Area players sign letters of intent

Three Greater Spokane League basketball players and one from the Great Northern League signed letters of intent with Division I women’s basketball programs.

All three GSL seniors, Lewis and Clark’s Heather Bowman, University’s Tonya Schnibbe and Central Valley’s Heidi Heintz, faxed their signed letters on Tuesday.

Schnibbe had to choose between Gonzaga University soccer and Weber State basketball. She picked the Big Sky Conference. Weber will make the official announcement today.

“I never saw myself to be in the same boat with Emily Westerberg, Briann January or those people,” Schnibbe said. “I never saw myself as a basketball player in general. I thought I’d go with soccer, so this gives me motivation to prove to people I can do it.”

U-Hi’s point guard has averaged 5.0 points per game during her career. She’s also a two-time GSL soccer scoring leader and has played on eight state qualifying teams in three sports.

The two other seniors, Bowman with Gonzaga University and Heintz with the University of San Francisco, signed with West Coast Conference schools.

Bowman is 10th all-time among GSL basketball scorers with 1,038 points and was the catalyst of the Tigers’ state third-place finish last year.

Heintz, a member of two state placing teams, has scored 8.5 points per game in her career. Her breakthrough came as a sophomore when she averaged 11.4 points per game in the postseason. It carried over to last year with a 16.5 average, which was third in the GSL.

Jamie Thornton, a 6-3 center from Pullman, has signed with Montana State of the Big Sky Conference. She averaged 11.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks as a junior.

Cross country and track: State 4A cross country champion Megan O’Reilly of Mt. Spokane will compete for the University of Montana. In track, her best times are 17:01 in the 5,000 meters, 10:33 in the 3,200 and 4:57 in the 1,600. She has won two state championships in the 3,200. O’Reilly’s state cross country title came Saturday in Pasco where she set a course record in 17:35 over 5 kilometers.

Golf: Washington State men’s golf coach Walt Williams announced the signing of Central Valley’s Nick Grigsby and Kennewick’s Kevin Tucker.

Grigsby is the State 4A champion. He is a three-time All-GSL player and was MVP last year with a scoring average of 70.25. Last summer he was a member of Washington’s Hogan Cup team that placed second. Grigsby was third individually and was also medalist at the PNGA Jr. Championships the last two years.

Volleyball: Corina Beyer of Timberlake High School (Spirit Lake, Idaho), has signed her letter of intent to play at Washington State.

Wrestling: Lakeside High senior Levi Jones has signed a letter of intent to compete for Boise State University.

His dad, Eagles coach Scott Jones, said that it came down to a choice between the Broncos and University of Oregon.

“It was a difficult decision,” Scott said. “He fell in love with Boise, went to Oregon and loved the camps and coaches.”

Jones has placed three times for Lakeside in the State 2A tournament, finishing second the last two years.

He’ll join University grad Cory Fish at Boise. Another former Titan, Tommy Owen, has transferred from the University of Minnesota to Boise State for his senior year.