Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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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...
We are nearing another sports season change in the next week with spring sports officially beginning on February 26th in the state of Washington. The Washington State basketball tournament finals take place at three venues on February 28th and the champions crowned on March 2nd. So we go from indoor to outdoor and the first few weeks always seem to be a bit chilly. This is a time when a wide variety of athletes will perform. Baseball, softball, track, tennis and golf will be...
As the youngest of five I grew up with basketball, football and baseball. My older brothers taught me how to play and to take a few lumps along the way. I loved to play and work on my deficiencies to be a better player. I watched a lot of games as a youth and of course when my heroes lost I took it pretty hard. When it was my turn to play in high school I paid attention to the rule changes and it was interesting how many changes there were in the game of basketball. The idea...
It's kind of interesting when you watch championship games especially at the professional level and think that the players will be so focused and there won't be many mistakes. But mistakes were made and with dropped passes and penalties that allowed the offense to get a fresh set of downs and continue their march towards the goal line. In the AFC game Kansas City would make enough plays to get a lead and hold off the Baltimore Ravens. On one drive in the second half the...
I know the NFL playoffs are happening right now and we are down to four teams. There were some good games over the weekend and the AFC and NFC championship games should be really good. But today I want to get caught up with college basketball as the upsets are adding up with top 10 teams taking one on the chin. There are several polls that rate college basketball teams, both men and women and the competitiveness is intriguing. We have seen a bunch of upsets in the last few...
It is hard to fathom what all happened last week. We know that the UW Huskies were humbled by the Michigan Wolverines. I was looking forward to a good game. I started listening to the game when it was in the second quarter and the score was 17-3. I had other things going on at the time and when I got the game on the radio in my car it was a shock. The game was played on Wolverine terms and the Huskies could never get over the hump and get close enough to make it a good game. A...
