Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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Coaches and Managers at the professional level at least are basically hired on a temporary basis as firings are commonplace if things don’t go so well. Let’s face facts, it is much easier to fire a manager or coach than it is to fire the whole team. I know a few teams that a general manager put together and there was no way any head man could find success with the crew that went onto the field of play. Last Friday, Seattle Mariners’ General Manager Jerry Dipoto fired Manag...
The temperatures are beginning to be more reasonable which will be helpful for the start of high school football today (Wednesday). The weight rooms have been busy, hopefully, as athletes prepare for their fall camp practices. There is always a lot of anxiety and positivity especially if the returning team has a great deal of experience. There are always several schools that graduated much of their team and it is back to the drawing board about how to fill those key spots that...
A few days ago, I was thinking about a guy that had been hired at a place where I worked years ago. What is interesting about this guy is how he could involve himself in almost any conversation. It seems that this guy did it all. As we listened, it became quite clear that this guy had trouble keeping a job because he couldn’t tell the truth. This guy was in his early 30s, yet he had already driven over one million miles as a long-haul trucker. When someone asked what I did ove...
Growing up in the late '50s and '60s, we always had the radio on to listen to our favorite music on a Spokane Top 40 radio station. Whether it was after we got out of bed, getting ready for school, riding in the car or working in the shop, we were enjoying our favorite disc jockey's bantering, joking and introducing music the world was enjoying. Yes, we knew the names of the bands and songs, and we could sing along with the music and for the most part we were close to...
There are a lot of songs that were once quite popular but as time goes on the lyrics get lost on younger generations. In the song ‘Return to sender’ made popular by Elvis in the 50s there is a line that says, ‘no such number, no such zone.’ A zone was utilized in big cities which basically located the nearest postal facility. That was replaced by the Zip Code. Imagine the song rewritten: No such number, no such zip code. Harry Chapin had a hit song Taxi in 1972 that has a l...
Forgotten in the annals of time is the story about a farm kid from Ritzville that nearly made the Olympic track team. Walter “Spike” Arlt was an outstanding athlete at Ritzville High School and as a track hurdler he set a state record for the 120 yard high hurdles in 1956 his senior year. That mark still stands as an all-time Bronco track record since the 120 yard high hurdles is now the 110 Meter hurdles. Spike would go onto run track at WSU and in 1960 was selected as the...
I have met a lot of coaches and played for several. The ones I played for weren’t a lot older than me although I always treated them with respect even if I didn’t like them very much. Actually I only had one coach that I really didn’t like. There are a fair amount of coaches around my age like Pete Carroll, Nick Saban and Bill Belichick that are not coaching this year after highly successful careers. Has the game changed or the players? Money has certainly changed recru...
Years ago, I wrote a column about how our family used to celebrate the 4th of July. Today, it is important to talk about some of those great traditions, again. I can tell you Dad really liked fireworks. He wasn’t crazy into them, he just understood more than many the importance of Independence Day. So, late afternoon on July 3, Dad would drive us to Lind, where they had real cool fireworks for sale in an old gas station leading into town on Highway 21. The tradition was one w...
I sometimes think that I spend more time talking about sports figures that have died than just about anything else. That’s not the plan but as we get older…anyway we lost another great last week who made watching baseball and sports in general a lot of fun. Willie Mays, the New York and San Francisco Giant outfielder passed away at the age of 93. I watched several tributes and of course the words greatest baseball player of all time was part of the conversation. I think tha...
I find it interesting how we determine who our favorite players are. I know that as a young Dodger fan that lived in a home with other Dodger fans it was easy to have Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale as your go to favorites. But when it came to the NBA it was different in the 1960s. There weren’t a lot of college or even NBA games on TV. I know that today we have ESPN, TNT, ABC and may other ways of watching basketball games so a young fan can gravitate to watching g...
A couple of months ago I was asked by several 8th grade boys that I had the opportunity to coach the last two falls and winters if I would give the promotion address for their class. Now these are 14 year olds so I told them that if they were serious I would certainly do it. Well it turns out they were serious and now it was my turn to put together some words of wisdom. I also had the opportunity to substitute teach for these classes when they were in 6th and 7th grade so I...
It has been quite a year for the Pac 12 from football until the final baseball tournament that ended last week. The Arizona Wildcats defeated the USC Trojans 4-3 to earn the last Pac 12 title. Two days later on May 27th, Bill Walton passed away after a battle with cancer. Walton was a basketball announcer or more accurately a color commentator. And yes he was definitely colorful. Like most listeners, you either liked Walton or put your TV on mute when he would go off on a...
The NCAA basketball tournament ended the first week in April. The all-time leading scorer in NCAA history is Cailtlin Clark from the Iowa Hawkeyes. She and her teammates were runner ups to the National Champions two years in a row. Clark, the three point making machine was selected number one in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever Now because of Clark the ratings for the tournament semi-final and final were record setting. People wanted to watch her play. Some for her success...
Last Wednesday and Saturday Lind Ritzville High School hosted the state regional track meet at Jimmie Snider Field and our wonderful track. 1B and 2B teams from Districts 7 and 9 were at the event with top individuals and relay teams heading to the state meet at Eisenhower High School in Yakima this Friday and Saturday. Adam Dirks and I were at the triple jump on Wednesday and the long jump on Saturday. We manned the pit with the help of several high school track team members...
I can remember years ago when athletes were often called dumb jocks. Oh there were a few that struggled to stay eligible but for the most part players had to understand football or basketball plays, or baseball signals in order for the team to succeed. Our quarterbacks called the plays not like the coaches do today. We had to know the offense backwards and forwards and what we needed to do against this team’s defense which was different than last week’s defense. In bas...
It seems that every year there is an issue concerning coaches. By that I mean coaches decide to retire from coaching; coach another sport; take some time off; take a job in another district or fill in the blank reason. For colleges the transfer portal and NIL have definitely been part of the reasoning to move on from coaching especially guys like Roy Williams, Coach K from Duke and Nick Saban. Kids are looking at more money and more playing time because if they get more...
I sometimes think that I am way too busy at my age but that can also be my fault. When a person retires they are supposed to do this or do that but whatever you do don’t sit around and do nothing. So I’m at least not doing nothing. This was a much anticipated weekend for some time now with the Invitational track meet on Saturday but also the EWU spring football game on Friday. My buddy Kenny G. came to town on Friday and we drove to Cheney for a reception pre-football wit...
This is the time of year when Major League baseball is getting a real good start and the NBA and NHL playoffs are just getting started. For anyone that watched any games this weekend you would have seen the Mariners battle the Colorado Rockies with snowflakes falling. Friday’s game was postponed until a doubleheader could be played on Sunday. New York Yankee and Tampa Bay players were wearing cold weather head covering to protect their ears and noses. It looks funny but it i...
There have been a lot of changes in NCAA basketball. UConn won its second championship in a row — in case you forgot. Coaches moved to different challenges, replacing coaches who were fired or took a successful season and received a bigger paycheck somewhere else. I guess we could call it the coaching transfer portal. Eastern Washington University head Coach David Riley moved onto WSU. I like Riley, but I wish he hadn’t said this was his dream job because a lot of dream job...
By the time you read this you will know who the men’s NCAA basketball champion is. All I can say is that the two best teams are playing for the crown. I’ll watch as I always do because it’s the right thing to do. It was a great season and an interesting one. Whereas the women’s champion was undefeated the men’s’ teams stubbed their toes a few times, Purdue 4 times and UConn 3. It has been a long time since the men had an undefeated champion mainly due to talented rosters and...
I’ve always maintained that timing is everything. I wrote last week’s column and sent it off a few hours before WSU basketball coach Kyle Smith announced that he would be the next Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball coach. When I found out I thought that it wasn’t a step up as Stanford has had trouble winning and now they are going to the ACC to play the likes of North Carolina, Duke and this year’s tournament upstart North Carolina State. A few hours later when I was watch...
There are a ton of stories about the teams, players and coaches in the NCAA basketball tournament. There are family stories and stories of tragedy that can make a person cry. With the games there are upsets and blowouts and buzzer beaters. We all know that some of the players that had great tournaments will be on someone else’s roster next year. Coaches that had great seasons will be courted by bigger programs that weren’t happy with the person that is heading their pro...
I’m sure that many people who enjoy watching the NCAA basketball tournament really don’t watch many of the conference tournaments. For fans around here that watch Gonzaga and WSU your interests were in Las Vegas last week and the last game you watched ended in a loss for the men and also the GU women. The only local team to win their conference tournament was the EWU women. The Eagle ladies had and extraordinary season and will now take on Oregon State in Corvallis. Nice rew...
The college basketball season is nearing March Madness time. The Power 5 conferences ended their season last weekend and will move on to their conference tournament while many others have begun theirs or actually finished on Sunday. A lot of young kids had their dreams fulfilled and will now try to reach their next goal of winning a game in the NCAA tournament. While watching these tournament games most people won’t think about the recruiting phase for next season. Yes c...
For four days each year I plan to attend the State basketball tournament in Spokane. The tradition of going to the tournament started when my brother played in 1960. My dad took us to at least one day each year sometimes two if I could convince him that all of my school work was finished. I’m not sure if he cared about that so much as let’s go watch some basketball. I’ve had to get a ticket or a pass for every year except 1970 when our team made it to state and we got to play...