Locally: Ferris graduate Cody Sorensen nominated for national honor
A Ferris High grad and current Idaho State football senior has been nominated among 191 for the 2015 Allstate AFCA national good works team.
Cody Sorensen, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound defensive back, had 95 tackles last year for the Bengals. He has a 3.86 GPA in mechanical engineering and has started the last two years as safety.
Sorensen, the son of former Washington State All-American and NFL football player Paul Sorensen of Spokane, is a three-time All-Big Sky All-Academic team member. He’s hoping to become only one of 11 players from the FCS, Division II and III and NAIA level to be named to the good works team.
College scene
Former Eastern Washington forward Melissa Williams signed a contract to play professional basketball in Germany.
Williams, who averaged 10.4 points and 9.5 rebounds a game last season, will play for the evo New Basket Oberhausen in the German Damen Basketball Bundesliga.
“I’m so excited to be able to start a new chapter of my life that is centered solely on basketball,” Williams said in a news release.
Williams, originally of Camas, Washington, finished second on Eastern’s all-time list with 832 rebounds and played the most career games with 122. She was also earlier named EWU’s Big Sky Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
• Kyle Krustangel, a Ferris and Whitworth graduate, was hired as the new head baseball coach at Yakima Valley Community College.
Krustangel previously worked as an assistant at Whitworth and as the head coach at Bridgeport High School. He also coaches the AAA Bandits in the Spokane Legion Baseball league.
• A former No. 1-ranked singles player at LSU has joined the Gonzaga women’s tennis staff as assistant coach, the university announced this week.
Megan Falcon will assist head coach DJ Gurule. Falcon joins the staff at Gonzaga after spending the 2015 dual season as a volunteer coach at the University of Houston, which earned an NCAA tournament berth.
“We are extremely pleased to add Megan to our staff,” Gurule said in a news release. “Megan’s experience as a collegiate and professional player will contribute to the growth of our program.”
• A Washington State baseball player will start this weekend at second base for the South Division in the New England Collegiate Baseball League All-Star Game.
Shea Donlin, of Woodinville, Washington, is batting .302 through 17 games for the Newport Gulls. He hit .230 in 34 games this past season for the Cougars. The all-star game will be held today in Sanford, Maine.
• Washington Youth Soccer announced this week that is has hired Kim Calkins as its new technical director.
Calkins, a Spokane native, played at the University of Portland and was a member of the U.S. U-21 and Women’s National Team pools.
She was drafted in 2000 by the Boston Breakers of the WUSA. She retired in 2002 and worked as a coach, scout and color commentator and previously led the Washington Youth Soccer recreational, select and TOPSoccer programs.
• Gonzaga golfer Alice Kim has been named for the third time to the Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholars list.
Kim, who also earned West Coast Conference All-Academic honors, was named the Gonzaga Co-Female Senior Athlete of the year and carries a 3.53 GPA in sport management. Kim, of Honolulu, had six top-25 finishes this past season.
• Two international basketball recruits for the Washington State women’s basketball team recently competed in the 2015 FIBA U20 European Championships that concluded last Sunday.
Borislava Hristova, of Bulgaria, led her team to a seventh-place finish in the tournament played in Podgorica, Montenegro. She averaged 23.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
Maria Kostourkova, of Portugal, helped her team to a sixth-place finish in the Division A championship played in Lanzarote, Spain. Kostourkova averaged 9.3 points and 7.2 rebounds a game in the tournament.
Both players will remain in Europe to compete for their countries in the upcoming FIBA U18 European Championships that start on July 30, according to a university news release.
• Two Whitworth athletes and a Pacific Lutheran cross country runner from Spokane Valley were named to the Northwest Conference first-team scholar-athletes list.
Amanda Seely (Central Valley), former Whitworth pitcher Dan Scheibe (Richland) and Whitworth swimmer Alisa Stang of Stanwood, Washington, were all named to the list. Scheibe is currently pitching for the Spokane Indians.