Area roundup: Eastern great George Gablehouse dies at 91

Hall of Famer George Gablehouse, a standout basketball player on Eastern Washington teams that advanced to the NAIA tournament in each of his first three seasons in Cheney, passed away last Saturday from bladder cancer. He was 91.

Gablehouse was inducted into the Eastern hall as an individual in 2009, honoring not only his outstanding playing career, but also his long career as a collegiate administrator and coach. He played for Eastern in 1943 and again from 1946-48, and earned first team All-Washington Intercollegiate Conference honors in both 1946 and 1947.

He was a member of Eastern’s 1945-46 team, which was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003. The Savages had a school-record 31 victories (31-4) and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NAIA tournament under head coach Red Reese.

He coached at Omak and Marysville high schools before embarking upon a more than 20-year career at Centralia Community College. From 1957-78 he served as athletic director there, as well as director of physical education and director of intramural sports.

Arena football

Spokane’s Terrance Sanders was named playmaker of the year at the Arena Football League’s awards ceremony Thursday night in Cleveland.

Sanders returned four kickoffs and one missed field goal for touchdowns. The veteran defensive back also had 11 interceptions, 16 pass break-ups and 71 tackles. He has earned All-AFL honors the last three seasons.

Arizona quarterback Nick Davila was named league MVP and offensive player of the year. San Jose’s Jason Stewart was defensive player of the year. Cleveland’s Steve Thonn was coach of the year.

Volleyball

The academic penalties handed down to Washington State volleyball by the NCAA have been rescinded following a successful appeal.

The Cougars were one point shy of the 930-point benchmark in the NCAA’s four-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) and were given a Level One penalty that initially resulted in the loss of four practice hours per week. However, the team has shown great improvement since coach Jen Greeny took over in the spring of 2011, posting a 939 in 2011-12 and a perfect 1,000 last year. The Cougars four-year average was weighed down by a score of 837 in 2010-11.

“This is great news for our program, which continues to improve in all facets,” Greeny said. “We were able to show the tremendous academic improvement this program has made in the past three years, and continues to make, and obviously the NCAA agreed.”

The APR is a measure of both a team’s academics and its retention; schools lose points when players drop out of school before graduating or fail to meet certain academic criteria. While the 837 score will still affect the Cougars’ four-year average next season, the score of 935 in 2009-10 will drop off and is expected to be replaced by a significantly higher score for the 2013-14 academic year.

Tennis

Starting today, Spokane will host the United States Tennis Association Pacific Northwest Section 18 & Over Sectional Championships.

The tournament, which concludes Sunday, includes more than 1,000 players, making it the largest tennis competition in the Pacific Northwest.

More than 90 teams will be competing for a chance to advance to the USTA League National Championships in October and November.

The competition will be held at various tennis facilities throughout Spokane. For more information, go to http://tennislink. usta.com/Leagues/ Common/Default.aspx.