Locally: Spokane Falls Community College will name gymnasium after Maury Ray
Maury Ray, under whose guidance Community Colleges of Spokane reached the pinnacle of athletic success in the Northwest, will receive the ultimate tribute from the school when it attaches his name to one of the most visible facilities on the Spokane Falls campus.
The gymnasium inside the newly renovated Student Athletic Center will be named “Maury Ray Arena” during ceremonies between women’s and men’s Eastern Region basketball games against Treasure Valley on Feb. 9. The women’s game will start at 1 p.m. The men’s game is scheduled to start at 4.
A successful three-sport athlete at Toledo (Washington) High School who played four years of football at Pacific University before graduating in 1961, Ray cut his teaching and coaching teeth at the high school level in Oregon. He had coaching stops at Idaho State University and University of Minnesota Duluth and earned his PhD from the University of Utah in 1970.
Ray arrived in Spokane in 1973 in the infancy of the athletic program at Spokane Community College and became an assistant men’s basketball coach. In 1974, he was named the district’s first athletic director and dean of health, physical education and recreation. He combined the athletic programs at SCC and SFCC, growing the number of sports the district offered.
During his tenure before retiring in 2006, Spokane’s 15 athletic teams won 94 NWAC championships, had 80 second-place finishes, won more than 200 regional championships and three NJCAA national championships. In addition, his coaches and teams won numerous regional and national awards, adding to Spokane’s honor as the largest and most successful athletic program in NWAC sports history.
Ray was inducted into both the NWAC and CCS halls of fame in 2006 and is in the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame Scroll of Honor.
The NWAC renamed its all-sports trophy, previously called the Athletic Director’s Cup, in his honor in 2012-13. CCS has won the award for schools that offer eight to 15 sports in each of the six years it has been presented.
The public is invited to attend the naming ceremony.
College scene
Washington State senior Taylor Mims, who capped a stellar career in 2018 by being named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America third team, signed her first professional contract to play for CV Haris of Santa Cruz de Tenefife, Spain.
“Tenerife seems like a great place to start my first experience as a professional player,” Sims is quoted in the WSU release announcing her signing. CV Haris is in first place in the Women’s Volleyball Super League in Spain.
Sims, from Billings, was WSU’s offensive and defensive leader during her four years. She ranks seventh all time in total kills, finishing with 1,310, and third in total points with 1,639.0. She also ranks in the top 10 in a half-dozen other career statistical categories.
• Dominique Butler, an Eastern Washington senior from Lewis and Clark, broke her school record in the pentathlon for a second straight week, totaling 3,549 points Friday at the Lauren McCluskey Memorial Open in Moscow. Butler, who scored 3,532 last month at the EWU Candy Cane, won the long jump at 17 feet, 7 1/2 inches and tied for first in the high jump (5-3).
• Brianna King’s continued scoring exploits for Montana Western has earned the former North Central High School and CC Spokane standout a third straight Frontier Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week award.
The 5-foot-5 senior guard averaged 23.5 points, four rebounds and 1.5 steals as the No. 4 Bulldogs split two games on the road. Their 61-50 loss to No. 13 University of Providence was their first in 13 games. It was the fourth honor in five weeks for King, the Frontier scoring leader (21.39) who ranks fifth nationally.
• Gonzaga senior Zykera Rice repeated as West Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week after she averaged 18.5 points and 3.5 rebounds while playing just 22 minutes a game in a pair easy of wins. She was 16 of 29 (55 percent) from the field.
• Swimmers Jamie Siegler and Ryan Grady have been selected the Whitworth Student-Athletes of the Month for December.
Siegler, who received the women’s award, broke the Logger Invitational meet record in winning the 100-yard breaststroke in 1 minute, 4.92 seconds. She also finished fourth in the 200 breast and reached the championship final in the 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle. She was also part of four relay teams that had top-four finishes.
Men’s honors went to Grady, who won the 200 breast at the Logger Invitational with a meet-record 2:02.92. He also took second in three other events: the 400 IM, 500 freestyle and 1,650 free, and was part of three winning relays as the Pirates claimed the men’s team title.
• Joseph Glenn of Post Falls, the 2016 Idaho 5A District 1 golf champion as a senior, has completed a two-year church mission and will enroll at Idaho spring semester and be eligible to compete immediately as a freshman, Vandals coach David Nuhn announced.
• Idaho men’s tennis has added three players for the spring – walk-ons Brandon Hodge from Greensville, South Carolina, and Adam Taylor from Ennis, Texas, and Bruno Casino-Remondo, a 2018 signee from Cantabria, Spain, who has enrolled in school, coach Daniel Hangstefer said.
• Idaho signed junior college linebacker Robert Miller to a financial aid agreement, Vandals football coach Paul Petrino announced. Miller has enrolled for the spring semester and will enter the fall as a redshirt junior with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Miller played in all 21 games during two seasons at Northwest Mississippi Community College after transferring from Memphis, where he redshirted in 2016. For his career, Miller recorded 94 tackles, six tackles for loss, with three sacks. He was rated as a two-star safety at Olive Branch (Mississippi) High School.
• Washington State women’s soccer will add three players for spring semester, coach Todd Shulenberger announced.
Madison Carter, a forward who played in the fall as a freshman at Portland in the WCC and scored one goal in 15 games, has transferred to WSU. So has senior forward Averie Collins, who has one year of eligibility after playing three at Stanford. She didn’t play for the Cardinal in 2018 after helping it to the 2017 NCAA championship. She completed her degree in the spring.
Also joining the Cougars will be freshman forward Liz Weiss from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a member of WSU’s November signing class, who graduated from high school early and has enrolled at WSU.
• Winners of three of the last four Big Sky men’s tennis championships and the 2018 regular-season champion, the Idaho men were picked to finish third in 2019 in the conference coaches’ preseason poll while the women’s coaches tabbed Idaho, last year’s runner-up, for another second-place finish.
Northern Arizona was picked first in both polls. The Eastern Washington men were 10th in the 11-team conference while the Eagles women were fourth, their highest-predicted finish since 2011 when they were tabbed fifth.
Hockey
Former Spokane Chiefs coach Bill Peters, who has the Calgary Flames battling for the Pacific Division championship in the National Hockey League, has been named coach of Team Pacific for the NHL All-Star Game Jan. 25-26 in San Jose, California.
Peters, in his first season coaching the Flames after coaching the Carolina Hurricanes for four seasons, coached the Chiefs from 2005-08 and led them to the Memorial Cup at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season.
Letter of intent
WSU men’s golf – Tianyu Wu, Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida.
Miscellany
Tickets to the 2019 Vandal Scholarship Fund Gala, set for Feb. 7 at Boise CenterEast, are on sale through the Vandal Scholarship Fund office, (208) 885-0259.
Featured guests will be Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer and Idaho football coach Paul Petrino. The event begins at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $150, with discounted prices for guests under the age of 30 ($80) and under 40 ($100). Each table seats 10. The fund provides scholarship support to more than 300 student-athletes. Last year, the Gala raised a record $170,000, enough for nearly 10 full scholarships.
Info: https://govandals.com.