This week's prep sports news from Washington:
1. Pink whistles may bring retribution: Dozens of football officials used pink whistles Thursday night in support of breast cancer awareness. They donated their game checks to Susan G. Kormen for the cure. The commissioner of the Washington Officials Association said they didn't ask for permission to use the whistles. "It sends the wrong message to the kids that are playing the game," Todd Stordahl told KING-TV, "'If they broke the rules, why can't I do the same?'" Stordahl said the officials could be kept out of a game as punishment, costing the officials two game checks.
2. KingCo title games coming up: The KingCo Conference, arguably the state's top football league, is deciding its champions this week. No. 1
Skyline (Sammamish) (7-1), which won the Crown Division, will face No. 4
Bothell (7-1), which won the Crest Division, for the Class 4A title on Friday. In the Class 3A/2A league, No. 1
Bellevue (7-1, 6-0) can win the title outright by beating No. 7
Liberty (Renton) (7-1, 5-1). If Liberty wins, there could be a three-way tie with
Juanita (Kirkland) (7-1, 6-1).
3. ATM rolls in small-school showdown: Archbishop Murphy (Everett), ranked No. 1 in the Class 2A poll, outclassed King's of Shoreline, No. 3 in the 1A poll, with a 49-0 win. King's had only 57 total yards, and ATM took advantage of two blocked punts, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.
4. Garfield program on probation until 2012: The use of ineligible players in a Sept. 10 football win over Sammamish has had a far-reaching impact on Garfield of Seattle. The team had to forfeit a game, football coach Anthony Kelly resigned and athletic director Jim Valiere was put on administrative leave and he told the Seattle Times he believes he's been fired.The football team is not eligible for the postseason in this season or next and the entire athletic department is on probation until Sept. 2012.
Gonzaga Prep's Bishop Sankey.
Photo by Tom Lemming
running back
Bishop Sankey rushed for 359 yards and five touchdowns in a win over Mead. He has the Greater Spokane League career rushing record (which is now 4,141 yards) and he's closing in on the single-season record (2,318). Sankey has 2,175 yards and 35 touchdowns through eight games. With a playoff run, Sankey could take a shot at the state's single-season record of 2,676 set by Mathias Ward of Ferndale in 1997. The career record is 7,755 yards, set by Timberline's Jonathan Stewart, who is playing for the Carolina Panthers.
TOP 5 PERFORMERS*
Tyler Sundberg, Capital (Olympia) football: The senior running back, the school's career rushing leader, rushed for 328 yards and three touchdowns as the Cougars beat Timberline 44-0 to clinch the Narrows League 3A title.
* Lou Hecker, Kingston football: The senior running back had 280 yards and a touchdown on 44 carries as the Bucs clinched their first playoff berth with a 29-8 win over North Mason. Hecker has rushed for 574 yards and five touchdowns on 79 carries in the last two weeks.
* Austin Marshall, Bonney Lake football: The wide receiver caught four passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns in a 48-14 win over Enumclaw. Marshall has a South Puget Sound League 3A record of 18 touchdowns.
* Lawyer Tillman, North Thurston (Lacey) football: The senior running back rushed for 181 yards on five touchdowns on 27 carries. Tillman has scored 27 touchdowns this season.
* Marina Roberts, Kingston cross country: The junior runner won the Olympic League girls title. She was second last year behind her sister Ruby, who won the previous three league titles.
UPCOMING EVENTSWith football's regular season coming to end, there are plenty of big games. One of the bigger ones is a Spokane showdown pitting No. 3
Ferris (Spokane) (7-0) vs. Gonzaga Prep (6-1). Another key Class 2A game pits No.
Lynden (8-0) vs. No. 9
Anacortes. Also this week, the volleyball postseason kickoffs for many leagues. District cross country meets are also this week.
NATE'S NOTESHigh school sports in Washington could be headed for some bad press. See the first item in this story.
Suspending officials for supporting breast cancer research, which apparently the Washington Officials Association is considering, will not be taken well, nor should it be. This isn't a topic for somebody to take issue with. There's no downside, NONE, for what those officials did.
(By the way, could we, as a people, care about prostate cancer half as much?)
This could be as big a black eye on the state's prep sports scene as when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association forfeited eight of Archbishop Murphy's 10 wins in 2007, eliminating the Wildcats from the postseason. ATM used a player who had an expired physical, which was overlooked by coach and athletic director Terry Ennis, who was dying of cancer at the time. This story went national and even found itself on the radar of Rick Reilly, who was writing for Sports Illustrated. He referred to the WIAA as the world's "smallest-brained mammals."
You might want to avoid all that, WOA.
Nathan Joyce has covered high school sports in Washington for 13 years. He works for the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton.
