Spring sports starts this weekend + Tri-Cities basketball players honored
Now that winter sports have been completed, it’s already time for spring sports to get going.
High school baseball, boys and girls golf, boys soccer, softball, boys and girls tennis, and boys and girls track and field all started practicing on Feb. 28.
Starting Thursday, the Joe Dubsky Memorial boys golf tournament tees off at 11 a.m. at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
On Friday, there is another boys golf tourney — this one at Zintel Creek Golf Course in Kennewick, the Kennewick Invite at 8 a.m.
The Hanford Invite girls golf tournament starts at 10 a.m. at Horn Rapids Golf Course in Richland. And there are two baseball games: Post Falls visits Kamiakin at 2 p.m. at LaPierre Field; and Post Falls then plays Kennewick at Roy Johnson Field at 6 p.m.
There is also a short roundup of games on Saturday:
▪ Central Valley visits Southridge for a baseball doubleheader starting at noon;
▪ Coeur d’Alene baseball plays at Roy Johnson Field against Kennewick for a single game at noon;
▪ Hanford baseball visits Ferris in Spokane for a twinbill that begins at 11 a.m.;
▪ Hermiston boys soccer visits Walla Walla at 12:30 p.m.;
▪ Kamiakin softball heads to Selah for a doubleheader that starts at 11 a.m.;
▪ Post Falls baseball completes its weekend visit with a doubleheader at Chiawana, starting at 11 a.m.;
▪ and Richland baseball plays Woodinville in a single game at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
Basketball wrap
Kamiakin senior Tyler Bilodeau and Richland junior Kylee Fox were the big award winners recently when the Mid-Columbia Conference all-conference teams came out.
Bilodeau, who will play next season for Oregon State University, was named the boys’ Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year.
Fox was named the girls Player of the Year. Pasco junior Leanna Lepe was the MCC Defensive Player of the Year.
Joining Bilodeau on the first-team boys unit is senior teammate Trey Arland, Walla Walla senior Diego Jaques, and Richland senior Twazae Gladney and Bombers sophomore Josh Woodard.
The MCC boys second team: Cash Callaway, senior, Chiawana; Daniel Dickinson, senior, Kennewick; Kade Smith, junior, Chiawana; Connor Mendez, senior, Chiawana; Nate Gray, Jr., senior, Kamiakin; and Luke Westerfield, sophomore, Richland.
Honorable mention selections were Ayden Knapik, senior, Kennewick; Grant Olsen, sophomore, Hermiston; Tyler Mattioli-Butcher, senior, Kennewick; and Kaden Bradshaw, senior, Richland.
The boys defensive team: Bilodeau, Gladney, Arland, Westerfield, as well as Jase Vopalensky, junior, Richland; and Bryce Cramer, senior, Hanford.
Richland’s Earl Streufert was named MCC Boys Coach of the Year.
Joining Fox on the girls’ first team is Mya Groce, senior, Pasco; Malia Ruud, freshman, Chiawana; Iliana Moran, senior, Hanford; and Nikole Thomas, junior, Kamiakin.
The girls’ second team consists of Taija Mackey, senior, Pasco; Izzy Simmons, freshman, Hermiston; Macie Milam, sophomore, Richland; Maddy Rendall, junior, Kamiakin; A’niyah Heavens, senior, Chiawana; and Haylee Johnson, sophomore, Kennewick.
Honorable mentions for the girls were Pasco’s Lepe and senior Taleya Maiden; Hanford sophomore Lynnea Moran; Kennewick freshman Dylyn Dress; and Hermiston senior Katelyn Heideman.
The defensive unit consists of the Pasco trio of Lepe, Groce and Mackey; Kamiakin’s Thomas; and Richland’s Fox.
Pasco’s Aaron Barcot was named MCC Girls Coach of the Year.
▪ Kamiakin’s Tyler Bilodeau got a few more honors following last week’s state basketball tournament in Tacoma.
The Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association, or WIBCA, named Bilodeau its state player of the year this week.
In addition, Bilodeau was named first-team Class 4A all-tournament by the media covering the event.
Kamiakin teammates Peter Dress and Trey Arland were honorable mention selections for the all-tournament team.
Other all-tournament selections from the Tacoma event included Richland junior Kylee Fox and Pasco senior Taija Mackey on the second team for 4A girls, while Pasco senior Mya Groce was an honorable mention pick.
In the 3A girls tournament, Hermiston freshman Izzy Simmons was named second-team all-tournament. Teammate Bailey Young was honorable mention.
▪ Columbia Basin College men’s basketball coach Anthony Owens has his team playing in the Sweet 16 of the NWAC tournament starting March 17-18 at Everett Community College.
If the Hawks could win there, they would return for the final four the following weekend.
Owens’ Hawks have clinched a spot from the East Region, and have a record of 16-11.
Tyler Kurtz (Richland) has been the star this season for CBC, averaging a team-best 18.5 points and 7.6 rebounds. Kurtz also averages 1.2 steals a game.
Other CBC standouts include Jase Edwards (Central Valley), with 13.1 points, a team-best 4.2 assists and 1.8 steals; Amar Rivers (Auburn), with 9.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.1 steals; Garrett Streufert (Richland), with 6.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists; and Donovan Cooper (Utah) with 2.1 assists.
This will be the first time since 2016 that a CBC men’s team has made the postseason tournament.
▪ When I saw Longwood University won the Big South Conference tournament this past weekend, giving the team its first-ever NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament berth, the only thing I thought was “Somewhere in the Tri-Cities, Hussein Pistoljevic is celebrating!”
Pistoljevic is a 2003 Hanford High School grad who could play basketball really well.
He became one of the first players to commit to Longwood — a school in Farmville, Va. — when the school was working toward NCAA Division I status.
In his four seasons there, Pistol averaged anywhere between 3.3 points to 7.6 a season.
And now, he can enjoy watching his Lancers make the Big Dance.