Inside Page: Cougs take over Chiawana High

Ernie Kent offered Washington State University fans in the Tri-Cities a behind-the-scenes look at his men’s basketball team Saturday morning at Chiawana High School.

The Cougars’ head coach, in preparations for the upcoming season, decided to bring his team down to the Tri-Cities for a full two-hour practice. He brought pizza for the fans, too.

While the fans munched on their pizza, they watched the Cougars hustling nonstop from drill to drill.

“We play fast, so we practice fast,” Kent told the crowd of about 300 people. “You do it enough, it’s easy to do in games.”

While Kent has three returning starters coming back from a 13-18 season, he also has seven new players this season.

Because of that, the Cougars were picked to finish last in the Pac-12 Conference preseason media poll Oct. 15.

“If we’re the last-place team, this conference is going to be a really, really good conference,” Kent said on media day.

So he’s not fazed by predictions.

“These guys are smart,” Kent told the crowd as he watched the Cougars run full-court drills. “They have a combined 3.2 grade-point average. They can sing the fight song, and they know the words.”

OK, he was laughing when he said that last part. But it’s probably true, because Kent makes his players buy in.

The Cougars begin the season next Friday at home with an exhibition against Lewis-Clark State, for which Hanford High grad Kendall Watson plays.

WSU’s actual season opener is Nov. 13 at home against Northern Arizona.

That’s when Kent starts to get his answers about this team.

▪ Kent says the NCAA is really going to try to speed things up this season, but to do so, things will be slow at first.

“Hand checking will be called this year,” Kent said.

He expects the officials to really come down hard on hand-checking for the first six to seven games until players start to understand. During Saturday’s 20-minute scrimmage, Kent had to remind a number of his players to stop the hand checking.

For a video of Saturday’s practice, go to http://www.tri-cityherald.com/incoming/article41319468.html

▪ The winner-take-all, $15,000 La Copa De Alvarez soccer tournament final is set for 4 p.m. today at Lampson Stadium.

The 16-team tournament, which ran last weekend over at the Road 36 fields in Pasco, was narrowed down to the final for this weekend, said Danny Perez, who helps run the tournament sponsored by Alvarez Auto Sales in the Tri-Cities.

It’ll be Bavaria Auto Sales of Seattle taking on Quincy’s Colima Deportivo for the final.

Bavaria beat a team from Boise in one semifinal last Sunday, while Colima beat another squad from Quincy in the other semifinal.

Apparently, Quincy is full of talented adult soccer players.

What should make this final exciting, says Perez, is the finalists’ style of play.

“Bavarian plays a European style of play, which is more open with longer passes,” Perez said. “The Quincy team plays a more Latino style of close quarter passing.”

Fans can watch the contest for free.

▪ The WSU Tri-Cities men’s rugby team finished 1-4 at last weekend’s Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference 7’s championships in Ellensburg.

The Cougars lost 48-5 to eventual tournament champion Central Washington University, lost 20-14 to Boise State, then beat Idaho State 24-19 on Saturday. Then next day, WSUTC lost 22-10 to Western Oregon University, then fell 24-10 to Idaho State.

Still not a bad tournament for a club program that just began last year. The Tri-City Cougars qualified for the big Northwest tournament when they won the Northwest Cup 7’s tournament Oct. 11 in Bend, Ore.

Their next game will be Nov. 7 at home against the University of Idaho.

Prep news

The Tri-Cities is up for the state 4A and 3A high school baseball finals in the spring. Gesa Stadium could host them, but so could Bellingham, the University of Washington and Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. Bids are due in November, and the WIAA executive board will make a decision at the next board meeting Dec. 6-7.

▪ Here’s a list of area athletes who have garnered weekly WIAA athletes of the week honors:

Week 1 — Class 4A girls, Dani Gibson, Pasco girls soccer: Gibson opened the season with four goals as the Bulldogs took down Sunnyside 7-0; Class 3A girls, Emma Schutt, Southridge girls soccer: Schutt scored the game’s only goal in the 42nd minute to help defeat Central Valley; Class 2B boys, Jacob Dunn, Waitsburg football: Dunn passed for 323 yards and five touchdowns as his team opened the season in a nonleague win over McLoughlin 45-7. He was 18-of-20 passing with no interceptions.

Week 2 — Class 4A boys, Andrew Vargas, Chiawana football: Vargas led the Riverhawks to a 27-16 win over Wenatchee. He ran for 248 yards on 32 carries and returned two kicks for 65 yards. He scored one touchdown in the game; Class 2A girls, Areesa Trevino, Grandview girls soccer: Trevino netted a goal and had an assist to help lead the visiting Greyhounds over Ephrata in a nonleague match.

Week 3 — none.

Week 4 — Class 2A girls, Jamie Fassler, Prosser girls soccer: Fassler found the back of the net 10 times last week, in three matches against Ephrata (2), Sunnyside (3) and Wapato (5); Class 1A girls, Kyrsten Whitmore, Kiona-Benton volleyball: Whitmore led the Bears with 23 kills and eight blocks in their contest against Columbia (Burbank).

Week 5 — Class 4A boys, Kaleb Ash, Pasco football: Ash ran for a career-high 243 yards and three touchdowns last week. He capped the game with a 2-point conversion run with no time remaining in the game to beat Kennewick 36-35; Class 2A boys, Reese Jones, Othello football: Jones rushed for 264 yards on 36 carries and two touchdowns in a 22-10 CWAC victory over East Valley (Yakima); Class 1B boys, John Lesser, Liberty Christian football: Lesser totaled seven touchdowns and converted on five 2-point conversions to help his team run away from Pomeroy 84-26. He was 8-of-12 passing for 185 yards and three touchdowns. On the ground, he carried the ball 13 times for 263 yards and four touchdowns.

Week 6 — Class 4A boys, Roman Ruiz, Chiawana football: Ruiz carried the Riverhawks to victory over Hanford 49-35, catching three passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns. He also had an interception in the fourth quarter.

Week 7 — Class 1B boys, Leo Garcia, Touchet football: Garcia led the Indians with 178 yards rushing on 22 carries with four touchdowns. He also led the defense with 11 tackles and four sacks.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Inside Page: Cougs take over Chiawana High."