Monthly Archives: February 2014

Updates on Kitsapers in college

Here’s some updates on local athletes playing college sports. I know it’s not an all-inclusive list. If you know somebody else who is out there, please add a comment to this blog:

TRACK AND FIELD

Shane Moskowitz (jr., Central Kitsap) was part of an Oklahoma State distance medley relay that qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Ind., on Saturday.

Moskowitz ran the 1,200 meters leg and the Cowboys finished with a time of 9:29.91, which missed the school record by 1.5 seconds. The mark ranks No. 7 in the NCAA. The top 12 relays qualify for the national meet.

Moskowitz has run a 7:57.79 3,000 meters and a 2:24.48 1,000 yards this indoor season.

Irene Moore (jr., King’s West/Olympic College) is competing in the pentathlon. She was 11th at the GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championships. … Erika Crock (sr., South Kitsap) is a distance runner for the Saints.

SOFTBALL

Haylee Baker (Sr., Bainbridge/Bellevue CC) is hitting .455 for Western Washington (8-3) going into this weekend. The shortstop has one homer and 7 RBI.

BASKETBALL

Guard Jarell Flora (jr., Bremerton) is Seattle University’s third-leading scorer (8.7 points). He’s started 20 of 25 games for the Redhawks (12-13, 4-8 WAC) and averages 3.1 rebounds.

Forward Jalen Carpenter (so., Bremerton) averages 8.6 points and 5.9 reobunds for Weber State (6-19, 2-14 Big Sky). Carpenter leads Weber in offensive rebounds and has started 15 of 25 games.

Guard Krista Stabler (so., Central Kitsap) averages 7.5 points for St. Martin’s (15-10, 9-7 Great Northwest Athletic Conference). She’s started five games for the Saints and plays 20.8 minutes per game.

BASEBALL

Two former Olympic College players — pitcher Devin Smith (jr., West Seattle) and catcher Dustin Dhanani (jr., Blaine) — are playing at NCAA Division I Alabama A&M (3-8). Smith is 1-1 with a 1.93 ERA after two starts. He has pitched 14 innings and allowed 10 hits, striking out eight and walking two. Dhanani has started seven games and is hitting .143.

Daniel Orr (jr., Kingston, Everett CC) is hitting .354 for Corban University (5-6). The IB/OF has four doubles, five triples and 14 RBI, all team highs.

Catcher Curtis Wildung (jr., North Kitsap) is hitting .214 for Pacific Lutheran (5-4). Wildung hit a home run in a 1-0 win over Concordia and has started eight games.

Pitcher Joe Stevick (jr., Olympic) has been strong in three early relief outings for Linfield (7-2). Stevick has appeared in three games, pitching seven innings and allowing just one hit with a 0.00 ERA. He has three strikeouts, one walk and a save.

Infielder Kasey Bielec (jr., North Mason) is hitting .360 for Central Washington (4-4). He has two home runs and five RBI. … CWU lefty pitcher Kurtis Pitcher (sr., Klahowya, Western Oregon, Olympic College) pitched seven strong innings in his only start, a no-decision. He allowed five hits and two earned runs.

Josh Sontag (so., Central Kitsap) is an infielder/pitcher for St. Martin’s (1-6). Sontag is hitting .111 (just 9 at-bats) and has a 3.18 ERA after two appearances and 5.2 innings of relief.

GOLF

UCLA’s Erynne Lee (jr., Central Kitsap) shot 71-66-74—211 and tied for sixth at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate in New Orleans. UCLA won the team title in the tourney played at the English Turn G&CC.

UNLV’s Carl Jonson (jr., Bainbridge) tied for 14th at 1-under 143 at the Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii. The final round was rained out. The Rebels tied for eighth as a team.

 

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Schaaf writes about transition from sled to announcing booth

Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf wrote a guest blog for Entertainment Weekly.

The skeleton athlete turned Olympic bobsledder (she was fifth in 2010 Games) turned NBC broadcaster writes:

I spent the first five years of my 12-year sliding career competing in skeleton before transitioning to the pilot seat of a bobsled. Twelve years of professional sleigh riding? Sounds like a Christmas movie starring the Lawrence brothers! But the few who have had the chance to give bobsled or skeleton a try just for “fun,” soon realize that it’s far too hardcore for made-for-TV movies. That is unless your brand of “fun” involves climbing into a washing machine, setting it on spin, getting pushed off a hill and slamming into boulders the whole way down. It is an almost violent 60 seconds, and something most people rarely want to repeat.

Here’s the full blog.

It sounds like she’s having a blast in Sochi. Here’s a recent tweet from Bree:

Heard @meredithvieira AND @MLauer just said my name! Always hoped it would be after a medal, still pretty darn cool! #Sochi2014 @NBCOlympics

Here’s Bree calling John Daly’s disappointing run in the skeleton. The American had a bad start and Schaaf calls it right away. “Oh no! ….”

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Excited about UW softball

UPDATE: Washington 18, San Jose State 1 (5 innings). It was even more lopsided than the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory.

It’s already in the mid-80s and we’re going to take advantage of the sunshine today by taking in a Husky softball game. The Washington Huskies (6-0) are playing San Jose State (6-0) in a tournament game in Tempe this afternoon.

Washington’s an easy team to pull for. I’m helping out at Olympic College as a volunteer assistant and head coach Dan Haas, assistant Heather Jenkins and myself took in a practice last month in Seattle.UW coach Heather Tarr couldn’t have been more gracious. She wandered up in the stands to welcome us and explain what the Huskies were trying to accomplish that day and answered all of our questions. She later showed off the UW’s locker room and coaches’ offices below the stadium.

Being an old men’s fastpitch player, it was interesting to see how the Huskies practiced. It’s easy to see why the Dawgs have enjoyed so much success under Tarr and her staff, which includes husband J.T. D’Amico, Lance Glasoe and Brad Ditter, the former head baseball coach at Edmonds CC. There’s a purpose to everything they do.

Washington was 45-17 and finished third at the Women’s World Series a year ago, and they return all but one starter.

I’m excited about Olympic College softball, too. Danny Haas is doing a solid job recruiting and we’ve got some talented ladies. Our season starts March 1-2 at an NWAACC tournament in Richland. Stop by and catch one of our home games when we get going. I think you’ll be impressed by the level of play.

 

 

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Vettleson traded to Nationals

Central Kitsap grad Drew Vettleson has been traded to the Washington Nationals.

Keith Law of ESPN had rated Vettleson as the Tampa Rays top outfield prospect. Vettleson was the 42nd overall pick in the 2010 MLB draft. It was part of a four-play deal. the Rays gave up Vettleson, catcher Jose Lobaton and Felipe Rivero, a minor-league pitcher, for Nationals RHP Nathan Karns.

Here’s a look at the Nationals 40-man roster, which includes protected starting outfielders Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth and Denard Span.

Vettleson will likely start the season at Class AA Harrisburg (W.Va.) of the Eastern League. Washington’s Triple-A affiliate is Syracuse, which plays in the International League. He played at high-A Charlotte a year ago when he was in the Rays’ organization.

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Redemption for Ashley Wagner — the pride of Seabeck — in Sochi

Ashley Wagner wasn’t happy with her score (63.10), but it was good enough to put her in fourth place in the ladies’ part of the team figure skating competition at Sochi.

The figure skater with Seabeck ties is Kitsap’s closest connection to the 2014 Winter Olympics. Her parents Eric and Melissa Wagner were Central Kitsap graduates, and her grandfather, Mike James, was the park superintendent at Scenic Beach State Park in Seabeck for 35 years. Eric’s military career took the family around the globe and Ashley describes herself as a military brat, but she considers Seabeck her home. She spent most of her summers there.

“It’s the one place that we’ve always gone back to, no matter what,” she told Meri-Jo Borzilleri, a freelance writer who profiled Wagner for The Sun prior to the 2010 national championships in Spokane.  “I always knew it would be there, I knew people from there, I had friends from there, family. It was just one place that was always familiar. And that’s why I call it home.”

Her family and friends in Seabeck are, no doubt, proud as the can be.

Wagner’s making her first Olympic appearance and the two-time national champion got there after falling twice and finishing fourth at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Her selection caused quite an uproar. She might not have been happy with her score, but her performance was solid and proved that she deserved to be there.

Christine Brennan of USA Today wrote:

So, afterward, she naturally found herself being asked about redemption more than a few times, that having become the theme of the evening.

“To the people who doubted I belonged on this team, yes,” she said. “But really it was more about proving to myself that I could get beyond that competition and that I wasn’t a nervous wreck and that I was that strong, hard-headed competitor that I know that I am and that my mother has been dealing with for 22 years, so that was good for me.”

 

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Quick Hits: Kelly, Seahawks, Hammel & more

QUICK HITS AND THOUGHTS

Wonder if the PGA tour will ever get around to correcting the info on Troy Kelly’s bio? It still says he’s a graduate of West Sound Academy in Poulsbo, where he was a first-team all-league guard. Kelly was a first-team all-league guard … at Central Kitsap. Kelly, coming off knee surgery after playing in just 10 PGA events a year ago, gets his 2014 season started next week at the Web.com Tour’s Pacific Rubiales Colombia Championship in Bogota, Columbia. Kelly gets five Web.com Tour tuneups, and will have 14 more PGA Tour tournaments to earn $577,828 to keep his full-time playing privilege.

I’m looking forward to listening to Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf, who will be covering the skeleton competion at the Sochi Olympics for NBC. Follow her on Twitter @BreeSchaaf. Skeleton will be held over four days, Feb. 13-16. Schaaf was a bobsledder in the last Olympics, placing fifth at Vancouver.

In case you missed it, as I did while playing in Vegas last weekend, South Kitsap grad Jason Hammel several national media outlets reported that he had signed a one-year deal for a reported $6 million with the Chicago Cubs. The right-hander, who spent last season with the Baltimore Orioles, could earn an extra $1 million in incentives, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The Cubs have not confirmed the report, pending Hammel passing a physical. Hammel, 31, was 7-8 (4.97 ERA) in 23 starts and three relief appearances last season. He missed time with soreness in his right elbow.

I still can’t get that first play of the Super Bowl out of my head. Might have been the earliest turning point in the history of big sporting events. Denver’s mistimed snap ended up as a safety for the Seahawks. It was only 2-0, but you had a feeling, at least I did, that it was going to be Seattle’s day.

My buddy, Don Lay, and I chatted with one of Richard Sherman’s proud cousins at the Palace Station sports book on Super Bowl Sunday in Vegas. Yoseph (didn’t catch his last name) grew up in Compton and works for the schools in Las Vegas. He sported a braided pony tail (says long hair is a family trait) and was decked out in Seahawks’ gear. Asked if he thought Sherman would ever be a national figure, Yoseph shook his head. “I thought he might make the NFL, but as a wide receiver,” he said. “That’s what he played in high school.” Yoseph’s phone was full of photos Sherman was sending to family members and friends, some on the day of the game.

How amazing would it be if Hawks’ owner Paul Allen could become a two-time world champion this year? His Portland Trail Blazers have a legit shot.

Anybody looking forward to seeing what Percy Harvin can do for a full season if he’s healthy?

The first recruiting class of Husky football coach Chris Petersen wasn’t highly rated but the coach landed six in-state recruits, including the two best in Bellevue’s Budda Baker and 6-8, 285-pound lineman Kaleb McGary from Fife. That’s huge. Baker, a defensive back, will likely return punts and kickoffs and don’t be surprised to see him on offense, too. I’d envision the Huskies using him on fly sweeps and in other situations where they can take advantage of his electrifying talents.

Willie Bloomquist wore No. 16 the first time around with the Mariners. It wasn’t his choice. The South Kitsap grad was assigned the number when he was brought up at the end of the 2002 season. He wore No. 18 in Arizona, but that number was already taken by Hisashi Iwakuma, so he settled on No. 8 for his second tour of duty.

Speaking of Iwakuma, let’s not go to sleep on this guy. Based on last year, you could make the argument that he could be Seattle’s best pitcher. Yes, even better than Felix Hernandez. Iwakuma was 14-6 in 219.2 innings with a 2.66 ERA and 1.01 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched). Hernandez was 11-10 in 204.1 innings with a 3.04 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP.

The Alex Rodriguez circus won’t be doing business this year. A-Rod dropped his lawsuits against MLB and the players’ union. It’s pretty much an admittance of guilt. Now the only question is: Will he come back to play in 2015? He’s got to sit out 211 games, so he would be eligible to join the Yankees sometime in May of ’15. He’ll be 39, but there will be plenty of incentive. Rodriguez is scheduled to earn $61 million for the 2015-2017 seasons. 

Congratulations to the Bremerton Knights for winning a Class 2A state bowling title, and good luck to the rest of the local prep athletes and teams as they head into the postseason.

I jumped the gun on that last one. Bremerton leads the state bowling tournament after the first day. Good luck Knights! Same for the rest of our teams and athletes who will be starting the postseason in the near future.

 

 

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