“Because of a game-day problem, some of the Port Angeles High School gymnasium lights were at their usual brightness Friday evening, while others were noticeably dimmer. One basket was bathed in intense light, while the other sat almost in shadow, and other parts of the court had different degrees of illumination.The lighting served as a symbol for the game itself, as the Roughriders played with an incandescent attitude in downing the Spartan girls’ basketball team, 62-45.With the support of a nearly full house, Port Angeles worked their offense effectively while a tight defense never let the Spartans get into any kind of a rhythm. “
“The girls’ basketball team played 27 fairly ordinary minutes on Friday against visiting Sequim. They also played five minutes of very extraordinary basketball en route to a 63-50 win that maintained their undefeated Olympic League record.Midway through the opening quarter the score was a modest 6-6.For the rest of the quarter and the beginning of the second, Bainbridge nearly caused the scorekeeper to develop carpal tunnel syndrome keeping up with the onslaught of Spartan hoops. Nearly every shot went in, nearly every pass threaded its way through the Wolves’ defense to find an open shooter, nearly every rebound ended up in Spartan hands, and the few shots the Wolves got off in the face of a smothering defense caromed off the rim or missed it altogether. “
“The Spartans grapplers lost to perennial power Central Kitsap by a much-closer-than-expected 44-32 Thursday, in what coach Steve Hohl termed a good outing.Were not for the illness of seniors Travis Dever and Mike Roe and the by now customary heavyweight forfeit, the score could easily have been reversed. “
“Spartan wrestlers led Mercer Island by a single point, 197-196, going into the finals at Saturday’s Island Invitational tournament.But the Islanders’ five finalists produced three wins to take home the first place trophy by a 10-point margin, 212 to 202. Still, second place represented the Spartans’ best finish in five years. “
“The boys’ swim team returned to action by defeating both Central Kitsap/ Klahowya and Olympic in a double dual meet Thursday, winning 129-56 against CK and swamping the Trojans 132-26.Most of the events represented 1-2-3 Spartan sweeps, and in numerous cases the visitors entered only one or two swimmers.It was nice to have some of our swimmers back in the water after they were missing due to vacations or illness, coach Lynn Wells said.The one truly competitive event was diving, with Spartans Zander Burmer and Kris Ley competing against two seasoned CK divers. “
“There’s this kid named Ryan, who lives in Renton. Good-looking kid, nice smile, seems like he might be a little shy. Loves snowboarding, seen The Matrix a few times, watches The Simpsons regularly. Sounds pretty normal. Except for one thing…About this time a decade ago, Santa brought him a lump of coal. He was diagnosed with leukemia. He was all of 8 years old.Four years ago, Santa was a little kinder. Ryan received a bone marrow transplant and his disease went into remission.And two years ago, island insurance broker Andy Kosick looked like the sort of guy you’d consider asking to be Santa at your office Christmas party. No more. Kosick has lost 45 pounds as the result of cycling 6,500 miles since then and has had to re-stock his closet.Nowadays, he says, If I don’t do at least a Chilly Hilly when I go for a ride, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything.And on Nov. 18, Kosick did a lot more than a Chilly Hilly; he joined 77 other riders from the Puget Sound area, including islander Gloria Satur, and hundreds more nationwide who rode under the banner of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America. “
“For most people, fun is something you do that produces maximum pleasure with minimum pain.For Bainbridge residents Kathy Cole and Lisa Lund, along with former islander Laurie Leonetti, fun was competing in the Isuzu Ironman Florida Triathlon on Nov. 4. The Ironman began as a bar bet some years ago, to serve as a means of pushing human endurance to the limits. It became famous soon afterward when TV cameras captured the stark image of the woman who had led throughout the entire race collapsing within sight of the finish and crawling agonizingly on her hands and knees as another woman passed her. The race has expanded from its original setting in Hawaii to a number of sites worldwide, and the distances have become standardized and as carefully calibrated as any Immunex researcher’s experimental data: “
“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. “
