Mt. Spokane’s Miller to join WIAA staff

Mt. Spokane activities coordinator John Miller has not strayed far from his roots. Born and raised here, he graduated from West Valley. He played football at Spokane Falls Community College and Whitworth and has taught, coached and administered sports in the Mead School District the past 31 years.

“As a kid I was watching Gerry Lindgren and Bill Etter,” he said. “When I got into coaching I got to watch Mark Rypien, Ryan Sandberg, Steve Emtman and the Stockton kids growing up.”

But he is about to spread his wings. Miller will move west this summer and join the staff of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association as an assistant executive director.

“I’m ready for a change,” said Miller, who officially begins his new job July 2. “I get to go see what it’s like on the wet side of the state.”

Miller said he will replace Jim Meyerhoff, who is retiring to part time WIAA status.

“The more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe this was a good next step in my life,” said Miller.

He is single and his children are grown, he said, so leaving his lifetime home wasn’t a wrenching decision.

Miller, who turns 53 in August, spent 26 years as an athletic director, first at Mead and then Mt. Spokane. He helped develop district athletic philosophy and, at the new high school, dealt with building design and starting athletic programs from scratch.

His resume includes state tournament events manager, member of the Washington Secondary Schools Athletic Administrators Association executive board and on the WIAA Representative Assembly.

“We had many great candidates,” said WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese in a news release. “John has demonstrated he will be a great fit for the staff and WIAA member schools.”

Golfers begin parade

This is state tournament week, where champions in nine sports will be crowned to culminate the 2007-08 high school sports year.

It begins today and Wednesday with golf, where 93 locals tee off as early as 8 a.m., mainly in the Bellingham area. Among those to watch in 4A are Tanner Robb, who tied for seventh for Central Valley last year; Chessey Thomas of Lewis and Clark, who was fourth; and the Tigers boys and girls quartets as they compete for team honors.

Gracie Schory from Chewelah was 1A girls runner-up a year ago and Freeman’s Darby Moberg placed seventh. Colfax’s Kyle McPherson tied for third among the boys.

In Class B, the Northwest Christian boys finished third as Jared Descoteaux and John Graham finished fourth and fifth. All return.

State track, softball, baseball, soccer and tennis complete things this weekend. There will be more about them Thursday.

Party crashers

Pullman’s baseball team was the third qualifier to state from the Great Northern League, but for the third time this decade, the Greyhounds are in the State 2A semifinals, baffling even their coach.

“I don’t know if I can explain it,” said Lance Lincoln. “I think West Valley was clearly the best team, no doubt in my mind, and I’m sorry they were knocked out. I think they should be in the final four.”

But the sport is as much mental as physical and certainly unpredictable. Sometimes it takes good fortune. Pullman had all the bases covered Saturday, beating River Ridge 11-5 and Othello 15-0, thanks to a seven-run first inning, to reach the state semifinals.

“They came out and absolutely played their two best ball games all year,” said Lincoln. “They swung the bats extremely well, made maybe one error (per game) and got two good pitching performances.”

Tyler Druffel and Bryce Flamand did the pitching. Jamie Fertakis hit two home runs and nearly had another, banging one off the wall with the bases loaded.

“We were kind of the ‘alsos’ trying to get in there,” said Lincoln of the Greyhounds’ league season.

Friday and Saturday, Pullman will be trying for the school’s third state title.

Stories within stories

Sometimes amazing things happen in a track and field meet that aren’t noticed, which is why PR (personal record) is the most important abbreviation in the sport’s lexicon. Ultimately, the best thing an athlete can do is improve, even if few others are aware.

•For example, at the 4A/3A regional meet in Richland last weekend, North Central sophomore Ben Johnston PR’d by 12 seconds in the 3,200-meter run and junior teammate Jeff Howard improved by 15 seconds. Johnston’s time of 9 minutes, 26.39 seconds is the seventh fastest 3A time in the state this year and Howard’s 9:27.79 is ninth. Unfortunately, they don’t get a chance to contend for a state medal in Pasco this weekend because they finished fourth and fifth in the regional and only three move on. One of those moving on, however, is Mt. Spokane sophomore Allan Schroeder, who shaved almost 11 seconds off his PR and was third in 9:25.44.

•Mead’s Kira Winston is still competing because she cleared 5-foot-5 on her last attempt in the 4A high jump. A miss would have ended the season for the junior, who had only cleared 5-2 once before the weekend.

•Then there was CV freshman Paula Jennings, who barely put the shot 34 feet until hitting 35-11 at a JV invitational. That was enough to get her into the district meet, where a 33-4 put her in the top eight to advance to regionals. Now she’s headed to state because she threw 37 feet Friday night.

•In the 2A state qualifying meet Friday, Cheney’s Mikaela Young, who a day earlier set the school record of 35 feet in the triple jump, spiked herself in the arm while long jumping and was gushing blood, said her coach, Tom Stralser. She received quick treatment, ran the first leg of the Blackhawks’ 400 relay, which timed a PR automatic time of 50.5, went back to the long jump and placed third, then left to have the wound sewed up.

“Tough kid,” said Stralser. “I love these sidelights of athletics.”