Good Thursday morning. We have a smorgasbord of items for you this morning. We begin with news on Cedarcrest High School’s girls’ basketball program. The team has a new head coach this morning and he is no stranger to the program or the lower Valley community.
Longtime Cedarcrest educator and former head coach Marc Hillestad has been re-hired to the same position he held for the Red Wolves from 1996-2008. Hillestad, who was on former head coach Brad Knowles’ staff this past season, replaces Knowles as head coach; Knowles was let go from the head coaching position earlier this spring after 13 seasons in charge. Program boosters announced Hillestad’s hiring last night on Facebook.
Hillestad has been teaching and coaching at Cedarcrest for many years so his hiring should be welcome news to everyone in the community and allow for a very seamless transition for players. He has over 40 years of coaching experience in basketball and other sports, so his experience should prove valuable as the program embarks on its journey in the Kingco Conference this winter.
A congratulations to Hillestad from us here.
Also this morning:
Football: Monroe player with strong ties to Cedarcrest finds D-I college opportunity
A recent Monroe High School football alumnus who has strong ties to Cedarcrest and the lower Valley has found a college home, and while it wasn’t what he dreamed, it may be the next best thing.
Jack Irwin, who is a kicker and wide receiver, last night via his mom, longtime lower Valley coach Christi Irwin, on Facebook announced his commitment to attend and play for the University of Tennessee-Martin as a receiver this fall. The school is in NCAA Division I’s Football Championship Subdivision and is located in Martin, TN. They are part of the Ohio Valley Conference.
While Irwin’s ultimate dream is to play for the University of Alabama, which his family has strong ties too as well, playing for UT-M is not the worst thing imaginable. The UT-M campus is about a five-hour drive from the Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, AL, and with the transfer portal being what it is these days, if Irwin goes to Martin and puts his work in and excels there, then an opportunity could open up for him with the Crimson Tide at some point later in his college career.
As noted, his mom, Christi, is a longtime coach in the lower Valley and is a former Red Wolves soccer assistant, and his older sister Annalise, a CHS grad, attends school at Alabama. A congrats to the Irwin’s on this announcement and we wish Jack good luck down at UT-M.
Golf: Valley delegation competes at local junior golf tournament
The second half of regular season competition in the Washington Junior Golf Association’s District 2 started yesterday with the third of four tournaments of the regular summer schedule, at Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle.
A delegation of seven Valley boys, all from the upper Valley, competed in the event. There were no qualifiers to the district’s postseason championship to report. Of note, Mount Si High School’s Jacoby Schmidlapp handled things the best on the par-69 Jefferson Park layout, firing a five-over 74 to finish tied for 11th in the boys’ high-school (ages 16-18) division. He qualified earlier this week for the district tournament with a solid showing in the tournament at Mount Si Golf Course in Snoqualmie. Fellow Snoqualmie resident Ethan Miles fired a six-over 75 and finished tied for 14th, missing qualification for the district event.
Also competing were Mount Si’s A.J. Spence, Jackson Barter and Cooper Gaffney, along with fellow upper Valley locals Sid Moghe and Michael Beck. As noted, none earned district qualification, although in Barter’s, Beck’s and Gaffney’s cases, they previously earned district qualification at tournaments earlier this season.
The district wraps up regular season action Monday up at Nile Golf Course in Mountlake Terrace. The district tournament is July 15 and 16 at Inglewood Golf Club in Kenmore. Today, the association’s District 6 will have another tournament, at Riverbend Golf Club in Kent. Several Valley participants, all of whom competed in that district’s opener on Tuesday, will be looking to punch tickets to their district postseason event. We’ll wrap that up tomorrow for you here.
Baseball: Davenport survives challenging outing
It had been an extended layoff for Cedarcrest High School alum Aaron Davenport since his last starting pitching appearance for the Akron RubberDucks, but he took the hill last night for an outing, as the Cleveland Guardians’ “AA” minor-league team faced the Altoona Curve in Pennsylvania. The Duvall product fought a little rust off but held his own in this one.
The right-hander allowed five runs on eight hits in five innings of work walking three and striking out one, receiving no decision in this one as Akron scored six unanswered runs over the final two innings, five alone in the ninth inning, to rally from a late deficit to score an 11-6 road win over the Curve. Davenport’s earned run average came up a bit with last night’s struggles, now at 2.70, but he’s still in good shape and if he gets back on a normal track in terms of his schedule, he should be in position to get back to normal form for his next start, which is likely to be early next week.
In other baseball last night:
Dougherty, Wenatchee double up league rival: Mount Si High School alumnus Aidan Dougherty went 1-2 with a run scored and RBI last night for the Wenatchee AppleSox as the West Coast League college summer team doubled up the visiting league rival Kelowna Falcons 14-7 at home on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College in Wenatchee. The Snoqualmie product, who will be attending the University of Connecticut this fall, graduated from Mount Si in 2022.
Wenatchee with the win moved to 17-7 on the season, a game and a half up in first place in the league’s North Division on Edmonton’s Riverhawks. Wenatchee is off today and will head up to Bellingham for three with the Bells starting tomorrow. There, we could see a potential hitter vs. pitcher matchup with Valley Cup flavor – on the Bellingham pitching staff is starter Sheldon Egger, a Cedarcrest alum from Duvall. So there is a possibility of Dougherty facing Egger in one of those contests this weekend.
Doubleheader split for Issaquah-based 16U youth team with Mount Si player participating: The Issaquah-based Lakeside Recovery 16U team split two at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue last night with Eastside rival CBA Baseball. Lakeside won the opener 6-0 but fell in the nightcap 5-3 in the youth contests. Mount Si High School’s Cole Taylor played in both of the games for Lakeside, going 0-1 in the opener with a walk and run scored and 0-3 in the nightcap. Lakeside should be in action this weekend and we will keep tabs for you.
A’s Premier drops tourney opener in southwest Washington: The 18U Washington A’s Premier squad, despite a strong outing from a Mount Si alum, fell in the opener of the Curt Daniels youth tournament last night down in southwest Washington.
The Sammamish-based A’s fell to the Clark County Cubs, from Vancouver, WA, 4-2 at Mountain View High School in Vancouver in the first round of the regional tournament that has drawn teams from Spokane and Portland in addition to the A’s and several other teams from the Seattle area. Recent Wildcat grad Clay Crooks went 2-3 with a run scored and North Creek High School’s Ryan Moran homered for the A’s, but the Cubs were able to mount a late rally and secure the victory. The A’s play in a loser-out game at noon today at Evergreen High School in Vancouver against either MoundTime from Portland or their Sammamish-based rivals from Sweets Baseball.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 