Locally: Idaho’s Charlston honored for academics

Alyssa Charlston, a senior post player on the University of Idaho women’s basketball team, was named to the Capitol One Academic All-District 7 Division I first team by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Charlston, a broadcast and digital media major from Sammamish, Wash., has a 3.97 grade-point average. She earned third-team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors in the 2011-12 season. The first-team district honor makes here eligible for Academic All-America honors again.

• Riley Stockton from Ferris, a junior at Seattle Pacific, has been named to the CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District 8 Division II first team in men’s basketball. He has a 3.87 GPA as a business administration major and is eligible for Capital One Academic All-America Division II teams.

• Three Whitworth Pirates, including the brother-sister duo of Dustin and KC McConnell from Clarkston, have been named to the CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District 8 Division III first team in basketball.

Kayla Johnson, a senior guard from Colfax with a 3.49 GPA in health science, joins KC McConnell, a sophomore guard with a 3.89 GPA in kinesiology and education, on the women’s team. Both were honored for the first time.

Dustin McConnell, a senior guard and a kinesiology major with a 3.81 GPA, is a repeater on the men’s team.

All are eligible for Capital One Academic All-America Division III teams.

Softball

Jim Bedard, the Spokane Amateur Softball Association adult player representative since 2001 who has been involved in softball since 1969 as a sponsor, player and coach, was inducted into the Northwest Region 15 Hall of Fame in the contributor category last weekend at the annual regional council meeting in Spokane.

Bedard, the 13th person from Spokane in the region hall, began a two-year term as the Region 15 adult player representative in January.

He started as a player in men’s fastpitch in the Tri-Cities and continued playing and coaching in men’s modified and coed slowpitch, and continues to play senior slowpitch.

He has sponsored at least one team a year since 1978 through businesses he has owned, first through a tavern and currently with his company that deals in insurance and investments.