New QBs show promise in season openers
Football recap (Sept. 4):
After a weekend of season opening football here are a few observations – take ‘em for what they’re worth.
Teams threw new quarterbacks into action, in several instances two per team. They had mixed, but promising, results.
East Valley, Ferris, Mead, Shadle Park, Rogers and Central Valley all used two (the latter two out of necessity, the others by design).
Third-year Knights varsity member Russell Woodworth is finally getting his chance (although he has the memory of starting and admirably gutting out EV’s playoff loss to eventual state champion Ferndale last season). Woodworth and junior Lonnie Quirk were both efficient in victory over Rogers (a combined 11 for 15 for 216 yards, two TDS each).
Mead got economy from its pair, junior Glen Reser and senior Matt Johnson, as well during an easy win over Shadle Park. They were a combined 8-for-11 for 200 yards and three TDs.
Shawn Stockton and Jeff Minnerly of Ferris were instrumental in a successful debut for new coach Jim Sharkey over upset-minded North Central, either passing or rushing for three scores. Stockton committed five turnovers but finished with 187 rushing yards and two scores. Minnerly threw a touchdown pass. CV was missing expected starter Luke Clift because of injury. His replacement was Connor Janhunen. When he suffered cramps, sophomore Blake Bledsoe made the most of his one series (ala WSU), completing a couple passes, one for a TD. Clift is expected back when the Bears meet Gonzaga Prep on Sept. 15.
Like Bledsoe, Rogers newcomer C.J. Hill was thrown into the breach because of injury. Andrew Durant, last year’s starter as a sophomore, is still rehabbing, then Sean Adebayo went down early in the game. The Pirates didn’t pass and much of their 269 rushing yards came against EV’s second defense, but sophomore Hill gained considerable confidence as the game wore on and shows promise (he rushed a dozen times for 52 yards).
Lewis and Clark’s decision to start sophomore Taylor Eglet at QB reaped dividends. He looked poised and made several big plays in a pressure-cooker win at CV.
On cross country (Aug. 17):
Inordinate success, a product of longevity and camaraderie among a tight-knit group of coaches, has been a constant in Greater Spokane League cross country.
Things are changing. This year there will be six first- or second-year boys coaches, and Steve Kiesel has moved from Rogers to Mead where both boys and girls coaches are new.
It’s hard to imagine a season beginning without Mead’s Pat Tyson and Wes Player, who set Spokane’s cross country standard for two decades-plus but resigned this year.
Between them they were state fixtures during a 25-year span with 13 team titles and 11 second places.
Dori Robertson replaces Player as girls coach. He left to become coach at Deer Park, a community where he lives. Robertson said he’ll be missed for numerous reasons. “Who’ll entertain me?” she lamented. “For people who don’t know him well, he was the funniest guy in the whole wide world.”
Kiesel’s Panthers and three-time state champion Ferris, coached by his good friend Mike Hadway, will be favored again. “Hadway told me point blank at dinner that we’re not winning the state title,” said Kiesel, “because he waited 20 years for his first one. It’s going to be fun, best friends going at it in league.”
A scary evening (Aug. 24):
Ran into Rogers baseball coach Jim Wasem while watching a Pirates football practice Wednesday morning. The evening before he said he’d been setting up a tent camper for a children’s sleepover and on his way back to the house was hit by a blast of 85-degree heat. The pressure drove the screen in his son’s bedroom window inward. Later they saw the orange glow from the wildfire that got its explosive start on a hillside west of where he lives in Colbert. Wasem spent the remainder of the evening helping a friend who lives closer to where the fire burned remove belongings and evacuate his home as a precaution.