Columbia Basin College golf season kicks off with tournament in two weeks
Columbia Basin College came out with more schedules for some of its teams last week.
The men’s and women’s golf teams will get going Sept. 14 with an NWAC tournament at The Home Course in DuPont.
Golf is one of the few sports right now that can be played because of its social distancing among competitors.
The golf teams will have three fall tournaments, then should have more in the spring.
Meanwhile, the Hawks softball team will be able to play 40 contests. That’s still down from previous years.
CBC will play 32 games in the NWAC East Region, and will get eight more games for non-league competition. However, if those non-leaguers may not be played if the COVID-19 situation deems it unnecessary.
Prep football
Caleb Harvey caught 28 passes last fall for the Hanford Falcons football team as a junior.
Harvey racked up 680 yards for a nice average of 24.3 yards per catch, and he had 10 touchdown receptions.
Harvey recently was offered a scholarship to play for Central Washington University.
But it looks like he has transferred from Hanford to Jefferson High School in Portland for this coming season.
Jefferson will be coached by Houston Lillard, the former Tri-Cities Fever quarterback and the older brother of NBA superstar Damian Lillard.
• The Yakima Herald Republic reported that Issac Madrigal, who would have been a junior quarterback at West Valley High School, has transferred to Cesar Chavez High School in the Phoenix, Ariz., area.
Arizona high school football is being played this fall.
Madrigal is one of a few athletes in the Washington who are making the move to play elsewhere to guarantee themselves some playing time.
Madrigal also is the second starting quarterback from the Big Nine Conference to make this move.
Wenatchee starter Camden Sirmon earlier transferred to Missoula, Mont., so he could get a full season under his belt.
College volleyball
Great story on the Cascade Collegiate Conference, featuring former Pasco High standout Sierra Linke, who now is married and her last name is Christensen.
Christensen helped lead Eastern Oregon University to Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball championships in 2015 and 2016. Those teams also competed at the NAIA national tournaments.
A year ago, Christensen graduated from Oregon Health & Science University, and she’s a registered nurse battling COVID-19 on the front lines in the intensive care unit.
“I never expected my first year as a nurse to include a pandemic — one where I began to care for only one type of patient that can present, decline, and improve in a multitude of ways,” Christensen told Sammi Wellman, Comunications Director of the CCC. “I never expected to gain some of the experiences I have so fresh in my career and yet being thrown into the fire has allowed me to learn and be witness to some of the most interesting medical interventions.”
For the full story, go to CascadeConference.org, then to the volleyball section.
College soccer
Midfielder Alex Sotelo played high school soccer at Kamiakin, and then Walla Walla Community College’s men’s team.
Now, Sotelo is headed to Bushnell University in Oregon for his last two seasons of college ball.
Bushnell is the former Northwest Christian University.
Sports in the Tri podcast
For the latest podcasts that I’ve done at Sports in the Tri, check them out on ParkerHodge.com.
I interviewed Royal football coach Wiley Allred, who took a break while working on his tractor on his farm.
Like most football coaches, Allred hasn’t been able to get together in-person with his football team, which won the state 1A football title last December.
But he and his staff are trying to make sure his squad will be ready to go in the spring.
The other podcast involves Hermiston graduate Jazlyn Romero, who has been trying to get ready to head to college in Corvallis, Ore.
Romero will be throwing the javelin for the Oregon State women’s track team. She said she opted for the track scholarship over playing women’s basketball – she’s an excellent hoops player – in college because she always wanted to be a Division I athlete.
She’s also eying the Olympics, and spending all of her athletic time concentrating on throwing the javelin might just help her get there.
College basketball
New CBC men’s basketball coach Anthony Owens has picked up another player for the coming season in Hamish Goodier, who played at Saint Ignatius College Geelong in Australia.
Hockey
Calgary Flames defenseman Juuso Valimaki, a former Tri-City American, never got into a game this past season with the Flames.
So, according to Ryan Pike, who covers hockey, Valimaki will be credited with no professional season – even though Valimaki was available to play.
What that also means is Valimaki will be exempt from being available for the Seattle Kraken when it holds its expansion draft in 2021.
• Manny Viveiros, who has been coaching the Spokane Chiefs in the Western Hockey League, has been named the head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League.
The Silver Knights are owned by the Vegas Golden Knights ownership, and will be playing their AHL games at the Orlean Arena near the Las Vegas Strip for the next few seasons before an arena is finished in the Vegas suburb of Henderson.
With Viveiros gone, Spokane promoted associate coach Adam Maglio on Tuesday as the new Chiefs head coach.
• Defenseman Riley Guenther, who played 16 games for the Tri-City Americans in parts of two seasons in 2010-12, has signed a one-year contract extension with Angers, a French team in the Ligue Magnus.
In 38 games last season for Angers, Guenther scored two goals and three assists.