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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jon Schuh, George Lynn inducted into state softball coaches hall of fame

Jon Schuh of University and former Shadle Park coach George Lynn were inducted into the Washington State Coaches Association Softball Hall of Fame last weekend.

Schuh, who coaches both fastpitch and slowpitch at U-Hi, has taken the Titans to state fastpitch tournaments 11 of the 15 years he has coached the program. His team won the State 4A championship in 2003, for which he was named the WSCA 4A Coach of the Year, and placed fourth in 3A in 2012.

Schuh has compiled a 333-106 record in 16 years as a fastpitch coach, including one year at Central Valley, and a 158-8 record in nine seasons of slowpitch. His fastpitch teams have won five Greater Spokane League championships and six district titles. Schuh also founded the successful Spokane Mudhens select girls fastpitch program.

Lynn, who also had a successful 22-year career leading youth select teams, primarily in the Spokane Sliders program, retired from coaching in 2009, stepping down after 10 years as Shadle Park’s head fastpitch coach. In that time, he amassed a 242-52 record, including a GSL-record 77-game winning streak between 2005 and 2008.

Under Lynn, the Highlanders went to state eight times, including five in a row from 2005-09, reaching the championship game three years in a row. The 2007 Shadle team won the 4A title, earning Lynn Washington 4A Coach of the Year, sandwich between second-place finishes in 2006 and ‘08.

College scene

Sofia Marikis, a Western Washington sophomore from Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls, received United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division II All-Academic honors with a 3.65 grade-point average in kinesiology.

• The Washington State men’s and women’s cross country teams were named U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division I Scholar Teams for the 2014 season.

The Cougars men had the second-best grade-point average of five Pac-12 teams among the 179 All-Academic teams. WSU’s team GPA was 3.28. Pac-12 leader Stanford was chosen the USTFCCCA men’s team of the year with a 3.44 GPA.

The WSU women had a 3.48 GPA, second among nine Pac-12 teams among the 226 honored. Oregon State’s 3.78 GPA led the Pac-12. Michigan State was named the women’s team of the year.

Hockey

Sean MacFarlane and Riley Bowles, two products of the Spokane Americans youth hockey program who have gone from playing to officiating, have been selected to work the North American Hockey League’s Top Prospects tournament Feb. 23-24 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

MacFarlane is one of four referees who will work while Bowles will be a linesman.

Both work in top junior amateur leagues, the NAHL and United States Hockey League, MacFarlane out of Brookings, South Dakota, and Bowles out of Chicago.

Nick Farmer of Spokane, who plays for Wichita Falls, Texas, in the NAHL, will play in the tournament.

Honors

Jeremy Affeldt, the Northwest Christian graduate who has three World Series rings with the San Francisco Giants, received an honorary bachelor’s degree from Whitworth University on Feb. 5 for his work as an advocate for social justice, the school announced.

In presenting the honorary degree during Whitworth’s 125th spring convocation, president Beck A. Taylor said Affeldt’s efforts have been largely accomplished through his Spokane nonprofit organization, Generation Alive, which he founded in 2005.

Generation Alive’s primary focus is to provide opportunities to young people seeking to help those living in pain caused by extreme poverty or injustice and Generation Alive works closely with other nonprofits locally and globally.

“Because Jeremy Affeldt’s efforts are so closely aligned with Whitworth’s service-learning efforts and with Christ’s mandate to reach out to those in need, Whitworth is especially pleased to be able to present this honorary degree,” Taylor said during the ceremony.

In 2014, Generation Alive partnered with Whitworth students, faculty, staff, alums, friends and community volunteers to raise $150,000 and packed 600,000 meals, which were distributed by Second Harvest Food Bank to hungry people in Spokane, as well as to Nicaraguans in need.

Affeldt, drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the third round of the 1997 Major League Baseball draft, made his big league debut with the Royals in 2002 and has spent the last 13 years in the majors. He has pitched in four World Series (Colorado, 2007, and San Francisco 2010, ’12 and ’14). He was the Giants’ winning pitcher with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in the seventh game of the 2014 World Series against the Royals.

Letters of intent

Gonzaga men’s soccer – Toby Holstein, goalkeeper, Lake Oswego, Oregon; Denis Kalamar, forward, Shorewood (Shoreline, Washington); Jake Kempf, forward, Camas, Washington; Brayden Sullivan, midfielder, Carmichael, California; Garrett Wilson, midfielder, Eagle, Colorado.

Western Washington men’s soccer – Adam Talley, forward, East Valley/North Idaho College; Brady Ulen, forward, Post Falls/NIC.

Eastern Oregon women’s soccer – Valerie Gaffney, goalkeeper, Northwest Christian.

William Penn University volleyball – Belle Potter, libero, Northwest Christian.