Mike Vlahovich

Can the the responsibilities of nursing an infant son and holding up your end while playing 3-on-3 basketball be copacetic? JoEne Liezen will find out when she hits the mean streets and tackles those two-fold responsibilities in this year's Spokane Hoopfest. "We'll see how it goes," said the young mother of a nearly three-month-old son. "I'm lucky. Andrew can eat out of a bottle, too, so if there's an emergency I'll be OK."

The Spokane Indians hit the road early this morning for the long trip to Boise and their season-opening Northwest A League baseball game. Tonight's game will afford manager Darryl Kennedy the chance to remove the "on-paper" label from this year's version of the defending league champions and see what a new season brings.

The USA Softball team's table-setter did her job only too well during a doubleheader sweep of the Spokane All-Stars at Franklin Park on Saturday. Before an appreciative crowd estimated at 3,000 that encircled the softball diamond, leadoff hitter and shortstop Natasha Watley fueled 9-0 and 8-0 victories that each ended after 4½ innings.

When the USA Olympic softball team squares off tonight at 5 p.m. in a doubleheader at Franklin Park against an area all-star team, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for players and Spokane fans alike. "It's pretty exciting for the town," said area coach and exhibition organizer Fuzzy Buckenberger. "It's going to be fun and the neatest part of it is for the kids. Ninety percent of them will never have the opportunity to be on the same floor as the Olympic team."

When a team of area softball players takes on the USA Olympic team in Saturday's 5 p.m. doubleheader at Franklin Park, conspicuous in her absence will be former Shadle Park star Ashley Lynn. Lynn, a sophomore, was having a career season at Wichita State University when she caught a cleat during infield practice four games before the end of the season and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

You won't find Jeff Kingsbury's name among this year's list of all-league athletes. Indeed, he wasn't even the top distance runner on his Cheney High School teams. And though the words "inspiration" and "hero" are oft overused when describing an athlete, those superlatives cannot be used enough, say those who know him, when describing the recent graduate who was a four-year cross country and three-year track performer for the Blackhawks.

The four-year college career of Kaylene Fountain, like many players on the Area All-Star team that will face the U.S. Olympic softball team on Saturday, played out a long way from home. Fountain, who pitched Lewis and Clark to state as a junior and into the regionals as a senior, played 3,000 miles away from home at Division II Coker College in Spartanburg, S.C.

Olympian Stacey Nuveman did her interview by phone while sitting in a San Diego airport awaiting a flight to Northern California. Her former coach, UCLA's Sue Enquist, answered questions about the former Bruins star during an hour-long freeway commute home from work.