“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. “
“Every member of the Bainbridge High School freshman football team went home with bellies full of pizza Tuesday night.Poor training program? Quite the opposite – the feed was a reward for a defensive touchdown scored in the midst of capping an undefeated 7-0 season with a 45-12 romp over Port Angeles Junior High School that afternoon.I’m told it’s the first time in 30 years a Bainbridge High School football team has gone undefeated, Bainbridge co-coach Sean Eaton said.Eaton, along with Sean Yarr, have guided the once-moribund eighth- and ninth-grade program to a 19-2 mark in the past three seasons. “
“Goodbye, Olympic League.Hello…?The Bainbridge High School athletic program, on the brink of being abandoned by the schools with which it has played everything but football and club sports for the past five seasons, is scrambling for membership in a new league in which to begin play for the fall 2001 sports season.Recent talk has centered on Seattle’s 13-school Metro League, but other possibilities are the Narrows and Pierce County leagues in the south Puget Sound region, as well as the Nisqually League, which includes most small schools around the Olympic Peninsula.There’s really no telling just how things will shake out at this point, Bainbridge athletic director Neal White said. We have to wait and see what everyone else is going to do first. “
“The Bainbridge High School boys’ water polo club had all the momentum they thought they needed heading into last weekend’s state tournament.Unfortunely, the first two teams they played had even more.Team Ray dropped its first two games, to defending state champion Sammamish Friday and league foe Wilson Saturday, before rebounding to top Roosevelt and Rogers for a ninth-place finish at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. “
“Suzanne Replinger has been one of the Bainbridge High School girls’ soccer team’s top scorers the past three seasons.So she was understandably frustrated and puzzled with her inability to punch the ball into the back of net for most of Thursday’s loser-out playoff contest at North Mason.Time and time again, the senior striker came up short. In the first 14 minutes alone, she missed a point-blank blast after the ball popped loose from the Bulldog keeper’s hands from a teammate’s shot. She punched another, deeper drive high and wide over the crossbar. She seared yet another shot just wide right on a high-step strike.Finally, 20 minutes into the first half, she hit the bench in favor of a substitute, muttering darkly about a moving goal.I was really frustrated, she said. All those shots were goals I knew I could have gotten.By the second half, however, Replinger had regained her composure – and eventually, her luck. Just six minutes after booming another open shot high and wide, she took a perfect lead pass from junior Lindsay Carlson one step ahead of a North Mason defender and drilled a laser beam of a left cross into the back of the net with 12:01 left to play. “
“The Bainbridge High School volleyball team has been a squad of strong starts and fantastic finishes.What happens in between, however, has been a source of worry for the Spartans – and a source of strength for scouting opponents.Nowhere was that more evident than in Bainbridge’s straight-set, 15-6, 15-10, 15-10 victory in a sub-district playoff qualifying match at Lakes of Tacoma Tuesday night.On the one hand, you don’t want to quibble too much with a few soft spots in the midst of a sweep. On the other hand, the deeper the Spartans go into the West Central District playoffs – starting today with early afternoon contests against Washington and Fife at Fife – you can argue that better teams will better exploit those soft spots. “
“There was a little bit of everything in the Bainbridge High School girls’ swim-and-dive team’s West Central District meet victory last weekend.There was drama. There was heartbreak. There was controversy.Almost lost in all of that was the victory – and what a victory it was, as the Spartans more than doubled the points scored by their next-closest competitor, host Lakes of Tacoma, 452 to 221, over the two-day event.The showing put Bainbridge in prime position to push toward a teamwide 3A state championship.There was a mix of everything, Bainbridge coach Greg Colby said. Hopefully, it work up the girls to the intensity, the whole range of things that can happen at a championship meet. “
“Oh, so close.The pressure was all on Olympic League leader Sequim before their regular-season finale against the Bainbridge High School girls’ volleyball team. And then the Spartans gave them – almost – more than they could handle.The Wolves, needing a win to take the league title from Central Kitsap, prevailed in a Thursday night thriller on Bainbridge’s home court, walking a tightrope until the final point in a 14-16, 15-9, 15-6, 9-15, 16-14 triumph.Despite the loss, Bainbridge (7-7) earned a loser-out playoff game Tuesday by virtue of being the second-place 3A team in the league. The winner advances to the 3A West Central District tournament. “
“Call it the Senior Farewell Effect.Fueled by an emotional pre-game farewell ceremony for the Bainbridge High School girls’ soccer team’s eight departing seniors – Maegen Beattie, Alice Bischoff, Anna-Lisa Breiland, Lisa Earnest, Sarah Fowler, Lauren Hume, Suzanne Replinger and Courtney Walker – the Spartans took some much-needed momentum into next week’s playoffs with a sparkling 1-0 victory against North Kitsap on Thursday night.Coupled with Bainbridge’s 3-2 win over Bremerton Tuesday, the Spartans ended their regular season with an 8-6-2 record, good for 23 points and fifth place in the Olympic League, heading into next Thursday’s 7 p.m. West Central District loser-out postseason contest at North Mason.I was so nervous, said Replinger, admitting to the Farewell Effect. But it had to happen like this. It’s the pride. “
“The Bainbridge High School girls’ soccer team staggered to the end of a stacked-schedule week on a winning note, punching out punchless Port Townsend, 3-0, in Olympic League action Saturday.The game, which more closely resembled a practice, concluded a schedule stretch in which the Spartans played four league games – twice the usual number – in addition to the slate of select-level games that most of the team’s members play on weekends.With the win, Bainbridge finished the stretch with a 1-2-1 mark, and entered last night’s contest against Bremerton with an overall ledger of 6-6-2 for 20 points. That firmly ensconces the team in fifth place among the league’s nine teams.While only the top four squads advance directly to West Central District play, Bainbridge will have a shot at an at-large berth early next week by virtue of being the top 3A school in district (Sequim, a 1-13 team, is the only other 3A school in the league). “
“Good defense.The offense, you ask?Welllllllll ….Did we mention the good defense in the Bainbridge High School football team’s 21-7 loss at White River last Friday night?Bainbridge kept the Hornets, one of the Pierce County League top-drawer teams, in offensive check all night in Buckley. The team forced three turnovers, and harassed the pass-happy opponents into a 50 percent passing night.Offensively, neither team could get much going, and I think the field conditions had a little something to do with that, assistant coach Jake Haley said. But defensively, we were solid all the way through.On offense, following a fumbled opening kickoff and Hornet score, Bainbridge got untracked early, capping a 90-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown burst by junior Kenny Walker. White River (6-1) got 14 points of their own in the opening frame, and the rest of the contest settled into a near-standstill. “
“One wonders what grudge this season’s schedule-makers might have had against the Bainbridge High School girls’ soccer team.What else would account for a week in which the Spartans’ sedate two-game-a-week slate was disrupted with four contests in six days?And that’s not even counting the select and premier level games that most members of the Bainbridge squad play on Saturdays and Sundays.Fortunately, after the Spartans sagged in the middle of that schedule with back-to-back losses Tuesday and Thursday to top-tier 4A rivals Central Kitsap and Olympic, they’ll cap their marathon march with a 1 p.m. contest against 2A pushover Port Townsend.The losses, on the heels of a surprise 2-2 tie on Olympic League leader Port Angeles’ home pitch, left Bainbridge with a 5-6-2 overall mark and 17 points – 10 points shy of fourth-place North Kitsap.The disparity, coming with just two regular-season games remaining after today’s tilt, virtually ensures that the Spartans will have to play a sub-district qualifying contest against a Pierce County League opponent in order to gain entry to the West Central District playoff tournament, scheduled for Nov. 2 and 3.To be ready for play of that caliber, the Spartans hope to be rested and ready to play the best soccer they know how. And that, it would seem, can only be accomplished by limping through what’s left of this week intact. “
