2 Tri-City wrestlers among the best in sport — named to Top 10 list for Washington

The Tri-City Americans made a few moves last week, and its head coach got a big assignment for Team Canada.

Ams head coach Kelly Buchberger — who has been on the Tri-City bench the past two seasons — on Wednesday was named the head coach for Team Canada White for the 2020 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

There are 113 players who’ve been invited to participate in Canada’s National Under-17 virtual development camp, which will be held July 19-25.

As for the Americans’ transactions, the biggest one might be signing 20-year-old goalie Donovan Buskey from the Regina Pats.

Buskey has played for the Pats, Spokane Chiefs and Prince Albert Raiders in the Western Hockey League, with 64 career games and a 28-26-1 record.

Ams general manager Bob Tory said Buskey will compete in training camp with fellow goalies Talyn Boyko, Mason Dunsford and Ronin Geraghty.

Meanwhile, Tri-City also signed forward Tanner Gould, who was acquired in last month’s WHL Bantam Draft.

Gould was the 47th overall pick, taken in the third round.

Finally, the Ams released 20-year-old defenseman Jayden Platz.

Platz played in 58 games for Tri-City, with three goals, five assists and 42 penalty minutes. With the team allowed to carry so few overagers on its roster, Platz was a victim of the numbers.

Wrestling news

Washington Wrestling, a website dedicated to promoting Washington wrestlers and working to restore Washington college wrestling, named its top 10 wrestlers in the state recently, regardless of weight division or classification.

Chiawana junior-to-be Isaiah Anderson is the No. 2-ranked boys wrestler in the state.

On the girls’ side, Hanford senior Taylor Wilson is ranked fourth among girls, while Kennewick junior Ayanna Asselin comes in at No. 9.

New head coach at Wahluke

Wahluke got a new head football coach in April, and it’s a familiar name: Anfernee Cortez.

He started his prep sports career at Kiona-Benton before finishing at Zillah.

Cortez then went to Eastern Oregon University, where he was a standout defensive back for the Mountaineers.

He had been an assistant at Wahluke under head coach Ryan Antos. But he now takes over in the tough South Central Athletic Conference’s East Division.

Top athletes from Tri-Cities

Those guys from Scorebook Live Washington, a pretty impressive website that covers high school sports in our state, have started selecting their top male and female senior athletes for each classification this past school year.

Chiawana senior Riley Cissne was named the state Class 4A male senior athlete of the year.

Cissne, who was named Chiawana’s senior male athlete of the year, played three sports for the Riverhawks — baseball, football and wrestling.

He’s heading to Whitworth University this fall, and he’ll be playing baseball and football for the Pirates.

Meanwhile, Othello’s Isaiah Perez was named the state Class 2A male senior athlete of the year.

Perez was a three-time state wrestling champion and an all-state football player.

He’s headed to BYU to play football, but will first go on a two-year mission to Brazil for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

• Scorebook Live Washington also recently released their top male athletes to ever come out of Grant County recently.

The top two were B.J. Garbe and Dave Heaverlo, both Moses Lake High School graduates.

Garbe was a first-round draft pick (No. 5 overal) of the Minnesota Twins in 1999 after a standout prep career for the Chiefs. That also included being the Gatorade national baseball high school player of the year, and an All-American in baseball.

In football, he was all-state, and either ran or passed for 41 touchdowns without ever tossing an interception.

He was, at the time, the biggest prospect to come out of Washington in baseball.

He skipped Stanford and went into the Twins organization, but he never made it to the big club.

Heaverlo, who graduated in 1968 from Moses Lake, did get to the big leagues.

After setting team records at Central Washington University, he signed with the San Francisco Giants and made his mark as a reliever.

He pitched for seven seasons in the majors, with the Giants, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners.

He’s also a member of the Tri-Cities’ Central Washington Sports Hall of Fame.

There were three honorable mentions — although I definitely would put Ryan Doumit, a classmate at Moses Lake of Garbe’s, at or near the top of the list.

Funny thing, in 1999, when baseball scouts were watching Garbe and outfielder teammate Jason Cooper (another national prospect who played baseball at Stanford and got as high as Triple-A) play for Moses Lake, they kept noticing this catcher who was making play after play and hitting the ball hard.

Doumit was that catcher, and he was drafted 59th overall.

He ended up with a 10-year MLB career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves, finishing in 2014.

Coulee’s Ron Cox and Ephrata’s Travis King were the other two honorable mention selections.

Cox played baseball, basketball and football for Coulee, and he set records for the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team. He also was drafted by the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

King was at one point the top career scorer in the state in Class 1A boys basketball. He ended up playing at EWU and became a first-team All-Big Sky Conference guard.

News and notes

• Former Chiawana and Pasco High basketball player Jalen King has transferred to NCAA Division II Saint Leo for his final men’s college basketball season.

King was at Eastern Michigan University the past few seasons before deciding to enter the transfer portal this past offseason.

He has one year of eligibility remaining.

• Kennewick High senior Trinity Demand has agreed to play women’s soccer this fall for Columbia Basin College.

• Another offer for Richland WR Ben Fewel last week, this one from Valparaiso University.