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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Local briefs: Football official Tim Davis, softball coaches Carla and Cris Coffield receive honors

Carla and Cris Coffield were a big hit at Rogers High School in 1991. (File photo / SR)
From staff and news services

Tim Davis of Spokane turned an evening walk into a spot in the Big Sky Conference Football Officials Hall of Fame.

“It was total coincidence,” said Davis, a member of the shrine’s Class of 2017, of how he got into football officiating.

“I had moved up here from New Mexico to go to graduate school at Eastern Washington and my apartment was near Lewis and Clark (High School),” he said. “In those days the (Inland Empire Football Officials Association) had their training meetings at LC. I saw a hand-painted sign that said ‘Football officials meeting tonight.’ “

He was alone, had time on his hands, and thought, “I could use some extra money and might meet some guys. It sounded interesting.”

He started out in the high school ranks – where he still officiates, incidentally – and moved into small-college officiating, working there for “27-28 years,” while also getting into the Big Sky.

Davis, who played high school football in Los Alamos, New Mexico, is the second Spokane official in the Big Sky shrine. The other is the late Denny Peterson, who capped a five-decade Big Sky officiating career by being inducted in 2002.

Davis’ 23 years in the Big Sky as a field judge included working two Division I Football Championship Subdivision semifinals, four quarterfinals and the 2005 championship game in Chattanooga, Tennessee, between Appalachian State and Northern Iowa.

“They say your time in the Big Sky is measured by how many ‘Cat-Griz games you do,” he said, alluding to the Montana State-Montana rivalry game. “That was considered the cream of the crop.”

He did five.

“It’s a very humbling award,” Davis said the hall of fame. “We work as a team, and when you’re part of a team, you don’t think of individual awards. So it’s very humbling.”

Softball

The brother-sister combination of Cris and Carla Coffield have been selected along with 13 others for induction into the Spokane Metro Softball Hall of Fame.

The Coffields – she’s Carla Bischoff now - went from standout playing careers at Rogers High School and the adult recreation ranks into coaching, where they have continued to find success. Cris is the longtime Rogers slowpitch and fastpitch coach and Carla coaches girls select fastpitch programs.

Joining them in the Class of 2017 are former players Elaina Bohlman, Tanya DeGeest, Steve Ensminger, Jim Hardenbrook, Mike Hellman, Rick Kendall, Laura Lund, Steve Mauro, Dwayne Phinney, Ross Rhodes, Rick Roig and Mike Shaw. Fritz McGinnis is going in as a sponsor and player.

Don Hartzog of Maria’s Pizza will receive the inaugural Denny Waltermire Distinguished Service Award that recognizes sponsors.

A banquet in their honor will be Sept. 9 at the Northside Eagles Lodge at 6 p.m. Deadline for reservations is Aug. 31. Info and reservations: Don Love, (509) 467-5328.

Jeff Camp of Spokane umpired in USA Softball’s showcase girls fastpitch event, 18U Gold, in Clearwater, Florida, to highlight summer championship tournament assignments for Spokane and North Idaho umpires.

Bryan Raschka and Dennis Keys from the Spokane Softball Umpires Association worked the USA Softball 12U B Western National in Portland, and Scott Verburg from Coeur d’Alene was in the 18U B/16U B in Medford, Oregon. Raschka had the plate in the 12U championship game, Verburg was at first in the 16U title game and Keys was at first in the 12U third-place game.

Camp, Raschka and Keys also umpired in the Idaho State 14U in Spokane along with SSUA members Cam Preston, Brian Hall, Dave Berghammer, David Birdsell, Jake Perry, Ron Snyder, Sean Harrington, Bob Baugh and Marty Boles, and Russ Lacey, Chuck Moreland and Dave Broughton from North Idaho.

Keys and Boles also umpired in the USA Softball 14U B Regional in Kent, Washington.

Volleyball

Imani Wimbush, a 2017 Gonzaga graduate from Honolulu, Hawaii, has been named to the United States team for the 2017 World University Games on Aug. 19-30 in Taipei, Taiwan.

The outside hitter, a Zag from 2012-16, is one of 12 players on Team USA. At GU, she had 560 kills and 302 blocks, one of four Zags to have 500-plus kills and 300-plus blocks in the rally scoring era. She had career highs of 196 kills and 1.94 kills per set as a senior after moving from middle blocker to outside hitter.

Miscellany

The Gonzaga University Board of Trustees approved a resolution in July to create the Steve DeLong Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Endowment to honor the man who recently retired after 39 years as the Bulldogs’ head athletic trainer.

The endowment that recognizes DeLong’s service will support the nutritional needs of GU’s student-athletes, including supplemental nutrition (i.e., snacks, smoothies and approved supplements) and pre- and post-game meals.

Funding came from a special one-time NCAA Division I distribution announced in 2016 when the NCAA liquidated a $200 million quasi endowment. The funds were disbursed in spring 2017 based on the number of full athletics scholarships of each school.