Hard to foretell teams’ GSL future
The magnificent seven (Sept. 18): Now that Ferris has thrust itself into the mix, the Greater Spokane League football landscape has been altered, but by no means is any team’s future secure.
Three teams are unbeaten, three others still can think title and a seventh, Central Valley despite two losses, can still control its 4A playoff fate.
This calls for a look into the ol’ crystal ball to see what the future portends and what the swami sees is pretty cloudy. There are at least 13 games over the next six weeks among the seven teams that will shake out the standings. The leaders of today could be the also-rans of tomorrow.
This week: Gonzaga Prep is at University in a game to see which current unbeaten ties the Saxons for first play. Mead is at East Valley to determine which team still has title hopes. It’s particularly huge for the Panthers if they are to earn a top-three 4A finish.
Next week: The Bullpups and Saxons play the Joe Albi Friday nightcap. If both are unbeaten? Enough said about the impact. Other biggies, Mead at U-Hi and CV at EV.
Games down the road: Ferris-Mead (Oct. 5); Ferris-U-Hi, G-Prep-Mead and EV-LC (Oct. 12 and 13); EV-U-Hi and CV-Ferris (Oct. 20); and the final week of the season, LC-GP and CV-U-Hi.
Obviously, anything can, and likely will, happen between now and then.
Easy come, easy go (Sept. 19): When Nikki Nelson announced her intent to play college basketball at New Mexico, she also revealed that she is back at Chewelah, where she attended her first two years in high school.
Nelson transferred to Mead last year, along with Almira/Coulee-Hartline athlete Kami Clark. The 5-foot-3 point guard led the Panthers in scoring with a 12.0 scoring average.
She said the reason for her return to Chewelah was to help her mother who is undergoing back surgery … Speaking of moves, three-year Lewis and Clark varsity point guard Andre Jennings, who was last year’s second-leading scorer in basketball, and a track standout, will play his senior year at Ferris. He joins 6-foot-8 junior Freeman transfer DeAngelo Casto, who, according to Ferris coach Don Van Lierop, is already being wooed by big colleges, as a Saxon.
There was incentive: (Sept. 19): Ferris seniors beat Mead during last weekend’s Highlander Invitational cross country race. For individual senior race winner David Hickerson there was plenty of incentive. “The rankings right now are not how we believe they should be,” he said. “We’re out to show them that we want them changed.” The two teams and North Central raced Wednesday for first place in the Greater Spokane League.
Upsets? Only in some minds (Sept. 14): I’m not big on polls. And predictions, other than for entertainment value or the prognosticator’s ego, mean little. That said, based on predictions and polls, there were a couple of minor upsets right off the bat in GSL soccer and girls cross country on Wednesday (Sept. 13).
Mead soccer knocked off playoff veteran Gonzaga Prep 3-2. University beat Central Valley 25-30 in a cross country meet between league favorites.
The Titans, coming off an uncharacteristically down year, were picked No. 2 in league and the Bears, a state qualifier last year were figured to be No. 1. U-Hi packed three runners, Stevie Gildehaus, EV transfer Elise Thatcher and Rachel Fridye between CV’s top two finishers as the difference maker.
That wasn’t the cause of CV coach Dennis McGuire‘s pain. He was pleased with the Bears effort and noted that his usual No. 3 runner Ari Rios wasn’t in the lineup. No, what had him moving gingerly was that he’d undergone an emergency appendectomy a few days earlier.