Sports offer happy surprises and some shame
It seemed as if everywhere you looked this past week, something incredible was happening. Or incredibly baffling. Take your pick.
In Florida, Central Valley’s Tyler Johnson continued to emerge as a bona fide star in the NHL, helping the Tampa Bay Lightening come back from the brink of elimination in their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series with the Detroit Red Wings, winning the series in seven games.
Johnson scored twice in Game 6 to force Game 7, then helping Tampa Bay to wins in the first two games of its second-round series with Montreal over the weekend.
Anyone who watched Johnson star with the Spokane Chiefs remembers the blazing speed and his ability to score on the fly. Those same qualities are making him a reliable scoring threat in the NHL.
And it is fun to watch.
At Mead High School, CV’s Kyra Harames won the girls singles title at the 70th annual Inland Empire High School tennis tournament.
Harames admitted a few weeks ago that she occasionally has trouble playing serious tennis against friends. She dropped a Greater Spokane League match to her former practice partner Audra Spargo of Shadle Park in three sets for that very reason.
She battled back after losing the first set of her semifinal match with unseeded Maggie Fiocchi of Kennewick, winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. In the final she knocked off Tracy Melville of Class 2B Lind-Ritzville-Sprague in three sets, 6-1, 0-6, 6-3.
If I were pressed to name one, I would have to say that the track at Shoreline Stadium in North Seattle is my favorite high school track and field venue. The stadium is at the old Shoreline High School, which was closed down decades ago, and remains the home field for both Shorecrest and Shorewood high schools.
What makes the stadium special is the fact that it’s something rare for a high school venue: The track itself was laid out and certified when it was installed. That means it is exactly measured and records set on it are official.
I’ve always thought that extra care and expense brings a little extra magic to that particular track.
And a little of that magic rubbed off over the weekend for East Valley and West Valley runners.
Class 2A West Valley’s 4x100 relay team closed out its Great Northern League season by breaking its own school record, turning in a 42.67 second lap.
Saturday at Shoreline, the group turned in a 42.95 time to win the event over a fleet of Class 4A schools. Only second-place Bellevue posted a sub-43-second time, running a 42.97.
Earlier in the week hurdler Mac Baxter set the WV school record in the 300 meter hurdles by turning in a 37.94 and tied the school record in the 110 with a 14.54.
The Eagles have the attention of former head coach Jim McLachlan, who calls WV the favorite to win a second boys track and field state title.
More impressive was EV’s Scott Kopczynski’s third-place time in the 3200 at Shoreline: 9 minutes, 3.29 seconds.
Dave McCallum’s school record in the 3200, 9:03.6 was set at the 1966 state championship meet (converted to 3200 from the two-mile race). At 49 years, it was by far the longest standing mark in the EV record book.
The baffling part of the weekend came in two parts. First was the outrage in some circles over the Seattle Seahawks drafting Michigan defensive end Fred Clark. Clark was kicked off his college team after he was charged with domestic violence against his then-girlfriend.
Clark pled guilty to a lesser charge and the Seahawks maintain that they did due diligence and were confident that Clark did not strike the woman, but a long list of fans, including a Seattle Times columnist, were not assuaged.
In contrast to that outrage, and the outrage surrounding video of Ray Rice knocking his girlfriend unconscious in an Atlantic City casino, was the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight, dubbed “The Fight of the Century.”
Fans paid $100 to watch the fight on pay-per-view and so many high-powered celebrities and dignitaries flew into Las Vegas for the fight that there was a traffic jam of private jets at the airport.
Lost in the fight hoopla is the fact that Mayweather has been involved in more than a half-dozen separate assaults on five different women. A simple online search brings up an eyewitness police report written by his son, Koraun, describing his father’s violent attack on his mother – which may be the most disturbing thing you may ever read by a 10-year-old.
Mayweather tried to ban from the event the reporters who tried the hardest to question him on his history of domestic violence. And he still pocketed a $100 million payday.
Domestic violence is not to be condoned. There is a long history of looking the other way when it comes to boxers. Instead of shunning Mayweather over his behavior, there’s already talk of another $100 million payday for a rematch with Pacquiao.
And that’s just plain shameful.