John Blanchette

Just a routine Saturday night for Team Drama. Would you believe another quarterback injured – this one red-hot replacement Erik Meyer? How about four second-half turnovers, normally the kiss of death in the Arena Football League? Or seeing a 22-point lead wilt to where a field goal would have sent things into overtime?

The Spokane Shock survived yet another encounter crucial to their playoff hopes, using a pair of late-first half defensive turnovers and hanging on for a 63-60 victory over the Chicago Rush in front of 9,499 fans at the Spokane Arena on Saturday night.

You never know. But I do. • Based on the current evidence, LeBron James is to clutch what the clutch is to the automatic transmission.

Anna Layman came to Washington State with ambitions that seemed, well, as small as she is. “I sat in the coaches’ office and saw the posters with all the athletes on them,” she remembered, “and that was my first goal: I wanted to be on the poster. I wanted to maybe be in a highlight video. That was my thinking.”

The first couple of hurdles aren’t the ones that vex him – the minor intrigue of the staggered start, who might be tracking you from behind or whether you’re making up too much ground too quickly on the runners ahead. He does not dread the backstretch and the inevitable wind that lives to ruin your rhythm, or the far curve where gearing down seems instinctual but gearing up is demanded. It’s not even the last two barriers, the desperate juggling of fatigue, steps and spacing where the closest races are always won and lost.

Ollie Hurley works at the Tekoa Golf Course four days a week. On his days off, he drives up from Farmington, opens up the clubhouse, puts on the coffee and drives the 11 miles back home. The honor box does the rest. I forgot to ask him about the dog.

Gathering up equipment with two more championships in the books, the next head track coach at the Community Colleges of Spokane allowed how thrilled he was about his promotion. “But it would be nice,” said Jason Cash, “if the shoes weren’t so big.”

Gathering up equipment with two more championships in the books, the next head track coach at the Community Colleges of Spokane allowed how thrilled he was about his promotion. “But it would be nice,” said Jason Cash, “if the shoes weren’t so big.”

The story begins, as it so often does, with how it almost wasn’t a story at all. Larry Beatty had a job interview to become the track and cross country coach at the Community Colleges of Spokane, and he was ready to blow it off. It meant missing a day of work at 24 Hour Fitness, and he was already “living hand to mouth.” It meant footing the cost of finding someone to cover the weight training class he taught at Clark College in Vancouver. And he’d been tipped to the candidate pool he was in – NCAA Division I coaches, another with an NAIA national championship in his resume.

Angela Rypien has decided to go into the family business. And she knows that while the support will be unqualified, the job evaluations could be unsparing, too. For example, here is what Dad the Ex-Quarterback had to say about Daughter the Wannabe-Quarterback:

Angela Rypien has decided to go into the family business.