(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

Springdale will play a 1B football schedule this year and remain an Independent within leagues and classification, although considered technically a 2B school. (File photo)

Former AD Dodge moves to position at Liberty…

Kyle Dodge has resigned his positions as athletic director and wrestling coach at Mary Walker High School in Springdale and has been hired as the athletic director of the Liberty School District in Spangle.

“Liberty started phoning me back in May when they learned that their athletic director was resigning at the end of the school year,” said Dodge. “I accepted the job because Liberty is a strong athletic contender in the 2B ranks, while Springdale will probably be dropping to the 1B classification soon because of its steadily decreasing enrollment. And, I live in Spokane, so it is a shorter drive for me to go to Liberty than it was to drive up to Springdale.”

According to Dodge, Springdale will continue to play an independent sports schedule through the 2019-20 school year. The Chargers will play eight-man football against 1B teams and a mixed schedule against 1B and 2B teams in other sports.

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(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

Kaden Krouse is turning heads as fullback, getting some “among the top fantasy football high school players in the state.”

Chewelah being touted a top 4 team if they can survive regular season schedule…

Chewelah hasn’t played a football game this year but they’re already getting respect from the west side of the mountains. The 2B football team made the widest improvement out of nearly any team last year when they made an emergency drop down from the 1A classification. Going from a 1-2 win team from previous years, the Cougars advanced to the State 2B quarterfinals. 

The Lewis County-based “Let’s Take About It” produced by the Chronicle in Centralia brought members of the WIAA seeding committee to talk about what teams they were watching.  

“Chewelah is a team I would absolutely put in the final four,” Ryland Spencer, writer for Cascadia Preps and 247Sports said. Spencer is a member of the WIAA 2B seeding committee.

While the podcast largely focused on the west side, Stevens County got plenty of love when trying to figure out what this fall’s postseason might look like. Chewelah recently released its football schedule and it is … very difficult … a point not lost on the seeding committee. More

(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

The Spokane Northstars sent some love over the Chataqua weekend, sporting these wristbands in honor of the Mike Carpenter Memorial Tournament. (Courtesy photo)

LOOKING FORWARD: Legion squad looking to soar in district tourney…

AAA American Legion teams need to have a full stable of starting pitchers and a bullpen full of relief pitchers when they compete in a tournament in which they play five or six games over a four-day weekend. Some teams are able to fortify their roster with enough chuckers to fill the schedule through Sunday’s final games. Some may not, depending on how many games they have to play.

The Spokane Northstars came up short in Kennewick last Sunday. They had to remove Carl Oman’s catcher’s gear and put him on the mound to finish that afternoon’s final game. Hopefully, Oman will be able to continue wearing his mask, chest protector, and shin guards this weekend when area AAA teams meet for the district championship.

Spokane’s six AAA American Legion teams will gather at Jackson Field on the Shadle Park High School campus to decide the district’s four entries into the upcoming state tournament. The Northstars have been seeded fourth in the four-day event and will open play on Friday evening at 5 p.m. against the Mt. Spokane Wild, a team they have defeated twice during the league season.

Considering all of the tournaments the Northstars have competed in this summer in Oregon, Montana and Washington, they should have the experience to earn one of those four tickets to the state finale. That is, if pitching can hold up through Sunday. More

(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

Jake Jeanneret celebrates a run against Mead during AA Legion action. (Brandon Hansen photo)

BATS CONTINUE TO BE HOT: 49ers look like they’ve struck gold heading into postseason…

Exhausted Chewelah bats did not get their second wind until the sixth inning at Colville on Friday. After thumping 33 hits in wins over Cheney and Mead earlier in the week, fatigued Niner bats recuperated through the first five innings against the Indians. By that time, the home team had built a 7-0 lead, leaving Chewelah only two at-bats to close the gap, which they almost accomplished.

The Niners scored five runs in the sixth inning and three more in the seventh to narrow the Colville lead to 9-8, but they left the tying and go-ahead runs on the base as the late rally fell short.

“We were just one hit away from winning at Colville,” said Coach Tom Skok. “We had runners on base. We just didn’t get the hit we needed.
“Everything seems to be coming together at just the right time for us. Both our pitching and hitting have really improved.” More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

TAKING OVER: Volleyball and Track Coach Shirley Baker will become new athletic director for JJSHS…

The Chewelah School Board voted last Wednesday that Shirley Baker will be the new Jenkins High School Athletic Director. If there is someone who has a resume to take the job, it’s Baker who has coached high school sports since 1990 and has been a head coach since 1995.

Baker joined Jenkins Junior Senior High School in the fall of 2014, and she has served as both the school’s head volleyball coach along with being a co-head coach of track and field with her husband Whit in the spring.

“I applied because I have ideas which I believe can build on the foundation created by Rocky Verbeck in his tenure as our AD,” Baker said.

Verbeck recently left for a similar position at Marysville on the west side of the state after helping lead the Chewelah Cougar basketball team to a league title in 2012 and being involved in JJSHS athletes for several years. Baker said that Verbeck was a great role model in showing support for all programs and making sure coaches could focus on coaching instead of the slog of administrative work. More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

Chewelah Cougars playing talent-loaded schedule…

If this were a college football, it would look like the Chewelah Cougars were pumping up their schedule for a berth in the NCAA FBS playoffs. Fresh off their State 2B quarterfinal appearance, the Cougars have added a bevy of challenging opponents.

Opponents this year for the Cougars were 63-36 in 2018 and have a combined .636 winning percentage. Two of those teams played for the 1A state title last year. More

(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

The Northstars improved their record to 14-13-1. (Courtesy photo)

GOING SOUTH: Northstars enjoy a trip to Oregon, pick up some victories along the way in state capitol…

The Spokane Northstars won three of their six games in Salem, Oregon last week on the campus of Willamette University, placing fourth overall in the tournament. They defeated two teams from Portland and another from Beaverton during the four-day event (One game ended in a tie). Their two losses were to the Vancouver Mavericks and Salem’s Withnell Dodgers.

“We had only 11 players for this tournament, but they all fought hard,” said Coach Eric Krausz. “The guys are learning how to play seven full innings of baseball, no matter what the score is.
“Our best game was the one that ended in a tie when the two-and-a-half hour time limit ran out. We were behind and fought back late in the game to salvage a tie.”
The Northstars return to league play at Shadle Park’s Jackson Field this week.

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(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

HEATING UP: Young Chewelah AA squad continues to get better as summer stretches on

Coach Tom Skok is not surprised that his Chewelah Forty-Niners are improving with every ballgame they play this summer.

“When my daughter Jaelynn first saw this team play early in the season, she immediately saw the potential of these young players and predicted that they would be much better later in the season,” recalled Skok. “Her prediction is coming true. These kids have really improved and we’re still gaining ground in the areas which were a concern at the beginning of the season.

“The kids are working hard to get better. Our pitching has improved and our bats are coming alive. We’ve been hitting the ball a lot better, but we need to become better batters with runners on base. We’ve also been playing a little small ball, using our bunting skills to advance and score baserunners, which has really paid off in our recent wins.

“Coach (Wade) Carpenter has been throwing his arm out in the batting cage, and the kids are responding to his coaching. He’s fixed a lot of the errors in their swings so they are making much better contact with the ball. Even though we are playing three or four games every week, he’s getting our players to practice on our non-game days. They enjoy his stories and his humor, and they respond in a positive way to his instruction.

“Jake Jeanneret and Sammy Triplett are two of our older kids who have become the team leaders. Even though Jake has had a sore pitching arm, he is still willing to give us a few innings on the mound when we need him. Sammy gives a lot of encouragement to the team.”

Recent wins over Ferris and Colville last week are indications of the improvement the Forty-Niners have made over the past month. Although their record is 4-6 so far this season, they have won two of their last three games. More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

Becca Bennett

BUSY WEEK: Becca Bennett goes to 2B State Golf and Softball Tournaments in the same week…

When Chewelah sent teams to the State 2B Golf Tournament and the State 2B Softball Tournament, there was one constant: student athlete Becca Bennett.

The Chewelah freshman had perhaps the busiest Springs of any athlete, playing both golf and softball for the Cougars.

“I grew up around softball, because my mom used to coach,” Bennett said. “So, when I was around four-years old, my mom put me into t-ball. Then I went on to play organized softball through the Chewelah girls youth softball program.” More