Locally: CdA graduate Josh James named to All-American first team at Carroll
From staff and news services
Josh James, a 2011 graduate of Coeur d’Alene High School, capped his senior season at Carroll College by being named to the American Football Coaches Association NAIA All-America first-team.
An offensive tackle, James started every game for the Saints this season and 44 games over his career as a mainstay at left tackle for the Saints after redshirting his freshman year. He earned first-team All-Frontier Conference honors his junior and senior years.
He is the 17th Saint to earn AFCA All-America honors, the most for any NAIA school.
“Josh is a four-year starter for us, and with our track record of offensive linemen that is a really tough thing to do,” Carroll coach Mike Van Diest said. “The great thing about Josh is that he put in the effort and got better every year. As a junior and senior he realized how good he could be and he showed that with the intensity he practiced with every day. He is going to be really tough to replace.”
College scene
Caitlin Walter from University, a senior at Carroll College, collected a trio of postseason honors, sharing two of them with other area athletes
She was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association NAIA All-West Region first team and the All-Cascade Conference first team. A defender, Walter started all 22 games for the Saints, compiling 1,997 minutes, second most on the team. She scored one goal.
She shared first-team All-Cascade Conference honors with Allison Jordan, a senior defender at Eastern Oregon from Central Valley. Walter and Darion Brillon from Timberlake of Spirit Lake, a junior at University of Great Falls, were named 2015 Daktronics NAIA Soccer Scholar Athletes.
Walter was a repeater on the Cascade Conference All-Academic team where she was joined by four other area athletes at Carroll – Kelli Lessmeier of Lewis and Clark, a senior honored for the third straight year; juniors Carissa Yedica of Mt. Spokane and Kristen Kirking of Clarkston High School, both repeaters; and sophomore Sidney Batkoff of Gonzaga Prep, honored for the first time.
Mac Johnson, a Western Washington senior from Gonzaga Prep, has two top-six rankings in Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball. He is sixth, averaging 2.7 offensive rebounds per game, and fifth in field-goal percentage at 60.6. The 6-foot-8 center is averaging 8.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the 8-4 Vikings.
Football
Steve Currie received two assignments to lead a list of six members of the Spokane Collegiate Football Officials Association who are working postseason playoffs or FBS bowl games.
Currie worked the Pac-12 Championship game on Dec. 5 in Santa Clara, California, between Stanford and USC, and will work the Belk Bowl on Dec. 30 in Charlotte, North Carolina, between Mississippi State and North Carolina State, both as field judge. He will be joined at the Belk Bowl by Jim Northcott, who will be the replay official.
Three area officials will work the Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday at Yankee Stadium between Duke and Indiana. Dan Antonietti will be head linesman, Steve Hudson the back judge and Shane Anderson the side judge.
Bob Guerin was head linesman for a first-round FCS playoff Nov. 28 in Cedar Falls, Iowa, between Northern Iowa and Eastern Illinois.
Letters of intent
Idaho volleyball – Megan Ramseyer, Coeur d’Alene High School, setter/outside hitter; Maura Donovan, Coeur d’Alene HS, libero; Tara Eaton, Rancho Santa Margarita, California, libero; Avery Housley, Eugene, outside hitter; and Delaney Hopen, Shoreline, Washington, outside hitter.