Tough non-leaguers for UI
The University of Idaho football team will face its customary rugged non-conference schedule in coach Dennis Erickson’s first season this autumn, but the Vandals also have five home games, the school announced on Thursday.
Idaho will be home against Idaho State, New Mexico State, Boise State, Nevada and San Jose State. In addition, Idaho’s game against Washington State is an 8-mile trip to Martin Stadium. Erickson was WSU’s coach from 1987-88.
Idaho opens at Michigan State on Sept. 2. MSU coach John L. Smith was Erickson’s defensive coordinator at Idaho from 1982-85 and the Vandals’ head coach from 1989-94. The Vandals also visit Oregon State, where Erickson was head coach from 1999-2002.
The Vandals had four home games in 2005; three in 2004 (not counting the WSU game that was designated a UI home game for attendance purposes); five in 2003 and 2002; four in 2001 (not counting WSU) and 2000; three in 1999 (not counting WSU); four in 1998; and five in 1997 and 1996 (Idaho’s first year in Division I-A).
“The Spokane Shock arenafootball2 team added four players, including former Portland State quarterback Joe Wiser.
Wiser (6-foot-3, 210 pounds) passed for 1,809 yards with 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions as a senior in 2004. He completed 51.8 percent of his passes. The other quarterbacks on the Shock roster are J.J. Raterink (Wyoming) and Brian Zbydniewski (Belhaven College).
Spokane also added Brian Devine, a former Louisville offensive lineman who has arenafootball2 experience with Florida and South Georgia, the latter under Shock head coach Chris Siegfried; Jerome Jeter, who played receiver at Virginia State; and Steve Agyeman, a former Akron defensive back.
Spokane released ex-Washington Husky Mikal Akbar and former Linfield receiver George Carter.
Hockey
The Spokane Chiefs are fighting to stay alive in the Western Hockey League playoff race with 12 regular-season games remaining.
The Chiefs host two games this weekend. Today, Tri-City visits in a 7 p.m. game that will be televised on Comcast 12. On Saturday, Kootenay will be in town on the night that Spokane will honor the 1970 and 1972 Spokane Jets teams that won the Allan Cup.
Last-place Spokane (21-31-5-3, 50 points) is three points behind Portland for the fourth and final playoff spot in the U.S. Division of the Western Conference. Tri-City (59 points) is in third place and is closing on second-place Seattle (61). Spokane is winless in its last five games.
Baseball
Zach McAngus singled, doubled, homered and had five runs batted in, and Wayne Daman Jr. (3-0) worked seven strong innings as Washington State (7-2) posted a 9-4 win over Portland (1-4) to open the River City Classic in Sacramento, Calif.
Track
Idaho seniors Ryan Lang and Marcus Luckstead finishing fourth and sixth, respectively, in the men’s heptathlon at the Western Athletic Conference indoor championships in Nampa, Idaho.
Lang finished the event with a score of 4,720. Luckstead compiled a score of 4,441.
Boise State’s Keron Francis won the event with a score of 5,184, which broke the WAC record Lang set at last year’s championships (5,081).
With the multievents finished, the preliminaries will begin today.