Wide World of Kitsap Sports

Spending the 2011 Premier Development League season as an assistant coach for the Kitsap Pumas, Dustyn Brim is ready to take the field again.
Kitsap coach James Ritchie said Friday that Brim has signed a contract with club for the 2012 season. The defending PDL champion Pumas begin play May 4 at Vancouver.
“We’re very, very excited to get him back,” Ritchie said. “We think he’s a top class goalkeeper.”
Brim, who was one of the first players to sign with Kitsap when the Pumas joined the PDL in 2009, served as the team’s starting goalkeeper his first two seasons.
Two back surgeries forced him out of action last year. He served as an assistant coach, along with Ritchie and Justin Stoddard. Brim is also head coach for Kitsap’s indoor soccer team.

Bremerton Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian was featured in a story by Henry J. Cordes of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald Wednesday.

Here’s the link to the story.

Omaha will again host the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, June 25-July 2. It’s the same venue where Adrian earned a spot on the 2008 Olympic team and won a gold medal in Beijing as a member of the 400 free relay preliminary team.

Talked with Kitsap Pumas owner Robin Waite and head coach James Ritchie today, and both said the team is in the process of signing players for the upcoming Premier Development League season.

Ritchie said several players have signed contracts and paperwork has been sent to the United Soccer Leagues. As soon as the paperwork is approved, the team will be able to announce the signings. That could come as early as Friday.

If and when I find out about these signings, I’ll let everyone know.

That’s right. The Kitsap Pumas will play one game at the home of the Tacoma Rainiers — Cheney Stadium — on June 15 against the Sounders U23s (formerly Tacoma Tide). Here’s a link to the story.

Erynne Lee hasn’t won any tournaments in her freshman year at UCLA.
That doesn’t mean the golfer from Silverdale hasn’t found success for the top-ranked Bruins. In fact, she’s been one of the team’s most consistent players.

Following her third-place finish at last week’s Blue Wave Invitational in Tarzana, Calif., Lee now has placed third in her last three collegiate tournaments. She also took third at the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge and the Arizona Wildcat Invitational in February.

Lee has been UCLA’s top finisher in four of the team’s past five tournaments.

I asked myself the following question when I discovered the website for the All-American Golf Tour:

What the HECK is the All-American Golf Tour?

First of all, it’s not just for American players. It’s a mini-tour based in Arizona that is focused on player development. Think of it as the Nationwide Tour for the Nationwide Tour. Winners of All-American Golf Tour events (usually 54 holes) often earn sponsorship exemptions to the Nationwide, which is considered a proving ground for golfers looking to one day play on the PGA Tour.

If you think it’s a tour for scrubs, think again. I see at least three former University of Washington standouts on the money lists (Nick Taylor, Darren Wallace, Zach Bixler). Former Washington state prep standout Andrew Putnam, who went to Pepperdine) is also on there. Taylor has won over $11,000 (5th on the money list) and has cashed in all 10 of the events he’s played in, winning once.

The Kitsap Pumas have a bunch of positions to fill before the start of the 2012 season — including one in their Bremerton office.

The club is looking for some part-time clerical/administrative help. For more information, contact the team at 360-377-6008. Kitsap owner Robin Waite said on Wednesday that he’s got some good leads for the position, so don’t wait too long.

We knew that the Kitsap Pumas were going to look quite different in 2012 after winning the PDL title last summer. Some players have joined upper-level teams, others have moved out of the area or called it a career.

One player the club hopes will make a return is left back Mark Lee. The defender has been a mainstay in the lineup for three years. But here is a report from goalWA.net talking about Lee trying out for the Sounders U23s (formerly the Tacoma Tide).

Could the Pumas be losing one of their top players to their Northwest Division rivals? Very interesting….

Fresh off his first-place finish at the Pac-12 wrestling tournament, South Kitsap graduate Brent Chriswell is preparing for next week’s NCAA championships in St. Louis. Here are the brackets for the tournament, which begins Thursday.

Athree-time Pac-12 champion and junior at Boise State, Chriswell is up against Oklahoma State’s Cayle Byers — the No. 5 seed at 197 pounds — in the first round.

Chriswell has been to nationals twice before. He didn’t place in his freshman season at Arizona State, then took sixth in his sophomore campaign at Boise State.

I asked Chriswell, a two-time state champion at South Kitsap, if he gets nervous for big-time events like these. After all, going to nationals is like a kid from Washington going to the Tacoma Dome in high school. He said nerves aren’t part of the equation for him anymore.

“For me, that awe has been long gone,” he said. “It’s just another tournament.”

Meant to get this up here yesterday, but alas, the day got away from me. Here is a link to the new Kitsap Pumas website. As you’ll find, it’s still a little bit under construction, but definitely more informative and up-to-date than the old website, which I’m pretty sure had some story on their announcing that the Pumas play at Bremerton Memorial Stadium (you know, their home for the past three seasons).

I talked with Pumas coach James Ritchie for just a few minutes today, but he did say the club could start making some signings within the next 7-10 days. I’ll keep you posted.