State volleyball event saddled with late date
To err is human, to forgive divine – although these days it seems society is not in a forgiving mood.
So when a mixup caused this year’s state volleyball tournaments in Kennewick to be scheduled a week later than anticipated, there was unhappiness in the coaching community. I heard about it last summer from Jack Hamann, the husband and assistant coach of Leslie Hamann at Garfield High in Seattle.
Blame was heaped on the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for procrastination in signing contracts because it happened once before. But people who manage operations at the Toyota Center in Kennewick have shouldered the responsibility.
“It was totally us messing up the date,” said Jeff Kossow, executive director of the facility. “We were asleep at the switch and blocked out the same dates.”
Last year the tournament ran from Nov. 8-10. This year because of a later athletic calendar, it was to be Nov. 14-16. An act was booked on those dates, necessitating the change to Nov. 21-23. But that forced volleyball schedules statewide to be altered – including that of the Greater Spokane League, which begins tonight.
So if it seems like the start is later, it is.
“What we did is took all our games from Tuesday and moved them to the end of the year, so there is not as long a gap,” East Valley coach Jim Dorr said.
Dorr said he would have preferred moving the entire week, but one day is better than none.
The state scheduling issue has been resolved well into the future, Kossow said.
Kennewick became home to the 4A and 3A tournament in 2006 and added 2A last year for a three-day tournament.
“It’s a great deal,” he said. “We’re very pleased to have it here and will do what we can to maintain it.”
Highlander showdown
Last summer, distance running standouts Andrea Nelson from Shadle Park and Baylee Mires from Mead trained together. While the twain won’t meet at state, they’ll have their moments this fall, beginning Saturday with the annual Highlander Invitational at Shadle.
The pair will be part of a talented girls varsity field in the next-to-last race of the day-long 35-school affair.
“The big race seems to be the varsity girls race between Andrea, Baylee, Richland’s Katie Mahoney and Sandra Martinez from Davis,” said Shadle girls coach Bob Isitt.
Last weekend Nelson finished third in the junior race of the Capital Invitational in Olympia. Mires won the Blackhawk Invitational over teammate Sarah Stenerson, and her Panthers just edged Deer Park.
Teams from the GSL, Columbia Basin, Montana teams Big Sky and Polson and most area schools will be involved in the Highlander. Freshmen boys race at 9:30 a.m., followed on the half-hour by sophomores, juniors and seniors. The freshmen girls race is at 10, followed on the hour by combined girls and varsity girls.
New soccer look
The divisional look is out and standard league play is in this year for Great Northern League soccer. The change happened because Class 1A teams have gone their separate way.
Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) has been joined by first-year programs at Freeman and Newport to form a Northeast A League. Chewelah, a staple along with Lakeside in the former combined GNL, has dropped its team.
“We were thinking, ‘Gosh, all right, there will be four of us,’ and Chewelah ended up not having it,” said Newport athletic director Jim Murphy. Newport’s team is funded by the community, he said.
As a result, the 2A GNL will be an eight-team affair as in all other sports. Gone are last year’s divisions and seeding tournament, which determined district tournament seeding, which, in turn, determined state participants.
“We’ll play a double round robin and there’ll be just a normal tournament at the end,” said West Valley athletic director Wayne McKnight. “It’s become much more simple.”