Searching for tidbits for this week’s prep notebook, and stumbled across a few nuggets:
For example, it looks like the 3A state basketball tournaments will be staying in Seattle, even though attendance was slightly down this year from 2007.
However, the Seattle Times’ story on the tourneys’ future at KeyArena and Hec Ed discusses other options -- and why, so far, the WIAA isn’t considering them. One idea that appears to be a no-go -- moving the 2As back to Yakima.
This one might fall under unintended consequences -- Seattle is considering a $676 million overhaul of Seattle Center, which will affect the Seattle School District’s use of Memorial Stadium for high school sporting events such as football and soccer. While the city owns the property on which the stadium sits, the school district holds the deed in perpetuity. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
Here’s one from the Seattle Times that highlights the conflicts between club and high school boys soccer. I’ve always thought that this was a bigger conflict than there ever would be between prep football and soccer in the fall, and why boys soccer should be a fall sport -- same as girls soccer.
And here’s one that should be of interest to the baseball fans out there. A Mason County jury ruled that the North Mason School District wasn’t negligent when pitcher Jason Koenig threw approximately 425 pitches in a 16-day stretch of the 2001 season.
Koenig pitched in 14 of North Mason’s first 18 games of the 2001 season, including the stretch from April 11-27 when he threw in all five of the team’s games. After throwing 140 pitches in a nine-inning loss to Yelm on April 27, he didn’t pitch again because of injuries to his right shoulder and elbow.
The WIAA mandates that pitchers rest for two days if they pitch for more than three innings, but that’s it. Nothing about pitch counts.
Little League Baseball a couple of years ago changed its pitching rules, doing away with inning counts and going instead to pitch counts, figuring not all innings are built alike. A 10-year-old kid could labor through three innings, throw more than 100 pitches, and be allowed to pitch earlier than a 12-year-old who breezed through a six-inning game in 75 pitches.
Granted, 18-year-old seniors should be treated differently than 12-year-old Little Leaguers, but knowing what we know now about the stress younger arms experience throwing too many innings -- not throwing too much, such as long-toss and playing catch -- perhaps the WIAA should look into instituting pitch-count rather than inning requirements for mandatory rest. I’d love to hear feedback on that.
Speaking of feedback, I received some from Hermiston athletic officials regarding my blog about the hiring of Mark Hodges as the Bulldogs’ new football coach.
They make several valid points. For starters, coaches are not the school officials in charge of verifying academic eligibility -- athletic directors are, and Hodges should not be faulted for their failure to verify whether two players (later ruled ineligible by the state association) could play for Fernley (Nev.) High.
Hodges also was cleared on charges of recruiting the two players involved.
It was pointed out to me that during Hodges’ short time at Fernley, the school underwent several changes in administrative staff. Perhaps their inability to make the one telephone call to NIAA headquarters had something to do with it.
As for the charge of running illegal Sunday practices, Hodges says they were voluntary film sessions. OK, I can buy that. I also buy that they might have run the fine line between truly voluntary and “well, if you want to move up the depth chart, you’ll be there.” Kind of like the NFL’s mandatory team camps vs. the “voluntary” camps that players can skip -- if they don’t care about their coaches looking down upon them.
They also say that Hodges is being made a scapegoat in the case of Kevin Hart, the Fernley player who faked his own recruitment by several Division I schools, culiminated by a Feb. 1 school assembly in which Hart announced he would sign with Cal -- one of several charges Hodges levels in a lawsuit filed against his former school district regarding information provided to KRNV-TV in Reno about Hodges’ employment.
I would agree that Hodges shouldn’t be blamed for Hart’s stunt. There is no evidence that Hodges played any role in Hart bamboozling everyone. But still, it seems strange that a head coach, who typically is involved to some degree in a player’s recruitment, wouldn’t at least question the player when he tells the coach he’s getting recruited by some high-profile schools, and the coach hasn’t heard from any of them.
Think I’m the only one finding that strange? Check out these columns by Mitch Albom or Ron Kantowski or A.W. Prince of BearTerritory.net, which covers Cal football.
Finally, Hermiston AD Mike Kay -- who was the athletic director at North Medford when Hodges was the school’s offensive coordinator -- points out that he and Hermiston principal Buzz Brazeau (a former assistant principal at North Medford) know Hodges better than just about anyone, and that their judgment should count for something. That Hodges was clearly the best of the six candidates who were brought in for final interviews. And that Brazeau’s quote in the Reno Gazette-Journal that "I have no idea what goes on down there" was taken completely out of context by the reporter.
OK, I may have jumped on that quote a little hard for dramatic effect. I’m certain the Hermiston folks did their homework, which included more than a Google search. This was, after all, Hodges’ first head coaching gig, and perhaps some of the mistakes made early in his tenure were part of the learning curve. God knows I’ve made a few mistakes in my Herald career that I’m glad to have put in my past and learned from. People who know Hodges well from his past very well could understand that and be willing to give him a second chance.
In fact, I’m going to rely upon the author of this posting on the Rogue Pundit blog, who summed up my opinion on the matter even better than I could.
His conclusion: “Lucky for Hodges that his old buddies from North Medford have given him another opportunity. Hope nobody ends up regretting that.”
Til next time ...