Tri-Cities native earns 200th victory. And credits his Richland Bomber roots

Richland High graduate Leon Rice has developed a strong men’s basketball program at Boise State University.

Rice, 57, had been a top assistant coach for years for Mark Few at Gonzaga before being hired by BSU in March of 2010.

Now, in his 10th season for the Broncos, Rice earned his 200th career victory Dec. 4 when Boise State beat College of Idaho 86-49.

In that game, Rice’s son, Max, scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for BSU.

Leon Rice now has a coaching record of 202-139, with two NCAA Tournament appearances for Boise State (in 2013 and 2015).

But even now, you can’t take the Richland roots out of Rice.

After the Broncos beat Weber State 70-59 last Sunday, Idaho Press writer B.J. Rains asked Rice about Broncos player Derrick Alston doing the Duke floor slap on defense.

“Stop giving Duke the credit for that,” Rice responded. “The Richland Bombers, we did it all the time growing up.”

Rice is right. As far back as the early ‘70s, the Bombers would get down low on defense and all five players would slap the floor in unison. It was intimidating.

I’m probably sure they did it in the ‘60s and ‘50s too. I just don’t know, because I was too young to see their games back then.

College football

It turned out to be an outstanding season for Chiawana grad AJ Vongphachanh, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound sophomore inside linebacker for Utah State University.

Vongphachanh was named an honorable mention by the Mountain West Conference on Monday.

He started in five of Utah State’s six games, and he lead the Aggies with 50 tackles. He also had three quarterback sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble and a safety.

Vongphachanh’s 8.3 tackles per game placed him at No. 7 in the entire Mountain West Conference.

Women’s college basketball

The Providence University women’s basketball team begins its season Jan. 4 against Frontier Conference opponent Montana Tech.

The Argos, based out of Great Falls, Mont., are scheduled to play a 20-game regular-season — with all games against Frontier Conference teams.

Providence will have three Mid-Columbia athletes on its roster this season: junior guard Kenedy Cartwright (a Chiawana High School graduate), senior guard Emilee Maldonado (Sunnyside), and junior post Alicia Oatis (Kennewick).

Maldonado was chosen by conference coaches as a pre-season all-conference selection.

• The Eastern Oregon University women’s basketball team is scheduled to begin its abbreviated season on Jan. 8 against Southern Oregon University.

EOU is set to play 18 games, all Cascade Collegiate Conference contests.

EOU has two area athletes on its roster: redshirt sophomore guard Maddy Juul (Hermiston), and junior forward Sailor Liefke (Sunnyside Christian/Walla Walla Community College).

High school sports

I recently did a podcast with Dan Whitsett, Tri-Cities Prep’s athletic director and football coach.

I asked Whitsett how Prep has handled in-person school since August with the pandemic.

To that point, with 200 students in the building, Whitset (knock on wood)there had been no cases.

Prep staff spent the first two weeks of school training kids about social distancing and safety, and students are spread out in classrooms. Habits that they’d had for years had to be stopped.

Now, I’m not sure how this translates over to a high school like Chiawana, which has over 2,000 students, but so far Prep has shown how it can be done.

When asked, Whitsett also said kids are hurting without sports and activities. It was especially painful last month when all practices had to be stopped because of rising numbers around the state.

Notes

▪ Madison Kinsey, a catcher and first baseman for Kamiakin and the Washington Angels, signed a letter of intent to play softball for the College of Idaho. Kinsey, a senior for the Braves, will enroll for the fall semester in 2021.

▪ Liberty Christian senior Aiden Lesser is being recruited to play football at Whitworth University in Spokane. Lesser plays wide receiver and free safety for the Patriots.

▪ When you cover something annually like the WIAA state high school cross country championships — every year held at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco — you get to know the personalities from around the entire state.

One of those personalities, North Central High School boys coach Jon Knight, made a major announcement recently when he said he was stepping down as the team’s head coach.

Knight led the Spokane school to 11 consecutive state 3A boys team titles in Pasco, from 2006-16.

It was only in 2017 that Kamiakin’s boys, led by head coach Matt Rexus, snapped that team title streak. The Braves, incidentally, now have won three straight team titles.

For Knight, 57, he told the Spokesman Review that it was time for him to step down so he could spend more time with family and deal with some health issues during COVID-19.

Knight, though, isn’t going anywhere, and is expected to become a running coach guru for all Spokane runners.

Tri-Cities Sports Council:

▪ If the coronavirus case numbers don’t look good by the time that Feb. 1 rolls around — that’s the date high school winter sports are supposed to begin in Washington — there is a possibility that the WIAA could switch seasons and begin outside fall sports. Richland Parks and Recreation took this down time to re-surface fields 3 and 4 at Columbia Playfield.

▪ The Cable Bridge Run in Pasco will have virtual and actual races this coming weekend. Anyone can do it virtually. But if you want to actually run it, runners have their choice of doing it Friday or Saturday, with race officials sending off runners in waves of 10 and those start times being spread out. The deadline for the race was last weekend, but there could be late registration.

▪ Special Olympics of Washington recently concluded its fall games virtually, but the Tri-Cities still is hoping to host those games next November.