9 Division 1 football schools are trying to lure this Kamiakin senior to play for them

Kamiakin senior Gabe Tahir is one the more talented high school players in the state of Washington.

The standout cornerback will have a lot of colleges to choose from.

The most recent is from Boise State University. By last count, that’s the ninth scholarship offer for Tahir.

Air Force, Army, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Navy, Nevada, Penn State and Utah State also are trying to lure Tahir to play for them.

▪ Eastern Washington University’s football team is ranked 13^th in the 2022 Stats Perform Preseason Poll, which came out this week.

North Dakota State is ranked No. 1.

Eastern has seven players from the Tri-Cities on the team roster: redshirt-freshman running back Tuna Altahir (Kamiakin); redshirt senior long snapper Cody Clements (Richland); redshirt freshman wide receiver Woodley Downard (Kamiakin); redshirt freshman tight end Messiah Jones (Kamiakin); freshman linebacker Myles Mayovsky (Kennewick); redshirt senior offensive lineman Wyatt Musser (Kamiakin); and freshman linebacker Elijah Rodriguez (Richland).

The Eagles open the 2022 season at home, Saturday, Sept. 3, against Tennessee State University, with a 1 p.m. kickoff.

Basketball

Benedictine University Mesa in Arizona has picked up two Tri-City area players for its men’s basketball team this fall.

Cash Callaway (Chiawana) averaged 14.25 points a game this past season for the Riverhawks, and he was second-team all-conference in the Mid-Columbia Conference.

Meanwhile, Leo Gerardo (CBC) is also headed to Benedictine University Mesa. Gerardo, who comes from El Paso, averaged 4.7 points this past season for the 16-12 Hawks.

Benedictine University Mesa is an NAIA school and plays in the California Pacific Conference.

▪ Richland High grad Leon Rice signed a five-year contract extension to continue on as Boise State University’s head men’s basketball coach.

The deal runs through 2027, and Rice gets a $150,000 raise to make his salary for this coming season $900,000.

He’ll get $50,000 raises in each of the next four seasons.

Rice is the winningest head coach in Boise State history. He’s led the Broncos to seven post-season appearances and nine 20-win seasons in his 12 years at the helm.

The 2021-22 season was one of his best, as the Broncos had 27 victories, won the Mountain West Conference regular-season title, as well as winning the MWC post-season tournament.

Rice was named the MWC Coach of the Year for his efforts.

CrossFit Games

Former Kamiakin standout Danielle Brandon had her best finish yet at the CrossFit Games, placing fourth in the world.

Brandon was a standout for Kamiakin in swimming, gymnastics and track and field — where her ability to pole vault allowed her to move on to Sacramento State University.

Brandon scored 937 points at this year’s CrossFit Games in Madison, Wis. — which ended on Sunday.

England’s Tia-Clair Toomey won the women’s event with 1,158 points.

At 25, Brandon placed 9^th at the Games in 2019, 15^th in 2020, and 11^th in 2021. So Sunday’s fourth-place finish is her best yet.

Hockey

Former Tri-City Americans left winger Colton Yellow Horn, 35, has signed a one-year deal with the Coventry Blaze in the UK Elite league in England, as announced by the MacBeth Report.

Last season, Yellow Horn played for the Glasgow Clan in Scotland, where he scored 11 goals and 44 assists in 54 games.

Yellow Horn is remembered as a scoring machine for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 Americans teams. In two seasons, counting playoffs, Yellow Horn scored 109 goals and 99 assists for 208 points in 148 games played.

Soccer

Eastern Washington University’s women’s soccer team has two exhibition games this week to get its season started.

The Eagles play host to the University of Calgary on Tuesday night, then host Yakima Valley Community College on Friday at 5 p.m.

No fewer than six players with Tri-City connections are on the Eagles squad this season. They are:

• Kamiakin grad Candace Carlson, a freshman forward and defender;
• Sophomore midfielder Elisabeth Cole, who is from Burbank and went to school at Tri-Cities Prep. Cole actually played for the Academy of Soccer Excellence out of the Tri-Cities, rather than for a high school team. Cole has transferred to Eastern from Saint Martin’s University;
• Freshman defender Claire Eerkes, who played at Kamiakin;
• Sophomore midfielder-forward Rylee Franklin, who played at Kennewick High School;
• Junior forward Maddie Morgan, out of Kamiakin;
• And freshman defender Rylie Siefkin, also out of Kamiakin.

EWU opens its regular season on Aug. 18 at Oregon State University, where they’ll face sophomore standout forward McKenna Martinez. Martinez is a Tri-Cities Prep graduate who played in high school for Richland High School.

This story was originally published August 10, 2022 at 11:13 AM.