A big weekend is ahead of us, gang.<\/p>\n
In fact, on a yearly basis, this particular weekend \u2014 when district basketball collides with state wrestling gymnastics and swimming \u2014 has traditionally been the busiest in the prep sports world. Before we go forward, however, I need to quickly touch on a few items regarding the local prep scene that has been rattling around in my empty head of late.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 A few weeks ago, Kentwood High boys basketball coach Michael Angelidis informed me the Conquerors might be better \u201cbecause\u201d of the early season injury to star Josh Smith.<\/p>\n
While it sounded strange at the time, it also made complete sense. While Smith spent a month out of action, the rest of the team was forced to rely on one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Josh went down, it allowed us to play a little bit differently,\u201d Angelidis said. \u201cWe had to play more as a team, move the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The results?<\/p>\n
After Smith returned last month, Kentwood won 7 of its last 8 league games, going from sixth to second in the standings and emerging once again as a state contender. What makes the Conquerors more dangerous this season than the past two, as Angelidis noted, is the fact that they\u2019re playing together. Everybody is contributing.<\/p>\n
Put a different way, Smith led the Conquerors in scoring in 24 of their 26 games last year and Kentwood just missed a state berth. During Kentwood\u2019s late-season surge against league opponents, it was led in scoring by Smith four times, Tre Tyler twice and once apiece by Jason Boyce and Alec Wilson.<\/p>\n
Something tells me this group is finally going to break through that state barrier during the next couple of weeks. And when they do, look out.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 The South Puget Sound League announced its All-League basketball teams last week and a few items made me a bit curious.<\/p>\n
First off, Angelidis was named the North\u2019s Coach of the Year. I have no qualms with Angelidis\u2019 selection. Without Smith much of the season, he\u2019s done a lot of good stuff with that team. However, in virtually every other sport in every other league, the person who is chosen as Coach of the Year typically comes from the first-place team. Federal Way boys basketball coach Jerome Collins guided the Eagles to a share of last year\u2019s North crown and a state title. Collins and the Eagles won the North again this winter and they\u2019re currently ranked No. 1 in the state.<\/p>\n
Yet, when awards came out last week, the FW coach was left behind.<\/p>\n
Something tells me he didn\u2019t win over too many fans with that 137-70 debacle-of-a-win over Kentlake.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 The big surprise in regards to the All-League team, to me at least, was Kent-Meridian\u2019s Briana Shannon being named a second-teamer. Shannon, a 5-foot-4 senior, tied Kentwood\u2019s Kylie Huerta for the North lead in points-per-game (18.9). Huerta was named the North\u2019s co-MVP with Auburn Riverside\u2019s Mercedes Wetmore. While Shannon didn\u2019t deserve MVP honors, she certain deserved to be listed among the league\u2019s top five players. As for Huerta, it was good to see her earn a share of that MVP honor. Kentwood\u2019s sparkplug is deserving of such an honor and has followed nicely in the footsteps of Lindsey Moore and Courtney Vandersloot, who combined for the previous four North Division MVPs. Like Moore and Vandersloot, Huerta possesses both a ton of talent, but a ton of class as well. I attest she\u2019s the most entertaining player \u2014 male or female \u2014 to watch in the area … signature headband and all.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 I\u2019m sure by now everyone has heard about the potential re-alignment of the South Puget Sound League North 4A, which currently consists of the four Kent School District schools, Auburn and Auburn Riverside, Federal Way and Jefferson along with Tahoma.<\/p>\n
Well folks, somebody is leaving town.<\/p>\n
Yep, we\u2019re heading to another re-shuffling.<\/p>\n
Auburn and Auburn Riverside stepped out a few years back, when each was in the SPSL 3A. This fall, either Federal Way or Thomas Jefferson will be making an exit. Last week, the two schools were supposed to decide between one another which would shift to the SPSL South. That plan, however, didn\u2019t work out as well as SPSL principals would have liked as neither school wanted the change primarily due to the additional travel expenses it costs for each to be part of the South.<\/p>\n
In the North, schools are located relatively close to one another, especially for those in Kent. That\u2019s not the case in the South, where league rivals include Curtis (University Place) and Bethel (Graham) among others.<\/p>\n
Which school is leaving won\u2019t be decided until March 1, when the next meeting among SPSL principals will be held.<\/p>\n
The re-alignment doesn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n
It appears imminent that Mount Rainier High, which currently resides in the Class 3A Seamount League, will be moving to the North.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe align very, very well in like-type programs with Mount Rainier,\u201d SPSL commissioner Dave Lutes said. \u201cIt\u2019s a four-year school like we have in Kent and things matchup, including geographically.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was a bit surprised when I first heard of Mount Rainier moving to the North, then I looked at the numbers. Mount Rainier has 1,572 students, which is more than Kent-Meridian (1,450) and Kentlake (1,474), both of which have spent the past decade in the league. A school must have an enrollment of at least 1,304 students to be considered Class 4A, so it seems like a no-brainer.<\/p>\n
Will MR be able to compete with the likes of the rest of the North?<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t sure at first since the Seamount League on a yearly basis tends to struggle at the state level in many sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, they have some outstanding programs,\u201d Lutes said.<\/p>\n
After talking with Lutes and doing a little homework, I realized Lutes was right. MR\u2019s baseball team has advanced to state in 7 of the last 8 years; its boys basketball team has moved on in 3 of the last 4 years while girls basketball, swimming and fastpitch remain rather strong.<\/p>\n
Will MR take over the North?<\/p>\n
Not likely. I\u2019d suspect the Rams will take their lumps here and there, but overall will be plenty competitive across the board.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Finally, I spent Feb. 6 at the SPSL sub-district wrestling tournament and have to say Kentridge opened my eyes.<\/p>\n
The KR program has been thin on numbers and talent for years, but it became clear to me that the Chargers are unquestionably on the rise. Kentridge advanced four wrestlers to this past weekend\u2019s regional tournament \u2014 Nick Aliment, Billy Johnson, Jeff Seid and Chris Bailey. What intrigues me about this bunch is the fact that, assuming they all stick with the sport and don\u2019t move out of the Kentridge boundary, each will be back next year.<\/p>\n
Aliment, a two-time league champion, and Seid were particularly impressive.<\/p>\n
Seid, a sophomore who took second at the league tournament, is a young kid competing in a relatively high weight class for his age. This typically spells doom for young wrestlers, but Seid gave K-M standout Nick Lemmon all he could handle, falling 7-4. I\u2019d be surprised if Seid didn\u2019t emerge next year as a league champion at either 160 or 171.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a really young team,\u201d said coach Jason De La Rosa. \u201cNext year, we\u2019re probably going to be one of the teams to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A big weekend is ahead of us, gang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14785"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}