Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009

Tri-City football camp starts Monday

The Tri-City Team Football Camp kicks off its second year Monday with sessions at Hanford, Lampson Stadium and in Walla Walla.

The camp was co-founded by Hanford coach Rob Oram and former Kamiakin coach Craig Beverlin, and with Beverlin now off to the Bayou, Kennewick coach Bill Templeton takes charge of the Lampson site. Blue Devils coach Marc Yonts is responsible for the Wa-Hi site, and Oram runs the Hanford site and the administrative duties for the endeavor.

Eleven of the 12 teams from throughout the Tri-Cities and its "suburbs" will take part -- Hanford, Kamiakin, Kennewick, Southridge, Richland, Pasco, Chiawana, Tri-Cities Prep, Kiona-Benton, River View and Columbia (Burbank). Also scheduled to take part are Walla Walla, Eastmont, Hermiston, Connell, Dayton, Stanfield and Waitsburg-Prescott.

The camp concludes with a series of scrimmages Friday night at Lampson Stadium.

Southridge assured itself of a smooth transition in its girls basketball program by elevating Scott Stiles from his assistant job to the head coaching position.

What I thought interesting was when I asked Scott about any changes or differences people might see in the program, and he talked about getting more girls to turn out.

One problem has been that the past two coaches -- Darlene Harris and Kristen Davis -- did not teach at Southridge. And there's nothing like having the coach on-site, trying to drum up recruits in the halls -- Stiles is a social studies teacher at the high school.

"I think the biggest struggle we have is getting kids out for basketball," said Stiles, who was an assistant for both Harris and Davis, as well as for three years under boys coach Jason Devere, who also does not teach at Southridge.

"I watched what Jason has done, and what Kristen has done the last couple of years, going to the elementary schools, trying to get the base at Southridge. But one of the biggest problems is with no head coach in the building, it's been a struggle."

With Southridge filling its vacancy, that makes at least five coaching changes in the CBBN girls ranks this year -- Richland, Pasco, Walla Walla and West Valley being the others. Pasco's vacancy came about when Steve Davis moved to Chiawana, and Pasco AD Le Burns finally was able to post the opening this week, along with the boys hoops job. My guess is she'd like to fill the job quickly so that person can begin implementing any changes they want to make during summer ball.

Til next time ...