The South Kitsap Wolves have stolen a page from the highly-successful Bellevue Wolverines, the state football powerhouse that has won 10 Class 3A state football championships and been recognized as one of the premier programs in the country.
Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff has been bringing the Wolverines to Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend for a week-long camp since 2002.
South Kitsap coach Eric Canton has his Wolves at Fort Worden this week. They arrived Sunday afternoon and will leave Wednesday. I spent a good part of the day with the Wolves on Monday observing and talking to coaches and players. You can read the story on Sunday.
Quick hits
Dave Villwock retired as a driver, but the all-time winningest pilot in hydroplane history didn’t take long to find a team to work with. He’s working with the Beacon Plumbing team and will be in Seattle for the Seafair races this weekend.. It’s not quite as well funded as some of his past teams.
“Right now we’re using an old propellor that I think was used to hold a door open,” Villwock told the Tri-City Herald at last weekend’s races in Pasco. “But I think Bill Cahill (the owner of Beacon Plumbing) wants to commit more money.”
So wide receiver Percy Harvin is going to have surgery to repair his injured hip, and there’s no timetable for his return. Not only was he supposed to be a big part of the Seattle Seahawks’ offense, but he was expected to return kicks, which is why Leon Washington is no longer with the Hawks. Leon signed with the Patriots. He’s going to be a tough guy to replace. He also returned punts and was a threat to take it to the house every time he touched the ball. WR Golden Tate and cornerback Walter Thurmond are two potential candidates to handle return duties.
The Washington Huskies kicked defensive end Pio Vituvei off the team for violating team rules, coach Steve Sarkisian announced on Tuesday. Vituvei was a sophomore who played in nine games as a true freshman.
Which brings me to John McGrath’s column on how Sarkisian has handled the Austin Seferian-Jenkins situation. The Tacoma News Tribune columnist thinks he should have made a decision one way or the other a long time ago. He writes:
“For somebody who wants his team to hurry up in every phase, Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian is setting a curious example. There’s an issue he must resolve, and he’s plodding over it at the approximate speed of a grocery-store line on Thanksgiving Eve.”
SK senior Logan Knowles, one of the top all-around athletes in the area, visited the Naval Academy in January and could end up playing baseball for the Middies. It’s not a done deal, but he’s leaning in that direction, said his dad, Mark Knowles, the affable Gold Mountain Golf Club pro. Logan Knowles shared backup quarterback duties with Cooper Canton a year ago, but has been moved to wide receiver on offense. He’s also a returning starter in the secondary. Knowles was one of the unsung heroes for the South Kitsap baseball team that reached the Class 4A title game a year ago.
New West Coast League president Dennis Koho was a visitor at the Kitsap BlueJackets game on Monday night. Koho headed to Wenatchee on Tuesday to complete his goal of visiting all 11 WCL teams. I talked to Koho via phone and met him briefly at the ballpark. Koho, the WCL and the BlueJackets will be the subject of my Thursday column.
Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf and other U.S. bobsled drivers will compete from the driver push bar in a competition on Friday, August 2, in Calgary. Coaches will select driver and push athlete combinations based on results for a series of race-offs on Saturday. Elana Meyers and Nick Cunningham are the respective women’s and men’s defending champions in the driver push category. The U.S. National Push Championships is the first official competition of the 2013-2014 season. The next step in team selections will be a series of races on the Lake Placid, N.Y. and Park City, Utah tracks in October. Schaaf, an Olympian who finished fifth at the 2010 Games, is trying to fight her way back on the team. She had hip surgery to repair a torn labrum and wasn’t fully recovered this time a year ago.
South Kitsap grad Brady Steiger got his first professional hit on Tuesday (July 30) for the Gulf Coast League Yankees. The former Lewis-Clark State star, a second-team NAIA All-American, recently signed with the Yankees while playing for the Seattle Studs. He saw his first game action on Tuesday. He was the designated hitter and went 1-for-5.
Silverdale’s Erynne Lee will tee it up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Aug. 5-11 at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.). Lee, a junior-to-be at UCLA, earned an exemption after being a member of 2012 USA World Amateur Team, a member of 2013 USA Copa de las Americas Team and a quarterfinalist at last year’s Women’s Amateur. Lee’s been a semifinalist (2008) and medalist (2010) of this tournament, in addition to reaching the quarterfinals three times.
