Locally: Spokane Chiefs extend general manager Scott Carter
Scott Carter, general manager of the Spokane Chiefs since 2016, signed a two-year extension with the Western Hockey League team through the 2022-23 season.
“Scott has proven to be an outstanding member of our organization and we are proud to have him as part of the Chiefs family,” managing partner Bobby Brett said. “He has earned this extension.”
Under Carter, the Chiefs have a 149-97-17-13 record, improving their record in each of the past three seasons. They reached the WHL’s Western Conference finals in 2019 and their 68% winning percentage at the end of the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season was the franchise’s best since 2010-11.
“We have a great staff and group of players,” Carter said. “I look forward to continuing to build a winning team with them. We’re excited to keep it going.”
• A couple of Chiefs and the Czech Republic National team had a difficult time against the rival Russians in the Karjala Cup tournament earlier this month in Helsinki, Finland.
Lukas Parik was in goal and defenseman prospect David Jiricek, at 16 the youngest Czech to play for his country’s men’s national team, couldn’t stem the tide in a 3-0 loss to the Russians in what amounted to the championship game of the four-team tournament.
Both teams came in with 2-0 records after beating Sweden and host Finland, the Czechs by 3-1 and 2-0 scores, respectively.
It was the only tournament action for both. Parik stopped 27 of 30 shots and Jiricek took a 2-minute penalty for interference in the second period. The Czechs used three goaltenders and 12 defensemen in the three-day tournament.
• Episode 17 of the WHL podcast includes a chat with Chiefs forward Ben Thornton, who was selected 15th in the 2019 WHL draft and is set to break into the league this coming season.
The 16-year-old from Abbotsford, British Columbia, made his WHL debut in 2019-20, skating in one game for the Chiefs. He spent the bulk of the season with Yale Hockey Academy Prep in Abbotsford, where he had 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists) in 34 games.
The podcast, hosted by Zach Hodder, is available on Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, and at WHL.ca. New episodes debut Wednesdays.
Basketball
Johnny Hill, who has been on the staff at Grand Canyon University since 2017, has been hired as an assistant coach for the University of Idaho men’s team, head coach Zac Claus announced.
Hill, special assistant to the head coach at Grand Canyon during the 2019-20 season, started on the staff as a graduate assistant in 2017. He started his coaching career at the University of Northwestern Ohio, where he also acted as head coach of its junior varsity team.
The native of Chicago made three stops during his playing career, at Illinois State, Texas-Arlington (where he spent two seasons) and Purdue, where he helped the Boilermakers earn a No. 5 seed in the 2015-16 NCAA Tournament.
Hill made the academic honor roll at UT-Arlington and Purdue, earning a bachelor’s degree from Arlington and a master’s in technology leadership and innovation from Purdue.
College scene
Shamrock Campbell, a Carroll College junior from Ferris, used a career-high 23 points in an 81-59 loss to No. 7-ranked Morningside (Iowa) College to earn Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week honors for the week Nov. 8-15.
The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 18 points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal as the No. 21 Fighting Saints split two games at the Isreal-Strong Classic in Aberdeen, South Dakota. They defeated host Presentation College 80-41 before losing to Morningside.
• Idaho junior Katie Hale, who won all three of her individual races and contributed to four relay victories in a dual-meet win over Seattle University in the season-opening meet last weekend in Moscow, was named the Western Athletic Conference Women’s Swimmer of the Week.
Hale won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.30 seconds, the 100 back (56.50) and the 100 free (51.43.) and swam legs on victorious 200 and 400 free and 200 and 400 medley relays.
• Jessica Schmautz and Bree Riddle, two of the seven selected to the Whitworth Volleyball All-Decade Team, have area ties and are among five of the selections who earned six AVCA All-America awards.
The 2010-2020 Pirates won six Northwest Conference championships, including three in a row (2014-16), and sent six teams to the NCAA Division III Championships.
Four players were NWC Player of the Year and five were All-West Region selections for coaches Steve Rupe and Kati Bodecker. Rupe was NWC Coach of the Year twice (2010, ’11) and Bodecker three times (2014, ’15, ’16).
Schmautz (2017-18, Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls and Community Colleges of Spokane) was an outside hitter who was NWC Player of the Year, an All-America honorable mention and West Region first team selection in 2018. Her 4.21 kills per set that year ranked 13th in the nation and her 4.7 points per set ranked 22nd.
Riddle (2008-11, Freeman), one of two setters selected, was All-America honorable mention in 2011 when she was also first-team All-West Region and All-NWC first team. She led the NWC in assists (967) and assists per set (10.18), a figure that ranked 25th nationally in D-III. She was second-team All-NWC and All-West honorable mention as a junior.
Others on the All-Decade Team:
Outside hitter: Kaimi Rocha (2008-11), Emiko Kahler (2016-19). Setter: Maddye Dinsmore (2012-15). Middle blocker: Brenna Bruil (2013-16). Libero: Whitney Santos (2010-13). Honorable mention: OH: Nicole Leonard (2012-15), Jalana White (2010-13, Post Falls), Cassandra Mendoza (2014-17, Tekoa-Oakesdale), RS: Lauren Budde (2015-18). S: Erin White (2015-16, 2018). MB: Ka’ipo Rocha (2008-11).
• For a second straight year, second-year Washington State baseball coach Brian Green attracted a highly rated class of junior college transfers to the Palouse. The Cougars’ three 2021 signers are rated first in the nation by JBB, which covers JC baseball and ranked the WSU transfers No. 5 last year.
This year’s signers are outfielder Hylan Hall, a former Perfect Game High School All-American who started his career at Miami and plays at Wabash Valley College (Illinois); left-handed pitcher Cole McMillan, who started at Houston and pitches at JC powerhouse San Jacinto North (Texas); and outfielder Austin Plante, who started at TCU and plays at College of Southern Nevada, considered one of the top power left-handed bats in the country.
• Washington State’s Graduation Success Rate score rose 1% to a record 87% when the NCAA released the latest graduation rate data for Division I schools, continuing a trend that has seen the Cougars improve their score each of the past five years.
Three programs, men’s basketball and women’s and men’s golf, recorded perfect GSR scores of 100.
It is the third straight year men’s golf had a perfect score and the second straight for women’s golf. Additionally, football (82) and volleyball (85), besides men’s basketball, set or tied all-time high GSR scores.
Nine of WSU’s 13 programs remained constant or improved over last year.
The GSR tracks student-athletes who receive athletic aid and enrolled as freshmen or transfers between 2010-13, and completed their degree within six years.
• Idaho will debut new-look uniforms in men’s and women’s basketball and football in their upcoming seasons.
Men’s basketball will have what a school release called “an entirely different look” with an updated black jersey. Women’s basketball will have new white jerseys. Football will debut new white uniforms in the spring paired with the new, pride gold helmets.
You can check them out on the school website at govandals.com
Letters of intent
Eastern Washington men’s basketball: Freshmen: Skylar Wilson, F, Aurora, Colorado; Ethan Price, F, Bury St. Edmonds, England; Mason Landdeck, G, Zillah, Washington (Desert Hills HS, St. George, Utah).
Gonzaga men’s cross country: Freshman: Bryce Cerkowniak, Yelm, Washington HS.
Idaho men’s track & field: Freshmen: Weston Jeffries, thrower, Idaho Falls (Fruitland HS); Zachary Bright, distances, Idaho Falls HS; Landon Peterson, hurdles/jumps, Onalaska, Wisconsin; Dante Cox, HJ, Smithville, Missouri.
Idaho women’s soccer: Transfers: Julia Bailey, D, Ottawa, Ontario/University of Memphis (will be a sophomore); Brooke Jones, GK, Tualatin, Oregon. HS/George Fox University (will be a junior).
Shooting
Ben Tafoya gave the Spokane Junior Rifle Team its only medal at the 2020 Washington State Indoor International Rifle Championships with a third-place finish during the Nov. 7-8 meet his team shot at the Spokane Rifle Club.
Tafoya, 18, Gonzaga Prep, shot 1,117 out of a possible 1,200 points in the 3-position small-bore rifle event to earn the bronze medal. Teammate Anna Pearsall, 17, Mt. Spokane shot 1,034 and placed 12th in the 20-shooter field.
Miscellany
Carissa Gwerder, who worked as an academic coordinator at Grand Canyon University since 2017, has been hired by Gonzaga University to fill a similar position.
She will work with women’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, men’s cross country and track and field and men’s rowing.
At Grand Canyon, she advised more than 100 student-athletes on NCAA continuing eligibility, academic performance, graduation trajectories, study skills and career readiness, and created a leadership program designed to enhance student-athletes’ leadership skills.
Gwerder graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2014, where she ran cross country and track, and worked in the Louisville athletic department as a graduate student, where she earned a Master’s in sport administration in 2017.