Aaa Springfest

AAA Prep Championships Soccer

What: Boys soccer championships.

When: Friday and Saturday.

Where: Central Valley High School.

Schedule: Friday: Cascade vs. Evergreen, 5 p.m.; Gonzaga Prep vs. Decatur, 8 p.m. Winners play Saturday for the championship at 3 p.m., losers play in the consolation match at noon.

Favorites: If experience counts for anything, then the Bullpups, the only team from last year’s final four to return to state this year, may have an edge over the opposition.

The Bullpups earned a big advantage against Decatur when the team’s leading scorer, Jeremy Capadano, was suspended last week for the rest of the season after receiving his second red card of the year in regional playoff action last weekend.

If that weren’t enough for Decatur, it lost goalie Tom Cottle for the season with a broken thumb last weekend as well.

Decatur is 17-0-2 on the season while Gonzaga Prep is 18-3.

Cascade comes into the tournament with a record of 13-1-4 and Evergreen is 15-3-1.

This could be a hectic weekend for Cascade coach Pat Henderson. If Cascade defeats Evergreen and plays for the championship Saturday, Henderson will charter a plane out of Spokane to Yakima because the Everett semipro team he coaches is playing there at 8 p.m.

For the Bullpups, their dynamic duo of Chad Zlateff and Joe Ascolese have always received the lion’s share of attention. Center-midfielder Tyler Jordan has picked up the offensive slack when opponents key on Zlateff and Ascolese.

Jordan has scored five goals in Prep’s last six matches.

In goal for the Bullpups, Brian Mullen has had a spectacular season thwarting opponents in potential scoring opportunities.

Other seniors on the team for G-Prep include Peter Auffant, Craig Connell, Kevin Barth, Ben Lambert, Ed Leonetti, Jake Mark and Joe Walker.

AAA Prep Championships Tennis

What: Tennis championships.

When: Friday and Saturday.

Where: Ferris High School, Spokane Racquet Club.

Schedule: Friday: First round singles at 9 a.m., doubles at 10:30, boys at Ferris, girls at the racquet club. All Saturday matches at racquet club. Singles championships are at 1 p.m. and doubles at 2:30 on Saturday.

Favorites: Obviously, No. 1 seeds have been put in that position for a reason, but the only overwhelming favorite is Jeremy Berman of Newport, who was fourth a year ago. The second seed is Kevin Woo of Kentridge, fifth last year. Spencer Piston of Lewis and Clark opens against David Duncan of Wilson.

The No. 1 doubles team is Mike Mon and Wilson Nevin of Mountain View. Mead has the third-seeded team, Jon Wrigley and Eric Dunovan. They face Erik Kessler and Charlie Larson of Stadium. Brett Kaiser and Mike Foiles of Mead open against Carl Maloney and Matt Goodwin of Kentwood for a potential second-round match with Mon and Nevin.

The Panthers have a shot at the team title because only Mountain View and Mead have more than one entrant to pick up points. The Thunder is favored because of the top-seeded doubles team and fourth-seeded Carlos Ojeda in singles.

Although the GSL’s two best singles players, Amy Fong and Leslie Whitten are unseeded in the girls tournament, either one, or both, could place. Zeta Wagner of Kentwood, third last year, is No. 1 and Peggy Wu of Sammamish, runner-up a year ago, is No. 2. Ingrid Bakke of Kent-Meridian, the third seed, lost to Whitten in the first round a year ago and they could meet again if Whitten can get past Ariel Johnson of Decatur. Fong, who plays Kirsten Horrobin of Cascade in the first round, was sixth last year.

In doubles, Mercer Island’s Claudia Kalotay and Laura Reimers earned the top seed. K.C. Richards and Darcy Ruemping of Ferris, who open with Julie Jung and Yunkyung Han of Decatur, picked up the No. 4.

No school has two different seeds among the girls. Newport has a singles and doubles entry and Decatur has a singles player and two doubles teams, though all were low qualifiers out of District 3.

Team points are awarded for advancing and placing and with just one entry, a school could do no better than a tie for first with its one entry winning a championship.

AAA Prep Championships Softball

What: Girls softball championships.

When:Friday and Saturday.

Where: Franklin Park.

Friday’s first-round games: Game 1 - Woodinville vs. Rogers, 8 a.m.; Game 2 - Puyallup vs. MarysvillePilchuck, 8 a.m.; Game 3 - Columbia River vs. Curtis, 8 a.m.; Game 4 - Richland vs. Central Kitsap, 5 p.m.; Game 5 - Kentridge vs. Juanita, 10 a.m., Game 6 - Issaquah vs. Evergreen, 10 a.m.; Game 7 - Bremerton vs. Wenatchee, 10 a.m.; Game 8 - Snohomish vs. South Kitsap, 10 a.m. Consolation game: Saturday, noon. Championship game: Saturday, 1 p.m.

Favorites: Three of the top four teams from last year are back. It seems more than likely that the championship may run through them again.

Last year’s runner-up, Central Kitsap, returns to the 16-team fray. Mountain View defeated Central Kitsap 4-2 in the title game.

Columbia River, which beat South Kitsap in the consolation game 10-5, returns, as does South Kitsap.

Region IV-AAA, which is where Evergreen and South Kitsap reside, is consistently one of the strongest in the state.

Locally, the Rogers Pirates are the only team out of the Greater Spokane League to qualify for the state tournament. The 21-5 Pirates won three straight games in the regional playoffs at Moses Lake last weekend.

Seniors Dawn Daniels, Gena Greenside, Traci Moore, Brandi Nelson, Charlotte Perry, Chelsey Via and Shannon Zahrowksi would love nothing more than the opportunity to play for a state championship on their home turf.

AAA Prep Championships Baseball

What: Boys baseball championships.

When: Friday and Saturday.

Where: Seafirst Stadium.

Schedule: Friday: Newport vs. Kelso, 5 p.m.; Kentwood vs. Wenatchee, 8 p.m. Winners play Saturday for the championship at 2 p.m., losers play in the consolation game at 11 a.m.

Favorites: Newport finished the season ranked No. 1 - and for good reasons.

At 21-2, Newport senior pitcher Mike Wirrick sports a record of 7-0 in addition to a school-record 40 stolen bases on the year. He hit a grand slam on Saturday against Foss in a come-from-behind win. He’s also batting .455.

Newport also has pitcher Lee Evans, who was in Spokane earlier this week for the State AAA golf tournament at The Creek at Qualchan on Monday and Tuesday.

He withdrew from the tournament because of a stiff back after 11 holes on the second day.

In the regional baseball playoffs last weekend, Evans earned the win against Foss in a relief role and then started in the championship game against RogersPuyallup.

Kelso (19-6) doesn’t have many big-name players with high-profile statistics. It is a young team which has made a late-season run.

No. 7 Kentwood (15-7) features senior Chris Zorich, whose .430 batting average leads the team. He has a record of 5-4 to go with pitcher Mark Percosky’s 7-1 mark.

Kentwood knocked off nationally ranked South Kitsap 4-2 in the opening round of regional play last weekend.

Wenatchee brings a heavy hitting attack to the state tournament, highlighted by Jeremy Sandnes, Matt Alexander and Seth Brewer.

The Panthers have lived by the comeback this year. They rallied in both regional wins on Saturday at Wenatchee against Shadle Park and University.

Speaking of comebacks, Panthers coach Ed Knaggs would love to win a state tournament in Spokane. Knaggs was a Gonzaga University assistant for six years.