‘What if’ a valid question for G-Prep fans
Dec. 4: After watching Oak Harbor beat Bothell 21-14 in the State 4A final game on television, I figure that Gonzaga Prep fans can take certain solace in knowing they faced the best when they lost to the Wildcats in the semifinals.
At the same time, they’re probably wondering “what-if,” because their chances looked pretty good to me had they gotten to Tacoma, and their game against Oak Harbor was so close.
Oak Harbor pretty much dominated Bothell, whose two scores came on short field possessions after giveaways. One came on a weird second-half kickoff that landed between Oak Harbor players, died like a golf chip shot that bites and squibs backward, and was recovered by Bothell.
Oak Harbor recovered from that oddity and scored the go-ahead TD after a Bothell turnover. Even after a Bothell pass was incorrectly ruled a completion at Oak Harbor’s 17, the Wildcat defense dominated.
The mistakes got me to thinking that you can game plan all you want, but there’s no plan for the unexpected in sports, even if you know the unexpected is something to expect.
Local runners at Foot Locker event
More than 40 Spokane area high school distance runners were among the 2,043 who finished various age-class races at the Foot Locker Western Regional Cross Country meet in California on Saturday.
Eleven were in the seeded races: Tylor Thatcher (Central Valley, 14th), Sean Coyle (CV, 33rd), Steve Hicks (North Central, 46th), Peter Miller (Shadle Park), Bryce Aguilar (CV), Adam Tyler (NC), Jason Stoker (CV) and Andrew Cesal (CV), among boys; Andrea Nelson (42nd, Shadle Park), Nikki Codd, 48th, Gonzaga Prep, and Jessica Klier (Mt. Spokane) among girls.
Andrew Kimpel (North Central) won the sophomore boys race, and teammate Leon Dean was fifth, while Anthony Brown (University) finished fifth in another flight. Jon Swanson (CV) was another sophomore finisher.
Theresa Hailey from Gonzaga Prep finished second, and Mary Graesser (NC) placed fourth in the senior girls race. Other Spokane area finishers were Rachel Fridye (U-Hi) and Robyn Swanson (CV).
Max Reeder from Lakeside (12th) and Steven McConnell from Rogers (22nd) were the highest boys senior race finishers. Also competing was Darrick Thompson (LC).
Daniel Renz from Shadle Park was eighth, and Trevin Goodrick (Mt. Spokane) placed 13th, and Eleanor Siler (LC) was 20th in boys and girls junior races.
Six Greater Spokane League sophomore girls placed between 10th and 26th in that age group race, with Mt. Spokane’s Courtney Zalud timing 20:20 to beat East Valley’s Lauren Bergam by a second for 10th and 11th.
This was the most well-represented area class with Deer Park’s Chantel Duenich finishing 14th, Mead’s Sara Stenersen, 16th, and CV’s Eden Lake, NC’s Rachel Ballard, U-Hi’s Stevie Gildehaus, CV’s Ari Rios, U-Hi’s McCall Minarik and Mt. Spokane’s Stephanie Inouye all among the finishers.
Mt. Spokane’s Allan Schroeder, who placed sixth, and Northwest Christian’s Lisa Vandenberg, third, were freshmen boys and girls standouts.
Alumni basketball
Dec. 1: Rick Sloan, Central Valley’s boys basketball coach is in the planning stages for an alumni basketball tournament.
He’s seeking players from years past in hopes of putting together 12 teams the weekend of May 4-5.
Best way to learn about the event and contact team captains is by accessing the cvbears.com basketball Web site.
It has phone numbers of captains for the prospective teams from years pre-1971, 1972-75, 1976-79, 1980-82, 1983-85, 1986-88, 1995-97, 1998-99, 2000-02 and 2003-04.
Sloan is still seeking captains for the 1989-91 and 1992-94 era athletes. He can be reached at 226-2106 or via e-mail at rsloan@cvsd.org.