Thomas Clouse

A new book by a Spokane author highlights the teaching techniques of legendary Washington football coach Don James, who took over the struggling program in December 1974 and eventually won a share of the 1991 national championship. Peter Tormey, 56, played linebacker for the Huskies and later used his interviews with James as the basis of his 2007 thesis. Tormey sat on the project for a number of years before the 2013 memorial service after James’ death convinced Tormey to publish the work in book form in “The Thursday Speeches: Lessons in Life, Leadership, and Football from Coach Don James.”

If Washington State’s thrilling come-from-behind victory over Gonzaga represents a shift in regional dominance of women’s basketball, coach June Daugherty said it came because a few players were willing to take some lumps before they could attain bigger things.

In a game that seemed like a cross between a street fight and a NCAA tournament game, the Washington State Cougars women’s basketball team came from behind to beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs 59-58 at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Tuesday night. Gonzaga’s stifling defense held All-Pac-12 guards Tia Presley and Lia Galdeira in check in the first half, but coach June Daugherty dialed up the pressure in the second half that gave Presley opportunities to score 18 of her 21 points en route to the huge win.

COLVILLE – Other than a real estate sign that reads “Congrats Colville Good Luck in Tacoma,” the residents of this logging town have done little to outwardly show that their high school football team will play the first time in the State 1A championship game. But coach Randy Cornwell said he’s been inundated with phone calls and emails from former players and alumni who are proud that the Indians have reached the pinnacle of the sport. Colville (12-0) plays at 10 a.m. Saturday against Cascade Christian (12-0) in the Tacoma Dome.

It fell. Gonzaga guard Elle Tinkle doesn’t remember the shot. She just knows she grabbed a rebound and was draped by defenders when she chucked the ball at the backboard.

The local women’s college basketball rivalry season starts in earnest today when Gonzaga travels about 17 miles to take on Eastern Washington in Cheney. It’s a matchup of two teams which find themselves 3-2 on the season with losses in games they wish they had back.

Maybe it was the romance of my first elk hunt. Perhaps it was the warmth from the woodstove. All I know is that once I hunted out of a wall tent, it’s all I ever wanted to do. That experience in the snowy mountains north of Boise came in a wall tent owned by a logger friend who had mercy on three other elk-hunting novices. We slept in comfort and all of our clothes remained crispy dry.

New Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Lisa Fortier said she knows who are going to be her point guards but she’s not completely sure who will start in Sunday’s opener against No. 22 Dayton. It also may not matter. Fortier said junior transfer Georgia Stirton (North Idaho College) will likely split minutes with freshman guard Emma Stach, of Buchholz, Germany.

New Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Lisa Fortier said she knows who is going to be her point guards but she’s not completely sure who will start on Sunday in the Bulldogs’ first game against No. 22 Dayton.

A final game defeat did little to diminish Whitworth coach Rod Sandberg’s belief that his new program has the foundation for future success. The Pirates got down 28-7 early last Saturday against Pacific Lutheran, but they staged a comeback in the second half that both ran out of time and failed to find an answer for the Lutes’ running quarterback Dalton Ritchey, whose 47-yard fourth-quarter run sealed the 41-27 victory.

A final game defeat did little to diminish Whitworth coach Rod Sandberg’s belief that his new program has the foundation for future success.

A football game that started out as a shootout morphed into a 50-21 blowout as Gonzaga Prep held Walla Walla scoreless in the second half Friday night to win a 4A state play-in game. The Greater Spokane League 4A champions could not get the Blue Devils (5-5) off the field to start the game and neither team punted in the first half that ended in a 22-21 lead for Gonzaga Prep.

Gonzaga women’s basketball player Sunny Greinacher has entered that zone where she knows everything she does for the Bulldogs will be for the last time. The 6-foot-4 forward from Essen, Germany, will be one of three senior scorers who will be relied upon as the team furiously tries to get a couple of new guards playing within the system that has won or tied for the West Coast Conference championship for the past decade and has made six consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Not long before the Whitworth Pirates men’s basketball team started practicing last year, an ailing Taylor Farnsworth was forced to sleep in a chair. The 6-foot-8 post player had surgery on his shoulder to repair a torn labrum in June 2013 and was only cleared to do a half-practice on the first day camp opened last fall.

After last Saturday’s win over George Fox, Whitworth football coach Rod Sandberg gathered his team and asked his 15 seniors to stand up. Sandberg reminded the seniors that they can come back for alumni functions or even bring their children to future games. But, they will never again play on the turf of the Pine Bowl.