University baseball could scarely have had a more gratifying summer. Three teams involving Titan athletes finished among the top four in three levels of American Legion state competition, capped Wednesday by a state championship in the 16U Class A tournament in Mount Vernon.
The top two regular season finishers, in all but one instance, reached the title games when Spokane Valley Girls Softball Association completed its season with last week's championship tournaments. Three of the four tourney titles needed two games to be decided.
Spokane Valley Baseball champions will be determined next week in 6 p.m. games at West Valley High. Pee Wee Division winners Spokane County Deputy Sheriff's Assoc. (Summit) and unbeaten Spokane Athletic Supply (Otis Orchards) play Monday.
The Valley Cannons finished Senior American Legion baseball on a roll just in time for the Division playoffs. Spokane Athletic Supply (Central Valley) and Kimmel Athletic (University) have played their way into the District V Junior American Legion championship series.
Playoff teams are set in the Pee Wee Divisions, but it will take the final day of Midget competition on Tuesday to settle teams for the beginning of next week's Spokane Valley Baseball League playoffs. First two games of the Pee Wee playoffs will be Monday and Wednesday, pitting the top four teams from American and National Divisions against each other. Championship will be July 30.
Three Valley baseball teams will begin American Legion AA tournament play this week, two of them as division champions. Defending champion University's record is not quite as good as last year. But it's hard to improve upon perfection.
Marty O'Brien, a standout athlete at North Central in the early 1960s and longtime successful coach in Ephrata, died Sunday in his sleep of cardiac arrest. He was 63. "We've lost quite a guy," said coaching associate Dave Johnson. "He was just a tremendous friend, colleague and business partner. It's just a tragic thing."
Spokane Valley Baseball Pee Wee League is entering its final week of the season with an eight-team playoff to follow. The Midget League has three more dates to play before its four playoff teams are determined.
The Bandits, with players from University, won last week's AAA American Legion Fourth of July wood bat baseball tournament during four days of annual competition in Spokane. The team swept undefeated through the tournament, beating the Kalispell Lakers 5-4, Prairie Cardinals 11-1, Bethell 11-3, Wood River 5-0 and Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen 9-5 in pool play.
One door closed on Freddie Rehkow when he resigned as East Valley girls basketball coach after taking the Knights to their first state tournament and coming within a point of a trophy. A second door has opened.
Seven games into a 12-game Spokane Valley Baseball League schedule, Midget Division team Jim Frazier Pro and Trophy Shop remains perfect. The Pasadena Park team outscored two opponents, 52-7, including a win over third-place Conley's Place.
For the past two weeks Liberty Lake Women's 18-Hole Golf Club members have undertaken a four-person best ball tournament. Each team was made up of a player from the A, B, C and D flights with the object to better their score during the second outing.
Spokane Valley high school players are getting their fill of baseball during a busy summer season. From AAA through AA American Legion, plus traveling teams, there has been plenty of league, nonleague and tournament playing opportunity so far.
Pullman's J. T. Levenseller knows what it's like to win. As a sophomore, Levenseller helped pitch and bat the Greyhounds to the State 2A baseball championship. The following December he quarterbacked the Greyhounds to the football state championship.
Central Valley and Freeman in the South Division and University in the North hold early leads in American Legion AA baseball. Freeman (6-1) won its first five games, including an 8-0 victory over CV behind the shutout pitching of Abe Mega. And on Tuesday, Mega beat East Valley 10-3.
Former Lewis and Clark basketball star Katelan Redmon will play at the University of Washington after all. The Seattle Times reported the decision, which her uncle, LC coach Jim Redmon, confirmed.
Spokane Valley Baseball has begun its summer season of Midget and Pee Wee League competition. First Midget games were last Thursday with four victorious teams and the fifth game ending in a tie.
The convergence of talent and timing created a special year for the towns of Sprague and Harrington. Falcons girls volleyball, basketball and tennis teams all won state championships for the high school combine, thanks in part to the creation of a new 1B classification and in part to the melding of quality athletes.
Ferris basketball player DeAngelo Casto verified Tuesday that he intends to move with family to Seattle later this summer and that it is about more than basketball. "A lot of people say I want to be on the best team in state. If I want to be on the best team I'd stay here," Casto said. "My mom's moving and I want to be with family."
The nomadic saga of talented 6-foot-8 basketball player DeAngelo Casto continues. As reported in the Seattle Times Saturday, Casto's mother, Stacy, said that the athlete, who began at Freeman and transferred to Ferris, will finish his career at Franklin in Seattle next year.
Katelan Redmon surely got her share of attention during Thursday's 14th annual Jack Blair Memorial Girls AAU All-Star Basketball Classic after being named the game's Most Valuable Player a year ago. The soon-to-be Lewis and Clark graduate is getting used to it. She was the star of the final games in back-to-back Tigers State 4A championships.
When North Central's softball team last weekend finished fourth at the 3A state high school tournament, it completed a superb sports year at the school. The Indians had never before won a state softball game, let alone go 4-2 to bring home its first trophy in the sport. Their losses were to eventual state champion Kennedy, 2-1 in the second game, and to third-placer Sammamish in Saturday's positional trophy game.
Shadle Park softball players and coach George Lynn are no strangers to success, both at high school state competition and during summer traveling tournaments. But winning the Highlanders' third-straight state trophy and first state softball championship, they agree, was something special.
TACOMA – North Central's marathon softball weekend ended in a loss. But by finishing in fourth place after playing six grueling games, the Indians accomplished more than they could have imagined. "I had hopes," said second baseman Jenny Darcy, one of three seniors whose sterling play secured not only the school's first state win in three tournament tries, but earned for NC its first softball state trophy.
TACOMA – Two-thirds was good enough to get Shadle Park to Saturday when 100 percent got the Highlanders the state softball title they've long coveted. An offense that was missing during Friday's tournament play teamed with continued strong pitching and defense for two more shutout triumphs and Shadle's first State 4A softball championship at SERA Fields.
