Jim McLachlan ‘feels fine’ after having eye removed

It was a trying enough year for West Valley cross country coach Jim McLachlan, what with the injuries, illnesses and youth on his boys and girls teams.

Then in late September he learned he had a malignant melanoma in his left eye and it scared him. The eye was removed on Oct. 6 at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.

“I haven’t been teaching,” said the part-time elementary instructor, “but I feel fine; took a few days off and got back to coaching as soon as I could.”

Last weekend his Eagles boys finished third in the 3A regional meet in Richland and his girls placed fourth.

“They couldn’t have done any better,” he said. “The girls got beat up bad in the GSL and placed higher than I thought we could.”

Their effort, including state qualifying runs by Curtis Fitzhugh and Larsen Agee, was salve to the mind of WV’s popular longtime and successful boys and girls coach.

His vision had been bothering him for a while, McLachlan said.

“I had bad distortion, bugs, wavy lines and three-dimensional stuff,” he explained. “My wife finally said, ‘Get your butt into the eye doctor.’ “

The Stage 2 melanoma was diagnosed and within a couple of days he was in Seattle where the eye was removed. So far there has been no indication of a need for chemotherapy or radiation.

“It seems to be encapsulated,” he said of the cancer. “It hasn’t spread, they don’t think it’s in my system. That’s what I’m praying for.”

McLachlan will be fitted with a prosthetic eye later this month.

Typically an extremely upbeat person, he admitted that he never was so down than when he learned about the diagnosis.

“That first week was horrible walking in the valley of the shadow of death,” he admitted.

The last three weeks, he said, “have been really, really good.”

Blindness on the left side makes it difficult to keep track of people running every which way at cross country meets. Lack of depth perception sometimes makes it difficult when he is walking and must look down, and there are times, he said, when he has trouble hitting his mouth when eating.

McLachlan said he has been overwhelmed by help from people who have had the same or a similar problem. One woman at his church had her eye removed four years ago. A high school classmate, Ron Siverson, had eye cancer 15 years ago, although through treatment he was able to keep it. Ray Clift, an East Valley graduate in 1976, now a teacher in Oregon, was blinded in one eye at age 12. He had it replaced with a prosthetic six years ago.

“He likes it better,” said McLachlan. “He helped me through the process.”

McLachlan must still seek opinions from an oncologist, and there are tests to be taken every four months for the next several years.

The trauma, he said, has changed the way he approaches life.

“I’m living different than I used to,” he said. “But I’m doing good and feeling good. I plan on going back to teaching and the coaching’s been fine. It keeps me going.”

Knights get it done

East Valley’s four-pronged boys cross country attack, led by regional champion Nick Atwood, accomplished what it set out to do in qualifying for the State 3A meet last weekend in Pasco.

Atwood turned in the eighth fastest time overall when compared with the Greater Spokane League’s 4A effort. Keith Holt, Tyler Thatcher and Matt Tonani placed among the top 12 finishers in the 3A race. EV finished second as a team in last weekend’s regional meet behind North Central.

“I told them when Keith’s a senior and Nick’s a junior that’s going to be our year,” said coach Dave McCarty. “Maybe I’m pleasantly surprised, but it came together.”

Atwood, a junior, timed 15 minutes, 47 seconds and Holt finished seventh in 16:11.

The surprises, said McCarthy, were Thatcher, a sophomore from a running family, who matured into a 16:12 finisher right behind Holt, and Tonani.

A track long jumper, Tonani timed 16:32. Fellow senior Max Dollfe was 29th to complete scoring.

Breakthrough said McCarty was in a race at Cheney when the Knights easily beat Mt. Spokane.

“It was the best race we’d ever run,” said McCarty.

At state on Saturday, the Knights will be among teams chasing a top four trophy finish.

Don’t mess with Titan women

For the second straight year, all three University girls fall athletic teams have qualified for state.

Last weekend the U-Hi volleyball team earned a return trip to this weekend’s 4A tournament with a third-place finish in regionals. On Tuesday the soccer team qualified for its third straight state with a 2-1 win in the rain over Mt. Spokane.

And the most surprising of all was U-Hi’s young cross country team which qualified for its fourth state cross country meet in the last five years.

“There must be something special,” said soccer player Alex Marquard with a laugh. “They breed ‘em good over here.”

University’s young cross country team finished 8-5 and tied for fifth among girls team during the Greater Spokane League season.

But it didn’t keep them from an appointed date with destiny. Since 1991 the Titans have made eight tourney appearances and earned four top four finishes.

“I would say this is kind of a Cinderella group actually,” said coach Steve Llewellyn, who is retiring this year after engineering U-Hi’s long record of success. “The girls definitely came through. It just feels good ending it (in Pasco) rather than ending it at regionals.”

The strength of this year’s team has been its youth. They developed, said Llewellyn as the season went on and snuck up on people. When injury derailed Mt. Spokane at last weekend’s regionals, they took full advantage.

The Titans’ five scorers Leslie Berkseth in 12th overall in 19:20, Karen Owens in 20th in 19:34, Rachel Fridye, 23rd in 19:43, Alicia Johnston and Katie Owens are all sophomores.

Other varsity runners Samantha Evenson and Katy Hawkins are juniors.

“There’s a lot of talent there, even though they are young,” said Llewellyn. “They are learning how to race. Truthfully, at regionals, they had their best race of the season.”

Freeman teams advance

Both boys and girls cross country teams from Freeman will compete this weekend in the state meet in Pasco beginning at 10 a.m.

The boys finished second to Newport, District 7 earning both 1A team berths with juniors Pete Olmstead and Pat Lewis finishing fifth and sixth in the regional meet at Alta Lake near Pateros.

Scotties girls placed third with District 7 winning all four 1A/B team berths to state. Sophomores Maeve Sayres and Kate Tanner were 13th and 15th and seniors Alisha Raines and Brenna James 17th and 20th overall.

Valley Christian’s Justin McNamara qualified individually among class B boys.