Sunday Locals: Football team dominates EWU’s EeeWoos

After a season filled with milestones, the Eastern Washington University football team won eight awards at the third annual EeeWoos on Wednesday at the Showalter Auditorium in Cheney.

The 2010 Eagles won the NCAA Division I football national championship with a 20-19 victory over Delaware. The spoils of that historic season included EeeWoos for Team of the Year, Game of the Year (national title game win over Delaware), Best Play (the final touchdown pass from Bo Levi Mitchell to Brandon Kaufman in the title game), Best Coach ( Beau Baldwin), Male Athlete of the Year ( Taiwan Jones), Male Newcomer of the Year (Mitchell) and Best Record Breaking Performance (linebacker J.C. Sherritt).

In addition, tight end Matt Martin shared Senior Scholar Athlete with women’s basketball player Julie Piper.

Also honored: Female Athlete of the Year (shot putter Erica Chaney), Female Newcomer (track and field freshman Olivia Midles) and Triple Threat Citizen (senior Kyla Evans).

The EeeWoos are the brainchild of Davin Perry, the athletic department’s electronic media coordinator, and are modeled after ESPN’s ESPY Awards.

Academics

The National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Greater Spokane League Award winners for the spring, based on academics, athletics and community involvement:

Central Valley: Nicole Richardson, tennis, and Kevin Stanley, track; Ferris: Iman Gary, softball, and Matt Bray, soccer; Gonzaga Prep: MacKenzie Rizzuto, softball, and Connor Smith, baseball; Lewis and Clark: Maddie Ballou, track, and Ben Hagood, soccer; Mead: Baylee Mires, track, and Mike Smith, track; Mt. Spokane: Britta LaVoie, track, and Alex Allard, baseball; North Central: Ellie Emoto, tennis; Andrew Wordell, track; Rogers: Jeremy Caesar, baseball, and Sadie Slawter, tennis; Shadle Park: Tess Spargo, tennis, and Noah Hunt, track; University: Devynne Johnson, softball; BJ Smith, soccer.

Dirt bike racing

Wyatt Anderson, a 15-year-old Mt. Spokane freshman, won five of the six series races and the overall AMA West Coast Amateur national championships in three classes last weekend in Castle Rock, Wash.

Anderson competed in the 250cc Modified Four Stroke, the 450cc Modified Four Stroke and the 451cc Open Singles. The championship is decided from points earned in the two-day event and is a qualifier for the AMA Amateur Grand Championships later this year in Du Quoin, Ill.

Anderson has won 13 West Coast titles in the last nine years and four Grand National Championships.

College scene

Casey Hampton, a senior distance runner at Lewis-Clark State from Bonners Ferry majoring in kinesiology, was named a Daktronics Female NAIA Scholar-Athlete. To qualify, a student-athlete must be at least a junior with a grade-point average of 3.5 or better.

Football

Layton Brown, a former All-Northwest Conference linebacker at Whitworth University who played for the Spokane Wolfpack semipro team this spring, has signed with the Porvoon Butchers, the six-time defending Finnish national champions in American football.

Porvoon is coached by Spokane resident and former Whitworth assistant Jim Nendel.

Brown, who missed the Butchers’ first game because of passport issues, is the latest of several West Coast small-college players to join the Finnish league. Former Willamette players James Perez, Lukkes Gilgan and Jake Forshey are with the Jyvaskylan Jaguars; former Redlands quarterback Dan Selway is with the Lapeenranta Border Knights; and ex-Puget Sound QB Kavin Williams plays for the Helsinki Roosters, who the Butchers defeated 7-0 in their opener.

Golf

University of Washington sophomore Chris Williams (Moscow, Idaho) was named to the Division I Ping All-Region men’s golf team as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America.

Williams, who was a first-team All-Pac-10 selection, has won three tournaments in his two years at UW, just one behind the program record.

Williams, who will represent the United States at the 2011 Palmer Cup (Thursday through Saturday), led Washington with a scoring average of 71.16.

He finished first or second among Huskies in 12 of 13 tournaments throughout the year.

Williams is Golfweek.com’s 22nd-ranked player.

Skiing

Spokane’s Andrew Black of the Schweitzer Alpine Racing Schools won the “Fast Skier” Junior Alpine Scholarship Fund award.

The award, given in cooperation with the World Cup Supply, Ski Racing Development and Shred, represents Black’s results on the race course combined with academic achievement and community involvement. He will receive a $1,000 scholarship, an athlete’s pack and a 2012 speed suit from SRD, a winter storm coat from WCS, and a Shred race helmet and goggle package.

Black was invited to the Topolino Shootout, made the J3 Junior Nationals as a first seed for the PNSA and won the PNSA Overall J3 men’s title.

Track and field

After nearly 60 years of coaching, Howard Dolphin is retiring – again. An open house for friends and former athletes of the 83-year-old longtime high school track coach will be June 12, 1-4 p.m. at his home at Sandy Beach on Liberty Lake.

Dolphin coached track and cross country at East Valley beginning when it was still Otis Orchards High School in 1952. He had his first state champion, shot putter Bill Kelling, in 1964. His final state medalist – as throwing coach for West Valley – was Tyler Poldervart, second in the 2A shot last weekend in Tacoma.

The Washington Coaches Hall of Famer retired from teaching in 1984 and announced his intent to retire from coaching in 2005 after WV, then coached by son-in-law Jim McLachlan, won the State 3A team title. This time, McLachlan said, it’s official.

• Two men and two women with local ties were among the Washington State University athletes chosen to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field All-Academic teams. The criteria for selection includes: 3.00 or better cumulative GPA, be at least a sophomore academically, have completed one full academic year at the institution prior to nomination, and must have competed in 50 percent of more of the institution’s competitions.

The athletes are Andrew Kimpel (3.23 GPA, redshirt freshman, 3,000m, Spokane), Matthew Cronrath (3.06 GPA, sophomore, mile, Odessa), Ashley Kenney (3.39 GPA, junior, shot put, Spokane Valley), and Courtney Zalud (3.27 GPA, sophomore, 800m, Colbert).