Shadle Park Going Through Lean Times
Several adjectives have applied to Shadle Park’s volleyball team over the years.
Stellar, fine-tuned and amazing are some of the modifiers the Highlanders have garnered.
This year, for the first time, the word “struggling” is apropos.
Saturday’s loss to Central Valley was Shadle’s fifth straight after a season-opening win over Mead.
Put in perspective, since 1976, Shadle had never lost more than five league matches in a season and built a 241-40 (.858) record.
“This speaks to the level of play in this league,” said Shadle coach Linda Sheridan. “I’ve had lots of years that this team would have done better than this.”
Shadle will play the first half of the season without senior middle hitter Kelli Pilkington, who broke her (right) hitting hand. Freshman Michelle Etter and sophomore Emily Christensen have tried to plug the middle.
“We have a young team and knew we had a tough draw (early schedule),” Sheridan said. “We hope by the second half that we’re more experienced.”
So there, too
The fine folks at Lewis and Clark High are laughing at us after we peered into the crystal ball and foresaw a poor placing for the girls soccer team.
“You guys predicted us seventh,” said LC coach Ardy Khoei. “That’s down the drain.”
True enough. Before LC’s home match with Gonzaga Prep on Wednesday, the Tigers had three regulation wins, one overtime win, no losses and 11 points.
Defense, defense, defense and some fortune have helped the Tigers, who have no seniors. LC shut out North Central, Shadle and Rogers before surrendering one goal to Central Valley.
The CV match went into overtime after the Bears hit the crossbar four times. LC won a shootout, 4-3.
The Shadle win, 1-0, came on a score the Highlanders kicked into their goal.
“We had a pretty favorable schedule, I thought,” Khoei said. “Now we have tough games toward the end (of the first half). It has given us a chance to build and get our confidence going.”
Still in works
The Colfax School District has moved ahead with plans to begin a drug-testing program for athletes.
The district wants expert information from health officials before it moves ahead. Tests may not begin until next year.
Rich get richer
Northeast A boys cross country favorite Chewelah picked up Newport’s No. 1 runner, junior transfer Asher Ernst.
Rich get poorer
St. George’s won the girls State B cross country title last year and was looking forward to the return of second-place Melissa Harvill, third-place Kyla McKelvey, Cherea Davis (20th), and Katie DeNiro (23rd).
Harvill is indeed back. But McKelvey, Davis and Katie DeNiro are nursing anterior cruciate ligament tears.
Metro madness
The Class AA Metro League underwent a facelift when Franklin, Garfield and Roosevelt moved up to Class AAA.
In football, the trio is in the Olympic League, a five-team league which eagerly embraced the additional teams. In basketball, they’re … who knows where?
The three teams are in District II, which has been comprised of only KingCo teams. The Seattle teams aren’t joining the KingCo, but, to get to the state tournament, they have to qualify out of District II.
The KingCo has a regional tournament with District I (WestCo League). It appears the top two AAA Metro teams are going to squeeze into the KingCo tournament, which qualifies seven teams for the regional.
That means the three schools remain in the Metro for basketball. Their “league” season is the three head-to-head meetings among the trio. In the case of a three-way tie, other Metro games come into play.
, DataTimes