John Blanchette

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – He may never allow himself to be the star, but Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes at least allowed himself to be something else Sunday night. A difference maker.

The consolations were stacked up like crosstown traffic for the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night. Assistant coaches Rikard Gronborg and Kevin Sawyer, filling in as head coach Al Conroy served a one-game Western Hockey League suspension, are still undefeated, at least, as the men in charge.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – On Thursday night, cannon fire couldn't have stirred Josh Swogger. On the eve of his first start at quarterback for Washington State, the strong-armed sophomore "got a great night's sleep." "My nervous night was Wednesday," Swogger said. "I couldn't really sleep on Wednesday night. I think I stayed up until three or four in the morning, tossing and turning in bed. "But once we met and watched all the film (Thursday), I just relaxed and said, 'This is it – this is how it's going to be.' " Which is not to say he and the Cougars didn't give their fans some nerve-wracking moments Friday night before pulling out a 21-17 victory over New Mexico in their season opener at University Stadium.

The legend. Will Derting was one of those by the end of his first full college game. But like all living things, the legend must be fed or fertilized. And so this year we have Will Derting and the Horse He Rode in On. See, it isn't enough that he grew up in ranch country so remote it is not serviced by a telephone. That was the very first thing we learned about him, remember — or the first thing after we learned he was going to be a hell of a football player at Washington State University. Intercepts three passes as a rube freshman against Nevada in the Cougars' big-city takeover of Seattle in 2002 and next thing you know he's sheepishly regaling reporters with the tale of having to motor down the road to Aunt Janet and Uncle Ike's place every Thursday evening at 8:30 so the Cougars could reach out and touch him with a recruiting call.

POST FALLS – Ian Waltz's road to the Olympic Games began where many do, at the intersection of Accident and Destiny. Or in this case, with his mom putting in for a transfer at work.

SPOKANE – Came late, checked out early. No, not the crowd. The Seattle Storm.

The pioneer in Anne Donovan tells her that the Seattle Storm's home game away from home in Spokane tonight is not only novel, but necessary. "If we're looking to grow the WNBA," said the Storm's second-year head coach, "we're going to have to try some new things – and if it means playing outside Seattle for us, that's what we'll do."

It took 34 years and a conversion table, but Spokane finally has its second 4-minute miler. Erik Schmidt, newly graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, ran the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 41.29 seconds to finish third at the Big Blue National Invitational last weekend in Hillsdale, Mich.

What Rick Riley remembers above all is an unfamiliar helplessness: he couldn't gain on anybody. Here he was – never more fit, never more dialed into a race, never more aware that this could be his culminating moment on the track – and 300 yards from the finish he couldn't pick up a step on the leaders.

If there's one thing a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy looks forward to it's graduation, for obvious reasons. But Erik Schmidt is looking forward to missing it. That is to say, he's looking forward to something else.

Now it can go back to being just a gym. Really, that's all this curio known as The Kennel was on the day it opened, and most days thereafter.

Now the walls bow from the babel and the floor trembles from the stomping feet of students getting their tuition's worth on a Saturday night. But in the earliest days of The Kennel - long before it was ever called that - you could have heard a bone snap. Really, it's the first sound anyone did hear.

John Stockton has a ready explanation as to why no player at Gonzaga University has been issued jersey number 12 since he graduated in 1984. And it isn't that the keeper of the uniforms kept it in a drawer - a pocket veto, if you will. "I don't think anybody asked for it," he joked, the self-deprecation needle going into the red. Hmm. Could be something to that. It's never easy to be the guy who follows The Guy, even if such an unlucky soul was never expected to come along at Gonzaga.

Say hello to Washington’s team. How long has it been since Gonzaga University beat both Washington and Washington State in basketball in the same season? Try 55 years.

Kids - especially you Wazzu kids - don't try this at home, and especially not on the road. No matter how maddening the events unfolding in front of you grow - the interceptions, the missed tackles, 12-men-on-the-field - we cannot advocate overindulging in spirits, succumbing to peer pressure, civil disobedience or reckless endangerment.