After he gathered his winning team for a photo session for their parents, coach Don French asked his players who was the number one team in the league.
“MARLINS!” was the response.
And who was the number one team in the tournament they had just won?
“MARLINS!”
They were right on both counts.
The Bainbridge Island Little League recently announced the members of its All-Star baseball and softball teams.
They started the season practicing in the rain, and fittingly, won in the rain as well.
The aptly named Storm defeated the Diamonds in the Bainbridge Major League softball championship game Monday at Strawberry Hill Park.
The Storm scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning and came away with an 8-7 victory over the Diamonds for the 11-12-year-olds championship.
After Meadowmeer dominated the early years of the Fred Schaffer Helpline House Memorial Golf Tournament, Wing Point has won the last three times and hopes to make it four in a row in the 11th annual edition on June 30.
The tournament, which matches the pros at Meadowmeer and Wing Point in a 36-hole best-ball format, raises several thousand dollars to benefit Helpline House. It was renamed several years ago to honor Fred Schaffer, former president of the Helpline Board.
One doesn’t normally regard marathon runners as a fertile field for recruiting potential crew members – let alone national title holders.
But 2001 BHS grad Evan Galloway – who ran the Christmas Marathon in Olympia as a junior, competed in the state cross country meet as a senior and logged personal bests of nine minutes, 55 seconds in the 3200 meters and 4:37 in the 1600 – rowed bow for the University of Washington fours-with-coxswain shell that won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship on June 1.
Once again demonstrating his knack for perfect timing, BHS baseball player Simon Pollack parlayed a three-for-six plate performance at the State Senior All-Star Games last weekend into an invitation to join the Washington State All-Stars in a doubleheader in Vancouver, Wash. on June 22 against a corresponding team from Oregon.
Give the coaches “a good pop,” said athletic director Neal White, summarizing Bainbridge’s first year in the Metro League.
“They had to make a lot of adjustments, playing teams they’d never seen before, scouting across the water. It takes a lot more time,” White said. “But our coaches care about their kids. They’re in it for all the right reasons – emphasizing discipline, a positive work ethic, motivation.
The Bainbridge Island Classic horse show, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend, can trace its origins to a tiny cubicle in a Seattle ad agency.
Shortly her 1981 graduation from the University of Colorado with a political science/journalism degree, Mollie Bogardus returned to her near-native Bainbridge (born in New York, she celebrated her first birthday here) and quickly found employment across the water.
But it hardly qualified as “gainful.”
Jesse Miller Rees and Rachel Wilson of the Bainbridge Island Golden Eagles track and field team each took a first place at the Washington State Special Olympics Championships last weekend at Fort Lewis.
BHS junior Tim Freeman set a school record in the 800 meter run for the second time in eight days, running 1:54.4 at the Oregon/Washington Meet of Champions on Sunday to break the mark he established at Star Track XX by nearly a second.
Filing out of the dugout early Friday evening after losing their second game at the state 3A fastpitch tournament at Tacoma’s South End Recreation Area, the Bainbridge Spartans were obviously disappointed that their stay wasn’t as long as they wanted it.
But Coach Steve Nelson looked at the upside as he contemplated the end of the season:
“It’s over, but it’s just the beginning.”
In a spring filled with outstanding performances by Spartan athletes, two individual efforts stand out.
Freshman Whitney Cheng nearly qualified for the state tennis tournament after playing No. 3 girls’ singles during the regular season, while senior Christy Lubovich improved her previous season’s time in the 3200 meters by more than minute and set a school record at the state meet.
Sarah Grue and Becca Ivey concluded their Spartan track careers by running outstanding legs in their fourth consecutive state appearance on the 4×400 meter relay.
They helped the team to a school record 4:02.16 clocking and fourth place finish in Saturday night’s finals at Star Track XX.
