Prep notebook: Road-weary G-Prep football enters GSL play 2-0

The Gonzaga Prep football team has yet to play a home game – and it won’t until October – but the Bullpups are glad to be back in Spokane nonetheless.

The Bullpups survived slow starts at Richland and Bellarmine Prep and are 2-0 heading into Greater Spokane League 4A openers Friday.

G-Prep coach Dave McKenna wasn’t offering any excuses, but a 5-hour trip to Tacoma to face their in-state parochial rival isn’t a trip for the faint of heart. The Bullpups found themselves trailing 21-0 barely 7 minutes into the game might suggest that they were slow getting off the bus.

The Bullpups bounced back to outscore Bellarmine Prep 34-7 the rest of the game.

“They’re resilient,” McKenna said of his players. “The team chemistry is coming through in a good, positive level. The trust level that they’re showing in each other and the coaches is outstanding.”

So playing in Albi Stadium on Friday is close enough to home. The Bullpups will take on another team that’s off to a 2-0 start when they face off with Mead in the second game of a doubleheader. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30.

In the opener, Lewis and Clark and Central Valley, both 1-1, meet at 5.

Out in Spokane Valley, Ferris (0-2), which has yet to score, takes on University (1-1). Kickoff is at 7.

“Mead is 2-0 and watching them on film, they’re doing some really good things,” McKenna said.

Mead will face its stiffest test to date. G-Prep, favored to win the GSL 4A title, is in a different league than the Panthers’ first two opponents, Wenatchee and Southridge.

Still, McKenna said his team has room for a lot of improvement. He said his team needs to cut down the penalties on offense and defense and be more disciplined.

“We’re not good enough to have penalties and have lost-yardage downs,” McKenna said. “We need to tackle better and have better pursuit angles. Offensively, we need to block better on the perimeter, and catch the balls that are catchable.”

At the same time, McKenna has been pleased with several things, most notably the play of senior fullback Mason Plese, who has racked up 229 yards in two games.

CV hires wrestling coach

Central Valley is going from one proven winner to another.

CV has hired Shaun Williams to replace the retired John Owen as wrestling coach.

Williams, a South Africa native, has coached Hermiston (Oregon) to three straight State 5A championships in his three years there.

Williams assisted Owen for two years at CV in the early 2000s. Williams started his collegiate wrestling career at North Idaho College and finished at Oregon.

Because Williams started the school year at Hermiston, he had to give a 60-day notice when he tendered his resignation. The earliest he can be in Spokane is Oct. 20, and the season begins Nov. 16.

• Coeur d’Alene has hired Nicholas Mahin as baseball coach.

Mahin, 30, from Cypress, California, spent eight years in the Chicago White Sox’s minor league system.

• Colville athletic director Kelly Carr is still trying to fill the head girls basketball coaching vacancy.

For more information, call Carr at (509) 684-7801.

Oral commitments

She has yet to play significant minutes in high school basketball, but Gonzaga Prep’s Joy Akaegbu has given Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California, an oral commitment.

The 6-foot-2 Akaegbu, from Nigeria, chose Saint Mary’s over the University of Portland, Colorado, Montana State, Seattle, James Madison, UC Santa Barbara and North Carolina A&T.

Akaegbu averaged 10 minutes per game last year when G-Prep went 27-0, capturing a second straight State 4A championship. She averaged 4 points and 2.9 rebounds.

She gained recruiting interest from playing club ball the last two summers.

“What I really liked about Saint Mary’s is academically it’s a small-size school,” said Akaegbu, who has earned nothing but A’s since arriving at G-Prep from Nigeria in December 2013. “The classrooms are really small. I can benefit from getting to know my professors.”

• Brooke Bailey of University has given The Master’s College, an NAIA school in Santa Clarita, California, an oral commitment to play basketball.

A 5-foot-9 shooting guard, Bailey averaged 13.2 points per game last year. She carries a 3.4 grade-point average and wants to pursue a career as a pediatric nurse.