“Sometime later this month, BHS senior Chris Shaffer will throw his final pitch in a Spartan baseball uniform. It might also mark his final mound appearance in organized baseball, as he’s discussed the college baseball experience with last year’s standout pitchers Jamie Hawkins and Thomas Henshaw.They’re doing a lot more than they ever did here, he says. They spend a lot of time in the weight room and conditioning. It’s really a big step up. And Taylor Childress (BHS ’99) pitched a year or two for Vanderbilt, then he gave it up.So it might be time to focus on studying and my career, says Shaffer. “
“The high hurdles, the opening event of Friday’s three-way track meet with visiting Central Kitsap and Port Angeles, set the tone for what would follow. CK swept the boys hurdles en route to scoring 68 points to Port Angeles’ 61 and Bainbridge’s 52.Melissa Borgen ran 17.0 into a headwind to win the event for Bainbridge, but Port Angeles’ superior depth – the Roughriders took third and fourth – foreshadowed the team outcome. Both the Spartans and Roughriders won nine events, but Port Angeles scored more of the crucial seconds, thirds and fourths to top the Spartans 98.5 to 71. The Cougars were far in arrears with 19.5. The exception was the 400 and 800. Becca Ivey won both races (60.5 and 2:33.2) with her sister Veronica third in the 400 (62.5) and Kari Jensen fourth (65.4). In the 800, Veronica moved from fifth at 500 meters to finish second (2:35.1). Becca Ivey also anchored the winning 4×400 relay (4:28.7).Other Spartan highlights: “
“The Spartan tennis team bounced back from Monday’s narrow loss at Port Angeles to defeat Bremerton, its other primary Olympic League rival, 5-2 on Wednesday.P.A. wasn’t the end of the world, coach Mike Anderson said. The kids all have great attitudes, very positive and mature. They can accept losing, but they still want to compete.All three doubles teams played well today. I’m very happy with them.Jessica Antilla and Kristen Carmel set the tone with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph in girls’ doubles. They’re going to make a run at state, so they’ll be playing together as much as possible, Anderson said, particularly with the remaining schedule consisting of teams whom the Spartans have already beaten.Trenton Gibbons and Pat Bradshaw had little difficulty in winning boys’ doubles, 6-1, 6-1. And with the spectators sometimes sounding more like a football crowd with its loud chants, Will Storch and Anna-Lisa Breiland won mixed doubles, 6-1, 6-0.Sam Marshall easily won No. 2 boys’ singles 6-0, 6-1, and Maggie Vick came from behind to win No. 2 girls’ singles 7-5, 6-3.Maggie’s been playing well, Anderson said, noting that she has also won several junior tournaments. “
“Spartan errors on three ground balls that could have ended the sixth inning led to five North Kitsap runs, and a 7-2 loss that ended the BHS baseball team’s seven-game league winning streak Friday.The Spartan nine played Olympic League-leading Vikings even for five innings on the strength of Chris Shaffer’s pitching and Simon Pollack’s clutch two-out, two-strike single in the second inning to drive in two runs. But in the bottom of the sixth, with the score knotted at 2-2, the Vikings opened with two singles, tallying five runs on the string of field miscues. “
“Island residents Roy Manuel and Maureen Bydalek each won Best Overall at Saturday’s Vancouver (Wash.) Natural Classic bodybuilding competition, topping a field of 130. They also qualified for two national championships in July.The day began early for Manuel, 29, the Bainbridge Human Performance Center’s physiology manager, and Bydalek, 38, a contract personal trainer who normally works with her clients at the HPC.First we have a morning prep time, Manuel said. We pump up, warm up, and oil up. That readies them for pre-judging, a series of quarter turns and mandatory poses which take muscle mass, symmetry, shape, definition and presentation into consideration. Competitors are scored against everyone else in their division. “
“An article in last week’s Seattle Times evaluated Bainbridge’s entry into the Metro League next fall:If any Bainbridge kid wins a sprint championship in track this spring, take a picture. It could be years before it happens again.This dose of dis was a tough pill for Spartan senior track co-captain Luke Preble to swallow.If I had been in Metro, I would have made it to state in at least one event every year since I was a freshman, based on district qualifying times, Preble says. I have been surprised at how easy it is to get to state in Metro compared to the West Central District, which we are in now. “
“When Elizabeth Bailey, a BHS junior, launched herself off a trampoline last summer at a swim team get-together, she had no idea she was about to launch a new island club. She landed awkwardly, broke her thumb, and had to bypass the season because her cast prevented her from entering the water.So she began hanging around the Lake Washington Rowing Club. Pulling an oar put no strain on her thumb or the cast.She enjoyed it so much that she and Kacy Hamilton – who had previous experience with Lakeside School’s summer program at Pocock Rowing Center – put a notice in the school paper to see if any of their fellow students might be interested in starting a similar group. “
“Brooke Hilton will make one college fastpitch coach’s day. And disappoint at least three others.Friday is the first day that high school seniors can sign with colleges. And Hilton has narrowed the field to the University of San Diego, University of Southern Virginia, New Jersey’s Rider University, and Towson College (Maryland).While all would involve considerable travel, that’s nothing new to the peripatetic Hilton, who has lived in 10 different states.Most recent was Utah before her family moved here during her junior year so her father could take a job with clothing maker Cutter and Buck.During the myriad changes in locales, fastpitch has been a constant in her life. “
“The Bainbridge fastpitch team dug itself a three-run hole against North Kitsap Friday, en route to a 4-0 defeat in their first action in nearly a week and a half.The first inning was bad, said coach Steve Nelson. Then we settled down and played good ball.Nelson is familiar with most of the Viking players because of their mutual affiliation with the Kitsap Angels, an elite fastpitch team that also includes several Spartans. So he knew his team would have to play a solid game to compete and was heartened by their defense after that inning.Pitcher Brooke Hilton struck out six and Bainbridge recorded four 1-2-3 innings. Right fielder Chelsea Magraw and catcher Amanda Perna combined for the defensive play of the game in the fifth inning when the Vikings loaded the bases with none out. “
“The Spartan soccer team took a page from Shakespeare in their 3-2 win at Port Townsend on Thursday – taking Macbeth’s So fair and foul a day I have not seen literally.Fair was Bobby Lee deliberately missing a penalty kick because he felt that the linesman’s call awarding him the wide-open opportunity was in error.Foul came with 20 minutes left in the game, when a Spartan mistook a baseball foul line for the soccer out-of-bounds line, stopped in his tracks to turn the ball over to the Redskins, and loudly uttered a well-known expletive that resulted in a red card and his immediate ejection. “
“It may not be obvious to late afternoon ferry commuters who glance at the fleet of tiny sailboats tacking back and forth in Eagle Harbor. But the Bainbridge sailing team is actually practicing tactical maneuvers that make even the most complicated NFL scheme look like kids drawing plays in the dirt with their fingertips.That’s because one of the two types of races they enter – team racing – isn’t necessarily to the swift or the strong but to the clever. Both of the two schools enter three boats, each with a skipper and crew member. The winning boat in each race scores one point, second place two, and so forth. “
“The depth that tennis coach Mike Anderson spoke of before the season was evident on Thursday, as he split his team and still easily defeated both Central Kitsap (6-1) and Port Townsend (5-2).Elliot Beam, undefeated last year in singles play until the state championships, lost his opener to CK’s Scott Durday, himself a ranked player, 7-6, 6-3.Elliot’s not used to playing outside on slower courts, Anderson said. But this is a good one to build on. And he’ll play Durday again later. This is still early in the year. “
” An experienced core of state meet veterans forms the nucleus of one of the largest-ever turnouts for track, giving rise to optimism that this year’s team will win many of its dual meets.New head coach Andy Grimm replaces Richard Christopher.Grimm is quick to emphasize the contributions of his two paid assistants, Jim West and Dean Tarbill, plus four volunteers: Pat Logan, Sarah Dunstan, Steph Miller and Charlie Hamilton.The staff is working with more than 80 athletes.Team-wise, the girls are very strong, says Grimm. We’ll score in every event.Because the unaccustomed depth is primarily comprised of freshmen, sophomores and juniors, prospects for future years are appealing as well. “