The 2011 Supercross season starts next month and Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto is one of the three or four best in the sport. But Ryan Dungey, the rookie who took advantage of injuries to Villopoto and James Stewart, is the guy to beat. Read the story here.
Here’s a profile of Dungey, featured in ESPN The Magazine as one of the breakthrough athletes poised to shine in 2011.
Bremerton’s Marvin Williams might not make Atlanta’s trip west because of a lower back injury he suffered during Wednesday’s game against Golden State. Read a report on his status here.
The Puget Sound Tomahawks (1-32) and head coach Jason Quinn parted ways over the holiday break, the team said on Wednesday. The new coach is Evgueni Saidachev. Saidachev has been with the Tomahawks as an assistant coach since November.
Puget Sound has a 1-32 record and sits in last place in the West Division of the Nor-Pac Junior A hockey league.
I will be working on a follow-up story so check back for more information at kitsapsun.com.
The Kitsap Pumas announced Monday that the club will host Port Vale Football Club in an international friendly on July 19 at Memorial Stadium in Bremerton. The English club will also play the North Sound Sea Wolves, Tacoma Tide and Victoria Highlanders of the USL’s Premier Development League during its tour. The Sea Wolves are a first-year team from Everett.
Here’s the press release from the Pumas:
Bremerton, Wash. – The Kitsap Soccer Club (Pumas) today
announced that it will host Port Vale Football Club, currently at
the very top of the English Second Division, for an international
“friendly” match July 19, 2010 at Bremerton Memorial Stadium. This
will mark the first time a major European club has visited this
community for a competitive match.
As part of Port Vale’s “Summer 2011 North American Tour,” it will also make other stops in the Pacific Northwest on July 12th 2011 for exhibition friendlies against the North Sound Sea Wolves (July 15), the Tacoma Tide (July 17) and Kitsap (July 19) before heading north to Canada playing the Victoria Highlanders (July 21.)
All four of Port Vale’s opponents compete in the Northwest Division (Western Conference) of the USL Premier Development League. The tour’s title sponsor has been announced as AMERITURF SYSTEMS (www.ameriturfsystems.com)
Port Vale Chairman, Bill Bratt, stated earlier today: “A pre-season tour is a vital part of our preparations for the new season and we will be looking forward to top quality training facilities and conditions as well as some excellent competitive games – while our focus will on the forthcoming season we also see this as a great opportunity to build relationships with our host clubs off the field of play and hope that we will be able to establish some long-term partnerships in this part of the world – the game is such a global game now and it is vital that we ensure that we make the very most of this exciting opportunity”
“This is a great opportunity to play a high-level English side and see how we measure up,” said Pumas owner Robin Waite, “This will also be very interesting to the local community – especially the youth and adult players.”
Tim Hollinger, President Ameriturf Systems explains, “the continued growth of soccer in North America has seen our business diversify dramatically over the last few years and we are dedicated to support local and international initiatives especially those encouraging the development of “the beautiful game” at grass-roots level as well as clubs who strive to impact upon at-risk and disadvantaged communities through the power of the sport – following on from our strategic partnerships in South America we are now excited at building a long term relationship with our new friends over the pond as well as those host clubs closer to home in Washington and across the border in British Columbia”
Port Vale formed in 1876 (around the time of the Gold Rush) have perhaps struck gold themselves as they will be touring North America for the first time in their 135-year history.
For more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Vale_F.C. http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/englishleague2/standings
“Bringing high-level international clubs to Kitsap has been a major objective for us since Day One,” said Kitsap Pumas executive director Ben Pecora. “This is a critical element in improving not only the play of our boys and the kids in our community, but these friendlies also provide a great chance to show our fans and the community as high a level of our sport as possible.”
Ticket pricing and on-sale dates will be announced shortly.
For further information, please visit the Pumas’ website or
call Ben Pecora at 360-377-6008.
Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian qualified for the 100-meter freestyle finals after finishing with the eighth fastest time on Saturday at the Short Course world championships in Dubai, UAE.
Adrian, who failed to make the finals in the 50 free and had a disappointing swim in the 400 free relay earlier this week, had the second-fastest time after the preliminary heats. His time of 46.66 seconds was just .04 behind France’s Fabian Gilot who set a course-record in 46.62.
In the semifinals, Adrian touched the wall in 46.99. Top seed Cesar Cielo of Brazil came back to break Gilot’s course record at 46.01. Alain Bernard of France also made the finals in 46.71. American Garrett Weber-Gale was 10th in 47.08 and did not make the finals.
Bremerton bobsledder Bree Schaaf slid to a fifth-place finish in a World Cup race at Lake Placid, N.Y. on Friday. Schaaf was fourth after the first run. Here’s a look at the final results. The race was a makeup for last week’s race that was cancelled in Park City, Utah. The regular stop at Lake Placid, the fourth race on the World Cup tour, will be held Saturday.
The Olympic High grad, no doubt, would have liked a higher finish, but her push times were more competitive with the leaders and that’s a good sign as she and partner Emily Azevedo, the brakeman from Chico, Calif., move forward.
Schaaf and Azevedo placed fifth at the 2010 Olympics held on the Whistler Slider Centre track in February. Schaaf ranked No. 9 in the world a year ago and was fifth heading into this weekend’s races.
There’s been speculation that Kitsap Pumas coach Peter Fewing
might be a candidate for men’s soccer coach at University of
Washington. The position became vacant Sunday following the
resignation of Dean Wurzberger.
The school said a national search for Wurzberger’s replacement
would begin immediately, and at least two Seattle news sources —
including Prost Amerika Soccer — say that Fewing could be a
candidate.
Several phone messages left for Fewing were unreturned.
UPDATE: Here’s a link to a Seattle Times column that says Fewing’s the right man for the UW job.
Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian failed to qualify for the finals of a major international event for the first time.
Adrian finished 11th after the 50 freestyle semifinals at the short course world championships in Dubai, UAE. Top eight move on to finals. Adrian, the defending 50 free champ and national champion, was the No. 1 qualifier to come out of the preliminaries with a time of 21.11 seconds. Adrian, who also holds the American record, swam a 21.35.
Brazil’s Cesar Cielo set a course-record in 20.61. American Josh Schneider beat out Australia’s Kyle Richardson for the eighth spot in 21.19 in a swim-off that determined the final entrant. Richardson touched the wall in 21.28. Both had a time of 21.29 in the semi-finals.
Adrian has one more individual event, the 100 freestyle, and would likely swim in another relay for the U.S.
Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian came back from a ‘bad swim’ to earn the No. 1 seed out of the preliminaries of the 50 freestyle at the Short Course world championships in Dubai, UAE, late Wednesday evening.
Adrian will swim in the semi-finals Thursday morning (local time). Adrian won his heat in 21.11 seconds, topping Fred Bousquet of France by .01 seconds (21.12).
Adrian swam the opening leg of the 400 free relay on the first day of the meet as the Americans finished out of medal contention and in fourth place for the first time since 2007.
“I had a bad swim,” Adrian said in a story by the Associated Press. “There’s really no reason I shouldn’t have been faster. The other guys put together good splits and I didn’t.”
Nathan Adrian and the U.S. 400 freestyle relay finished fourth on the first day of the world short course swimming championships in Dubai, UAE, late Tuesday night.
Adrian, who has been swimming the anchor leg, swam the opening leg but it was Alain Bernard of France who posted the fastest split at 46.78 seconds. Adrian touched the wall in 47.35.
The U.S. finished in a disappointing 3 minutes, 6.10 seconds. The French won in a course-record of 3:04.78, followed by Russia, 3:04.82 and Brazil, 3:05.74.
Up next will be the 50 freestyle for Adrian during the second day’s session Wednesday evening (Thursday morning in Dubai).
