory said. “They’re focused with where they want to go and what they want to do.”
Emory was hired in mid June so he hasn’t been able to spend much time with the returning varsity players or younger players in the program.
“I was hired a little late in the game,” Emory said.
Johnson, meanwhile, has accepted a coaching position as the Lewis and Clark boys freshman coach under newly hired Jim Redmon, LC’s longtime and highly successful girls coach.
• Clarkston has hired a football coach with a funky name but Brycen Bye won’t be taking any weeks off any time soon.
Bye, 28, replaces Dave Curtis, who coached the Bantams nearly as long as Bye has been alive – 27 years.
A 2004 Pomeroy graduate, Bye has been the head coach the last three years at Wahluke in Mattawa, Washington, near Ellensburg.
• Longtime Post Falls softball coach Jack Foster has resigned and Brian Stranger, who has coached Junior Olympic softball in the region for years, has been hired to replace Foster.
Foster’s 2010 team captured the State 5A championship. He coached from 1997-2005 before taking a year off. He returned in 2007.
He plans to teach one more year before retiring and moving to Kalispell, Montana, to be closer to a daughter and grandson.
Stranger spearheaded the development of the Coeur d’Alene Crush summer program.
• Post Falls boys soccer coach Gabe Lawson is taking a leave of absence for a year because of medical reasons.
He coached the Trojans to a state title in 2012. John Mueller, an assistant coach, will take over for a year.
• Post Falls girls soccer coach Briggs Anderson stepped down after three seasons.
He coached Post Falls to a runner-up finish at state in 2012. The Trojans also qualified for state last year. Sarah Stevens, an assistant, will take over.
• Missy Asbury has resigned as St. Maries volleyball coach.
A former St. Maries standout, Asbury coached for six years. Under Asbury, St. Maries won a State 3A title in 2009.
Softball tourneys
Solid pitching, hitting and defense, said coach John Goode, were the key to the Spokane Stealth ’98 winning the 16-U Red division of the 25th annual 4th of July Memorial Shootout girls fastpitch tournament during the weekend in Spokane.
Stealth ’98, which defeated Coeur d’Alene Crush ’98 4-2 in the championship game, cruised through the top 16-U division, going 6-0 and outscoring their opponents 59-7. Stealth were led by two pitchers. Jaya Allen (Shadle Park), pitched a no-hitter during the weekend, and Maddie Goode (Mead), pitched a one-hitter.
Spokane Diamonds teams won the other two 16-U divisions.
Diamonds-Yearout won 16-U White 17-8 over Spokane Stealth ’97 as Darrian Staab (Gonzaga Prep) drove in two runs and Jessica Huffman (North Central) had one of her three RBIs to key a nine-run fifth inning.
A one-out single by Kirsten Anstrom (University) drove in two runs to give Diamonds-Christensen a 12-11, extra-inning championship game win over Montana Avalanche in 16-U Blue that capped a comeback from an early five-run deficit.
Cassandra Shaw (Deer Park) pitched a two-hitter, striking out 15, to lead Spokane Diamonds-Stewart to a 7-0 win over Northwest Sparks (Tri-City) in the 14-U Anniversary Division and Riley Thompson had a run-scoring double in Valley Lightning’s 5-4 win over Liberty Lake Lightning in 14-U Blue.
Other division finals in the 50-team tournament:
18-U – Menace Northwest (Tri-City) 16, Kraizen (Alberta) Warriors 2; 14-U Red – Great Falls Selects 2, Great Falls Xplosion 1; 14-U White – Montana Eclipse 14, West Plains Bandits 6; 12-U Red – Bitterroot (Montana) Sparks 6, Spokane Diamonds 0; 12-U White – Washington Angels (Tri-City) 15, Chewelah Hurricanes 4; 10-U – Spokane Diamonds 5, Montana Avalanche 2.
• Spokane Crash ‘99 finished fourth in the Washington ASA 14-U A State Championships during the weekend in Centralia. Coach Gary Blake’s team compiled a 4-2 record in the 27-team tournament, winning its first three games before getting knocked into the losers’ bracket.