Month: January 2009

>Weekend college wrap

>Not much on the weekend schedule for local college athletes Kyle Clearman (PLU men’s basketball/North Bend) and Rachel Mitchell (NWU women’s basketball/North Bend). Reason for it is the weather.

The PLU men’s game @ Pacific in Forest Grove, OR, last Friday was postponed on account of the I-5 closure through Chehalis, it will be made up on the 27th.

As for NWU, they only got one game in and had the second shifted to Monday. The game they got in was last night, and they lost to College of Idaho 80-52, with just three points from Mitchell. Hopefully Rachel can have another one of those weekends where she has a much better second game than her first. Game two is tomorrow.

Speaking of flooding, hopefully you all have had a chance to clean up and take stock of what’s been damaged and make note of that to your insurance agent. With all the damage that’s out there, this Valley will be crawling with insurance adjustors over the next couple of weeks for sure. Also hopefully you all have had a chance to look at the flood damage photos of Mount Si HS on the school district website, there was flooding in the kitchen, band room, auditorium, commons, DECA area (Room 404), and the ASB offices. I doubt they’ll be able to get things going tomorrow at MSHS; they probably won’t be able to do that until they get the kitchen certified to serve food again by the health department. What this means for athletic events/practices is not known.

>More breaking news, and this also affects Mount Si……

>Huge breaking news from the college scene this afternoon, and this is very much going to affect the futures of many Mount Si football players who had dreams of playing in college.

Bellingham’s Western Washington University today announced the elimination of their football program, a move which according to school president Bruce Shepard was difficult. “I have made this decision with a heavy heart as I am well aware of the profound consequences it has on the student-athletes on the football team, their dedicated and hard-working coaches, and on our passionate supporters on campus, in the community and region and on our alumni,” Shepard said in a school news release.

The move was made in light of budget cuts affecting Western, along with all other four and two-year colleges and universities in Washington, as the state deals with a nearly six billion dollar budget deficit, an issue which was a huge one during the 2008 governor’s race between Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi and one which will pre-occupy Olympia during the upcoming legislative session which I think begins on Monday.

This is a decision which will negatively affect the future of Mount Si players who want to attend and play college football, since Western was in the class of school (D-II and below) that tends to more actively recruit players from Mount Si.

Western likely was on the radar for all of the players likely generating college interest – Sean Snead, Tyson Riley, Michael Nelson, Ryan Ransavage and Alex Hiebert.

It will be interesting to see what this decision ultimately means for the future of high school football in Washington, since this decision removes one great in-state option for “red” and “white” chip prospects, players which many schools have at least one of. This likely means many more of those kids will end up leaving the state, probably ending up in JC ball down in California.

Western’s move, while not surprising considering the reasons behind it, sends high school players the wrong message and will have far-reaching effects for high school football in Washington. This is something the school should have, but likely did not, consider in making this move.

>Breaking news on Mount Si sports

>Those of you who read this blog regularly know that we were supposed to resume our previews and predictions for Mount Si basketball tomorrow with the scheduled doubleheader at Juanita of boys and girls hoops. However, the flooding which has devastated the Valley has forced the postponement of those contests with no word on rescheduling.

School is closed for tomorrow in the Snoqualmie Valley School District, and many parts of our community remain seriously inundated with water at this time. Highway 202 east of the Highway 203 roundabout outside of Fall City has been washed out and it is very likely the road will be closed long-term, precipitating the use of the detour through Preston which was used several years ago during the slide closure of SR 202 along Falls Hill.

SnoValleySports would like to wish everyone in our community well as we all deal with this serious emergency situation.

>Scoreboard for Tuesday’s games

>Both local college basketball players were in action last night, here’s the wrapup.

Women:
NWU women lose to Evergreen 61-57
Rachel Mitchell (NWU/North Bend): Limited to 1-8 from floor, 4 pts

Men:
PLU men lose to Puget Sound77-60
Kyle Clearman (PLU/North Bend): 1 rebound; played last 2:23 of contest, no pts

Stay safe out there today, the rivers are rising fast. Keep an eye on local media, including www.valleyrecord.com, for the latest information.

>Weekend wrap

>Basketball wrapup from the weekend for the two local athletes:

Another case of saving the best for last for North Bend’s Rachel Mitchell of Northwest U’s women’s basketball team. Mitchell was limited last Friday to 1-9 from the floor for just three points in a NWU blowout 92-68 loss at Warner Pacific, but rallied and had a team-high 16 last night in a tight 72-71 NWU win over Cascade. Where’s Vanessa Williams when you need her?

Meanwhile, North Bend’s Kyle Clearman had a light workload on the weekend for his PLU men’s team. Both Lutes games were losses, to Willamette last Friday and to Lewis and Clark last night, and his action consisted of a couple of minutes during the middle part of the first half last night, he turned the ball over once during that span.

They are back in action Tuesday night. PLU hosts city rival Puget Sound from midtown Tacoma at 8:00 p.m., while NWU rolls down to Olympia to face Evergreen State at 5:30.

One other small item of note: Saw both Ian Atkinson and Jake Handy, former Mount Si baseball players playing in college now (Atkinson a soph., Handy a frosh this year) last night at the Wildcat basketball game, they both told me practices for their respective teams start tomorrow. So keep checking back for the latest info from both baseball and softball since it appears it’s about to heat up a little bit on the diamond.

>News item for the prep water cooler…..

>Hello, everyone.

Hope you are all enjoying the remainder of your holiday season. Thought I would offer this news article for your reading pleasure.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09002/938901-361.stm?cmpid=HBEHTML

Article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today about the factors local high school administrators and coaches in western Pennsylvania use to decide to play or cancel winter high school competition due to weather and road conditions. Granted, this is Pennsylvania and they get snow and ice conditions every year back there, but it seems pretty timely for us considering all the snow/ice cancellations we’ve seen during our recent spate of snow and ice.

>Happy New Year……

>….and we at SnoValleySports want to start off our 2009 by offering some news bits for your attention.

First, a makeup date has been scheduled for the postponed Mount Si girls’ game with Inglemoor. It’s tomorrow. Times TBA, although look for them at 7:30 p.m. The Wildcats will be coming in tired and pretty beat up after a rough tournament in Idaho.

Second, the two local college basketball players will be in action this weekend, as their respective teams begin conference play. PLU’s men (Kyle Clearman/North Bend) are home tomorrow (Willamette) and Saturday (Lewis & Clark College), both tips are at 8:00 p.m. at PLU’s campus in Parkland. Northwest’s women (Rachel Mitchell/North Bend) are on the road for their weekend pair; tomorrow at Warner Pacific, Saturday at Cascade College. Back to Clearman for a moment, PLU played a pair of games against Iowa schools earlier in the week in California, no Kyle for either. One was a wild loss in overtime, the other was a victory. PLU currently sits at 6-3, while Northwest is at 4-9.

Third, a reminder that Mount Si’s boys will be playing Saturday night at home. They are 4-2 after a pair of losses in their tournament in San Diego. Game time is 6:00 p.m. against Metro League Bishop Blanchet. Coming up on Tuesday is a CAN’T MISS if you can make it down to Seattle, as the Wildcats go into O’Dea and play the Irish. 7:30 on the tip for that one. Wildcat basketball historians help me here, but has Mount Si ever played them there at O’Dea? This will be a memorable game win or lose, all the history that’s in that gym.

One last item, and that is incase you aren’t aware, Fox Sports Northwest will show a couple of Seattle Thunderbirds home games from the new ShoWare arena in Kent coming up in early February. We only mention this here because a Valley native might get the opportunity to ref one or both of the games. Zach Brooks, who graduated from Mount Si several years ago and is a North Bend native, has been for the past few years working as a linesman for the Western Hockey League, which is the league the Thunderbirds are part of. (Full disclosure: this writer is good friends with both him and his older brother, who graduated with this writer from Mount Si in 1997, and no, he didn’t ask me to write this.). Anyway, Zach primarily works the Thunderbird home games, although his assignments can take him around the state (Everett, Kennewick, Spokane), down to Portland, or across the border into Canada, into locales as wide-ranging from Vancouver, B.C., to Moose Jaw, Sask. So if you happen to watch either of the broadcasts, look for him, you may be lucky.

Our next basketball preview/pick package is coming in eight days.