Waltz, Clinesmith Top Athletes Mead’s Pat Tyson, Nc Volleyball Davenport Football Also Honored
Big Ian Waltz cut a big swath with his athletic accomplishments last year; little Stacy Clinesmith has matched Waltz’s achievements.
The two were honored at the 18th Youth Sports Awards Luncheon at the Convention Center Wednesday afternoon, along with the coach and teams of the year for 1995.
“This is great,” Clinesmith said. “I thought, ‘How could they pick somebody out of that group?’ Everyone has accomplished amazing things. I’m just honored.”
Waltz, who graduated from Post Falls last spring and is attending Washington State on a track scholarship, won the Idaho state shot put title with a throw of 62 feet, 1 inch, and set a state record by 15 feet with the nation’s best discus throw, 203-9.
Clinesmith, on the other hand, excels in team sports. The Mead senior was the Greater Spokane League’s soccer most valuable player and leading scorer for the second straight year as the Panthers finished third in state. Her junior year, she was co-MVP and the No. 2 scorer in GSL basketball and MVP at state as Mead finished fifth.
Pat Tyson of Mead was named coach of the year. He guided the Panthers to their second straight State AAA track title last spring, which was expected, and their eighth straight cross country crown, which really wasn’t.
The surprising North Central volleyball team was the girls team of the year. The Indians finished fourth in the GSL, fourth in the district tourney and third in the regional before rolling to the first state title for a girls team sport in school history.
Davenport went 12-1 in football to capture the State B-11 title, the first football championship in school history, to win boys team honors.
The coaches, NC’s Linda Bushinski and Davenport’s Skip Pauls. were also finalists for coach of the year. Other coach finalists were Dave Fealko, Lake City girls basketball coach, and Sue Doering, Colfax volleyball.
The female team finalists included Lake City basketball, Colfax volleyball, Sandpoint volleyball and Wilbur-Creston volleyball. For the male team, it was Mead track and cross country, Sandpoint wrestling and Chewelah cross country.
All five coach finalists as well as the five girls and five boys teams, were state champions.
There were 10 individual athlete finalists for both girls and boys. All had great credentials.
The girls were Allison Beatty of Mead, Melissa Dodger and Jennifer Kerns of Lake City, Hayden Kristianson of Chewelah, Jessica Martin of Wilbur-Creston, Mariah McConnaughey of Ferris, Jana Nearing of Bonners Ferry, Alli Nieman of Sandpoint and Jennifer Stinson of Davenport.
For the boys, it was Micah Davis and Skiy DeTray of Mead, Joe Deutsch of Medical Lake, Ryan Floyd of Sprague-Harrington, Isaac Hawkins of Ferris, Brett Lawrence of Sandpoint, Austin Lee of Post Falls, Dusty Roberts of University and Giorgio Usai of Central Valley.
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