“Reflecting on the previous evening’s 67-61 win over Olympic, Spartan boys’ basketball coach Jeff Eller expressed a definite minority opinion Wednesday.It’s almost a shame to go on vacation now, Eller said, as the team headed into the holiday break away from school. We’re playing more and more as a team, he said. But the kids deserve a break. It’ll give them a chance to focus and come back for a great second half of the season. After a 1-3 start, the team is now 4-4 overall (4-2 league) with two straight wins. “
“Port Angeles won the two opening skirmishes in Friday’s swim meet, but the Spartans took seven of the remaining 10 events and used their superior depth to win the battle as they defeated the visiting Roughriders 104-77 to virtually sew up the Olympic League dual meet championship. “
Spartans Maurice Salanga and Brandon Nall were honored at a Saturday brunch by the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
“The start of the second half of Friday’s girls basketball game against Bremerton was symbolic.The Knights, totally unpressured, couldn’t get the ball inbounds and turned it over the the Spartans, who cruised to an easy 82-21 triumph and moved to 4-0 in Olympic League play. A power outage the following day in Port Townsend prevented the Spartans from improving that mark, as the scheduled game had to be postponed.Senior Emily Pierce led the team with 23 points, and added head wounds and floor burns to the usual statistical categories such as rebounds and assists as she was continually hacked and dived for loose balls.Her teammates fed off that energy as they never let up the pressure. Playing with a somewhat depleted bench – Laura Hornung broke her thumb on Tuesday against Port Angeles and is out four-six weeks, while newly added Angela Ashe and Natalie Berry didn’t have enough practice time to play – the Spartans demonstrated an ability to score almost at will against a team that tried hard but couldn’t begin to match their athleticism. “
“On the heels of two blowouts, Tuesday’s game against Port Angeles supplied the girls’ basketball team with its first real test since losing Alexis Kimball to a season-ending knee injury.The Spartans built a 14-point lead midway through the third quarter, lost all but three points of it, then sank nine free throws in the final minute to win 55-44 and hand the Riders their first defeat of the season.It was just a great game, coach Penny Gienger said. I was impressed with how well the girls carried out our game plan – denying threes and working hard on defense.I was also pleased that we didn’t panic when they got to within three points, Gienger said. We went back to basics and showed our toughness and reacted well to some new looks they were showing us. “
“Spartan swim senior co-captain Jeff Christensen recalls his freshman year, when the team numbered fewer than 20.Now there are 36 and a talented group of sophomores alone nearly equals that total from three years ago.It’s great to have all the events filled, Christensen said, noting that there is often keen competition for the three varsity spots in dual meets. Another indication of the team’s progress was the extremely narrow, 94-92 loss to perennial 4A power Marysville-Pilchuck earlier this month. North Kitsap also fielded a team in the triple dual meet, but the Vikings were never a factor. “
“In a 24-hour period last week, the Spartan wrestlers nearly matched last season’s total of three dual-meet victories. They bounced back from Thursday’s narrow loss to traditional wrestling power Sequim, overcoming Cedarcrest and thumping North Mason in a double dual Friday. Against Sequim, the Spartans were equal after four matches – with Alonzo Valenzuela’s pin at 112 pounds, and a forfeit at 119 – and won the next four to take a 32-12 lead. Though they dropped the next six to fall 39-32, that represented a huge improvement over last season, when they won just one match against the Wolves. And coach Steve Hohl said his own decisions – wrestling several competitors up a weight or two – might have been the deciding factor in the loss. “
“Early in the second quarter, with the Spartan girls’ basketball team playing well against 4A power South Kitsap, the unthinkable happened: Alexis Kimball went down with a serious knee injury.We played the rest of the second quarter in a state of shock, said coach Penny Gienger of the Friday mishap. Then at halftime, we settled down and fought like mad the rest of the way.But it wasn’t quite enough as the Wolves, leading 30-26 at the half, held off the Spartans to win 68-63. “
“The Spartan athletic program has been accepted by the AAA Metro League, the Bainbridge Island School District’s first choice.Metro public school members, looking at increased travel time and expense for teams playing Bainbridge, pondered before accepting the Spartans but ultimately gave the district the nod in a unanimous vote this week. “
“The family that fights together, stays together?In the case of the Hutchings clan, a case could definitely be made.Stephen and Patricia Hutchings and their four children – Victoria, 12, Stephanie, 9, Peter, 7, and Tracy, 5 – have found not only togetherness – but fun and triumph – in their joined activities in the burgeoning sport of Taekwando. “
“As the athletic programs around Bainbridge High School’s begin settling into new league realignments, the Spartans’ options for the same for next fall are starting to become more clear.This week, the scuttling of the Olympic League became all but official, as athletic directors and principals alike from both the Narrows and Nisqually leagues approved the absorbing of eight of the Olympic’ nine teams. “
“One-for-three is a good day in the sport of baseball. And for the Bainbridge Pee Wee youth football program, a one-for-three day will have to be seen in that same light as well.The Bainbridge B Gold squad salvaged an otherwise sober day for the island’s three teams during Saturday’s Kitsap County championship contests in sparkling style, staving off unbeaten Chico to take the title, 18-16.You guys beat the unbeatable, co-coach Todd Miller told his troops as they celebrated moments after the game’s end. Enjoy this – you’ll never know when you’ll get another chance. “
“Don’t let the explosive displays of effusive triumph at Saturday night’s 3A state girls’ swim-and-dive championships fool you in the slightest.The capture of Bainbridge High School’s sixth Washington state title in 14 years – 265 points to 220 for second-place archrival Bellevue – was a completely calculated act.In the days and weeks preceding the meet, members of the team worked closely with coach Greg Colby to pore over seeding sheets and compute their probable times in each event, converting them to probable points.By the time Friday’s preliminary heats were complete, the Spartans figured they would win the state title, less diving results – their first in 3A competition – with 256 points.And with the nine points Bainbridge received in diving at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, the night of near-perfection was satisfyingly complete.We knew exactly what we needed to do, said Colby, who received the only major surprise of the night when he was announced as the state 3A coach of the year. And these girls are talented and trained and dedicated enough that if they tell me they can go faster – as fast as they had to – then I had to believe them.Some people went up, some people went down – but the final number was right on. “