Locally: Former Eastern Washington standout Violet Kapri Morrow signs with pro team in Iceland

Violet Kapri Morrow, who has her name in a handful of top-10 spots in the Eastern Washington record book after ending a four-year career last season, will continue playing professionally after signing with the Breidablik Basketball Club in Reykjavik, Iceland.

She should have an immediate positive impact. Breidablik won just one of 22 games last season, finishing last in the 12-team premier league.

A second-team All-Big Sky Conference selection as a senior following a third-team nod her junior season, Morrow is seventh in career scoring at Eastern with 1,357 points and is the eighth player in school history to accumulate more than 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 100 assists. She had 545 rebounds and 145 assists.

As a senior, she averaged 32.6 minutes a game and scored in double figures in 28 of her 31 starts, including 20 or more in 10 games.

Morrow will be the fourth former Eagle to play professionally overseas.

Delaney Hodgins (2015-18), Eastern’s all-time leading scorer, will return for a second season in Finland. Ashli Payne (2016-17) is heading for Nice, France, for her third season overseas. Laura Hughes (2011-14) will continue her pro career in Spain.

Awards

Rarely do football players, especially defensive linemen, think it’s a good idea to lose weight as their careers head into their final season.

But that’s what Eastern Washington defensive tackle Chris Scott did and it helped him have one of the best seasons in EWU history.

The Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP in 1997 and a multiple All-American will be among the 19th class of inductees into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 28.

Scott was honorable mention All-Big Sky as a sophomore and junior, then lost 20 pounds prior to his senior season. The result was impressive. The added speed and quickness helped him collect 11 sacks, at the time the fourth-most in school history (still seventh), and he had a school-record 21 tackles for loss among 79 tackles in 14 games.

Scott, who earned six All-America honors that year, including three first-team, helped lead the Eagles to the Big Sky title with a 7-1 record and they advanced to the semifinals of the FCS Playoffs and finished 12-2.

He had 236 career tackles, which remain a record for an Eagles defensive lineman, and he’s top-five in four other categories – 25 1/2 career sacks (fourth), 47 tackles for loss (fifth), six forced fumbles (tied for second) and six fumble recoveries (fifth).

Scott will be inducted along with former teammate and fellow defensive lineman Dario Romero, former volleyball player Keva Sonderen, women’s track and field standout Lisa Sorrell and the 1980 men’s track and field team.

The induction breakfast and ceremony are set for 8 a.m. on Sept. 28 at the Pence Union Building’s Nysether Community Room on the EWU campus. The public is invited. Cost is $25 per person ($12 for children). Guests must register online at goeags.com/HOF.

The new Hall of Famers will be honored at halftime of EWU’s football game that afternoon against North Dakota (kickoff is 2:05) and recognized the night before at a home volleyball game against Portland State at 7 at Reese Court.

Golf

Loren Jeglum of Clarkston Country Club shot 1-over-par 143 to share in a three-way tie for sixth at the 2019 Pacific Northwest Assistant PGA Championship last Monday at Arrowhead Golf Club in Molalla, Oregon.

Colin Inglis of Emerald Valley GC in Creswell, Oregon, shot 4-under 138 for a two-shot victory.

Troy Smith, Trailhead at Liberty Lake, shot 154, and Chris Curtis, Esmeralda, had a 161.

High school scene

Todd Gilkey, an athletic director in North Idaho for 19 years, the last five in his second stint at St. Maries, collected a second award this year when he was named by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association to receive its Bruce D. Whitehead Distinguished Service Award.

He and nine others will be honored at the National Athletic Directors Conference on Dec. 17 in National Harbor, Maryland.

In March, Gilkey was named the 2019 Idaho 2A Athletic Director of the Year for the second time in three years. It was his fifth A.D. of the year honor and the third at St. Maries. The school was in the 3A class when he won it the first time in 2004. He won it twice for 5A during eighth years at Coeur d’Alene, in 2009 and 2014.

He also received the National Federation of High Schools Citation Award in 2014 while he was at Coeur d’Alene.

Softball

Fifteen individuals who “have played a major role in the growth and development of ASA adult softball in Spokane,” have been selected for induction into the Spokane Metro Softball Hall of Fame.

The seventh class includes two who played and coached and one who played, coached and umpired. They will be inducted Sept. 7 at the Eagles Lodge, 6410 N. Lidgerwood St. at 6 p.m.

The 2019 Class: Krista Forester, coed slowpitch, women’s modified fastpitch, coach; Debbie Moscatelli Giampietri, WMFP, coed SP; Peggy (Almquist) Wells, coed SP, WMFP; Marty Fitzgerald, men’s modified fastpitch; Chuck Howland, SP, MMFP; Wade Carpenter, MMFP; Kevin Olson, MMFP, coach.

Also, Jim Olson, coed SP, MMFP; Buster Dickinson, SP; Karl LeBret, SP, MMFP; Phil Stovall, MMFP, coach, umpire; Jack Parker, SP, MMFP; Don Miller, men’s fastpitch, MMFP; Bob Robertson, MMFP; Tom Adams, SP.

Ryan Parker, “a dedicated softball fan,” will also be presented with the Denny Waltermire Distinguished Service Award.

The event is open to the public. Cost for dinner is $30. Reservations may be made before Aug. 31 by calling Don Love at (509) 467-5328.

Tennis

Eastern Washington is looking for a men’s tennis coach after Steve Clark, the fourth head men’s coach in school history who has directed the Eagles the last five years, resigned last week to pursue “other areas in the tennis industry.”

Clark, who will remain on staff through Sept. 5, has more than 30 years of collegiate and club coaching experience and compiled a 38-70 dual-match record at Eastern, including 21-33 in the Big Sky Conference.

Volleyball

Katie Hinrichs, a former Lewis-Clark State standout from Pullman, has been hired as an assistant coach at Gonzaga, Bulldogs head coach Diane Nelson announced.

Hinrichs has been an assistant at Montana State the last two years, serving as associate head coach last year, helping the Bobcats to their first back-to-back double-figure win seasons since 2004-05 and first Big Sky Conference tournament appearance since 2012.

She was on the Washington State staff from 2011-16 as operations coordinator following her career at LCSC, where she helped the Warriors to four straight NAIA National Tournament appearances.