West Seattle, Washington
06 Friday
First – West Seattle Family YMCA sports director Matt Schlede sent that championship photo with news of who won a big game on Thursday night:
My Oh My beat the Bad News Y’rs 15-6 to win the West Seattle & Fauntleroy YMCA Adult Co-ed Softball Championship. My Oh My, who finished the season 7-1, was led by the strong bat and aggressive base-running of Jamie Schaefer, and solid outfield play of Drew Andrews.
Next – the Y’s Josh Sutton shares word that aquatics director Mac Snow just finished his cross-country bicycling odyssey – Seattle-to-Portland, but not the two-state STP, rather a coast-to-coast version. He chronicled it on this website, from which we pull the stats from his just-completed trip
21 days of biking:
2 days off in Chicago
3,395 total miles
Most miles 225, Austin MN to Madison WI
Least miles 105, multiple days
Speaking of Y aquatics, we are belatedly publishing these words of congratulation shared by Cindy McComish for another group of athletes who recently completed out-of-state travels:
7 swimmers and 1 assistant coach under the leadership of head coach Rod Rombauer have returned home after swimming in the National YMCA Long Course Swim Meet held in College Park, Maryland. The Dolphin National Team traveled to the meet on the campus of the University of Maryland by plane via Baltimore and stayed for 8 days and 8 nights. This year’s summer travel team represented 5 Seattle/Burien schools and the entire roster for the team (the starters, juniors, seniors, high school and national groups) is over 100 swimmers. Congratulations to this hard working national team and their coaches for their competitive spirit and for doing a great job of representing West Seattle.
That’s a photo we shared this year when first word came in that Girls on the Run was expanding into West Seattle. Now, in its second year, it’s adding a new site – Pathfinder K-8 – as well as Hiawatha Community Center. As Amber Swim explains it, “Girls on the Run operates an afterschool prevention program that uses the power of running to educate and prepare preteen girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. … Our program is facilitated by female volunteer coaches. Girls on the Run coaches do NOT need to be elite runners. Any woman who lives a healthy lifestyle and is committed to improving the lives of girls can be a GOTR coach.” Find out how to volunteer as a coach by going here. They’re accepting coaching applications until September 4th. The program sites will start twice-weekly sessions for girls (and coaches!) the week of September 28th, running through the New Balance Girls on the Run 5K on December 12th. For more info about participating, girlsrun.org is the place to go.
The West Seattle Little League‘s 11-12 All-Stars have come to the end of the road at the state tournament, after losing a nailbiter to Richmond last night in Port Orchard, 12-11. “Great season, All-Stars!” cheered the Twitter update at game’s end.
From the West Seattle Little League Twitter feed: The 11-12 All-Stars lost for the first time in the state tournament tonight, 12-0 to Pasco in Port Orchard. However, they’re still going, because it’s not a single-elimination tournament; the online bracket says they’ll play Richmond at 5 pm tomorrow, also at Port Orchard’s Art Mikelson Fields.
NEWEST FORECAST: As usual, the National Weather Service issued a forecast update overnight – no reprieve, though, it still calls for a potential 100-plus-degree high today.
PROSECUTOR’S DECISION IN SOUTH PARK MURDER: At 10 this morning, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg is scheduled to announce his decision on charges against Isaiah Kalebu, jailed in connection with the attack that killed 39-year-old Teresa Butz at her South Park home a week and a half ago. After Kalebu’s arrest last Friday night, a deputy prosecutor had said they would consider seeking the death penalty.
BALLOTS IN THE MAIL: Also from your county government – today’s the day ballots will be mailed for the August 18 primary, the first major election King County is conducting entirely by mail. Who’s running – along with links to their websites and other info – is listed here; the city Voters’ Guide, including video links and information on Proposition 1 (the bag fee) as well as the mayor/council races, is here.
WEST SEATTLE LITTLE LEAGUE 11-12 ALL-STARS GO FOR WIN #3: The state tournament continues for the WSLL 11-12 All-Stars; tonight at 7:30, they face Pasco in their third game of the tourney, which is happening at Art Mikelson Field in Port Orchard (just a Fauntleroy-to-Southworth ferry ride away, and think of those cool breezes on the water!).
YOUTH OUTDOOR SOCCER REGISTRATION: Today is Day 2 of signups for the West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor)’s Youth Outdoor Soccer teams, for ages 3-10. Register – and find out more – online.
(Maddie Meyers in a recent competition; photo courtesy of her family)
One more Seafair Torchlight note from Saturday night – we have congratulated local parade participants but just learned about a Torchlight Run participant’s success: 14-year-old West Seattle-residing running star Madeleine “Maddie” Meyers — going into her sophomore year at The Northwest School — was the 8th female to finish the run in Saturday night’s hot, humid and fleetingly rainy conditions. Her time: 32:08. (Another West Seattle link: The first woman to finish, again this year, was Vanessa Hunter, 27:54, who also was the first woman to cross the line in the first-ever West Seattle 5K (WSB coverage here) two months ago.)
Per the West Seattle Little League via Twitter – the WSLL 11-12 All-Star players won their second straight at the state tournament in Port Orchard, beating Salmon Creek 5-3 tonight. Next game 7:30 pm Wednesday vs. Pasco, again at Stan Mikelsen Fields in Port Orchard.
In the height of summer heat, the thought of breezing along on skates might hold new appeal – unless you don’t know how. If you want to try, here’s one way to learn!
By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
According to Trish Alexander, instructor and owner of Skate Journeys: “Skating is about more than going in a straight line.”
However, if you’re having trouble doing even that, but want to learn to skate for fun and for fitness, Trish is offering classes on Alki every Saturday through the summer. Beginner classes start at 12:30 and meet at Alki Kayak Tours, which rents and sells inline skates. Intermediate to Advanced classes meet at 2:00 at Jack Block Park. (Classes will be cancelled if it rains.)
Trish started teaching people to skate in 1996 at the Seattle Inline Arena under the West Seattle Bridge.
Quick update: The West Seattle Little League 11-12 All-Stars play their second game in the state tournament tonight, 7:30 pm, Art Mikelson Field in Port Orchard – after beating Centralia 13-5 Saturday afternoon.
This Saturday, West Seattle Little League‘s 11-12 All-Stars begin play in the state tournament, 2:30 pm at Port Orchard’s Art Mikelson Field (map). Their manager, John MacKenzie, shared the photo above along with the intense tale of how they got there!
West Seattle won back-to-back games against South Highline National on Saturday July 12th at PacWest fields in Burien to win the District 7 Little League title. After West Seattle lost the first game against South Highline National they needed to win 6 games in a row to advance to the Little League 11-12 year old State Tournament. “It wasn’t how we planned it but we persevered and it actually benefited our team in the long run to have to fight through the losers’ bracket,” said Manager John MacKenzie. “We had no margin for error and had to play every day to advance, allowing the team to gel.”
The bright spot of the 7-3 game 1 loss was the play of lead-off batter McNeil Fulmore, who homered in the first and scored twice. It turned out to be the 1st of 23 homeruns by 10 different players in 7 games by the powerful West Seattle squad. “After Nutt (McNeil) hit a lead-off homer to tie the score in the first I thought we were off to the races” said a West Side fan, “but that didn’t happen.”
(Read on for the rest of the dramatic play by play!)Read More
First, the West Seattle Little League 9-10 All-Stars took the district championships and are headed to the state championships – now, the West Seattle Little League 11-12 All-Stars have won District 7 as well! From Cami MacNamara:
The West Seattle Little League 11-12 (Majors) All Star team defeated South Highline Nationals twice on Saturday to become District 7 Champs! The team will now advance to the Washington State 11-12 All Star tournament in Port Orchard, WA on July 25th. Go West Side!
On the 4th of July, we brought you a quick update about the West Seattle Little League 9-10 All-Stars‘ huge district-championship win, propelling them into the state tournament (starting next weekend). Now we have not only that victory photo but also the full details, courtesy of Cami MacNamara:
West Seattle 9/10 Little League All-stars are the District 7 Champions!
On Saturday July 4th they started their battle against South Highline National Little League. Having lost to SHNLL on Wednesday, WSLL was coming up through the losers bracket and needed to beat SHNLL twice to earn the championship.
The first game was fantastic; WSLL beat SHNLL 18-5 in four innings with some red-hot bats and great pitching. Highlights included a bases loaded triple by Jack Page, an out of the park home run by 9 year-old Anthony Coats and a dominant pitching performance by Alex Parker.
This win forced a second game and WSLL played equally as well in this contest. Great bats and excellent pitching were again the story. ALL the players were feeling confident and playing beautifully. David Johnson pitched masterfully and the big highlight was a game winning triple by Jacob Terao to secure the 13-3 victory, again in four innings.
The WSLL team is managed by Derek Page and coached by John Coats.
The players are Jack Page, Anthony Coats, Matt Dietz, Thomas Sobotta, Anthony Goss, Alex Parker, David Johnson, Grayson O’Neil, Jacob Terao, Cameron Paskett, Ethan Chen, and Adam Wickler.
From here, the boys will go on to represent District 7 at the Little League State Tournament Starting beginning July 19th at the Valley Ridge Fields in SeaTac. For details, check out www.westseattlelittleleague.com.
You can also follow WSLL on Twitter, @wslittleleague (we’re at @westseattleblog for frequent human-powered updates, @westseattlenews for an automated feed of links to WSB stories as they’re published).
Thanks to Tim McMonigle from the West Seattle Soccer Club for spotting news of a big new event headed to West Seattle – Seattle’s wildly popular Sounders FC pro-soccer organization is presenting the first-ever Sounders FC Soccer Beach Blast Tournament on Alki, set for August 23rd. Signups are under way now; here’s where to register and to find out more (note that co-sponsor Super Supplements, which has a West Seattle Junction store, is offering a coupon for discount registration). 2:58 PM NOTE: The fine print says this is for ages 18 and up.
You don’t need the top trophy to be a winner. Jill Pagano from Arbor Heights reminds us of this by sending that photo and explaining:
This weekend the U8 (8-year-olds) West Seattle All-Star Team played in “The Lineup, July 4th Tournament” down in Tacoma (Spanaway Park). A full weekend of baseball included 4 games on Saturday, July 4th (they went 3-1) with a final game on Sunday. Coach Peter Eastey team took home the third-place win and all the kids received medals. A special shout-out to all volunteer coaches for giving so freely of their time to teach our kids about, not only the sport but also how to enjoy the game, support their teammates, and smile even when they don’t win.
This team is affiliated with the West Seattle Association of Pee Wee Baseball, which is hosting two tournaments later this month, as noted in this story from last week.
Thanks to Emilie for e-mailing the news – verified via Twitter – the West Seattle Little League 9-10 All-Stars won both ends of a doubleheader against the South Highline Nationals at Bar-S and are headed to state. Congratulations!
Thanks to Lisa for sharing that photo with the news that the West Seattle All-Stars, from the West Seattle Association of Pee-Wee Baseball, won the Maltby Invitational Baseball Tournament last weekend – taking the title in the U-10 bracket, with the leadership of head coach Manny Flores. Congratulations! (Got good news to share? Lots of ways to get it to WSB, any time!) ADDED WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: Some upcoming Pee Wee Baseball info from league president Eric Olson:
Our 10U team is hosting the 2009 West Seattle Mustang Tune Up on July 10th – 12th.
Twelve of the best 10U teams from around the region will be at this tournament. This tournament gets them ready for the Pony Sectional tournament which is the first step in the process of making it to the Pony 10U World Series later this summer.The West Seattle Niners will be hosting the 2009 West Seattle Junior Mustang Shootout on July 17th – 19th. Again, 12 of the region’s best 9U teams will be in attendance.
Both tournaments are held at the West Seattle Pee Wee Fields at Lower Riverview. The address is 1200 SW Myrtle St. Tournament schedules can be found at www.westseattlepeewee.com.
As the Hiawatha Playfield renovation work intensifies, with dirt-moving having begun late last week, Dave e-mailed this morning to say the century-old elm tree by the field has just been cut down (same tree shown in the city photo at left). This has been in the plans for a long time, according to the story we published after a public meeting in December 2007, at which time the Parks Department said 14 trees in all – including that elm – would be coming down. Some things have since changed, though – like the timetable for the project, which was then expected to be built last year, but is just getting started now, and the price tag for the project, with bids that came in so low, Parks was able to move half a million dollars out of the budget to cover about 2/3 of the Delridge Skatepark project. There’s also a new project manager, and we’re working to get an official update from him on the timetable and what’ll be happening over the summer, as well as the latest on the tree-cutting that will be involved. (Parks had said at that 2007 meeting that the elm tree had suffered serious damage in an ice storm several years ago – note the uneven sides in the photo.) When the project’s done late this year, Hiawatha will have new lighting and new turf for full-size baseball, soccer and football fields (details here). 1:17 PM UPDATE: Stopped by Hiawatha for photos of what’s happening, including what’s left of the elm tree:
We also got a quick status report from project manager Garrett Farrell:
The contractor has removed the existing batting cages, backstop, bleachers and field lighting. Stripping of the old field surface is underway. The new underground irrigation and electrical work will follow.
Farrell notes the tree removal is also explained on the Hiawatha project’s webpage – it’s still expected to total 14 trees including this one; the other 13 are smaller/younger. ADDED 5:10 PM: Thanks to Forest for pointing out that the city’s been vigilant about elm-tree disease for months now — here’s info about the Elm Protection Program.
Thanks to Cindy McComish for that photo from Colman Pool at Lincoln Park, where the Seattle Open swim meet continues through tomorrow (replacing the regular public swimming schedule). Cindy writes, “Congratulations to all the swimmers who work hard to qualify to be in this meet. Come watch youth from western Washington go fast!” (She’s parent to a West Seattle YMCA [WSB sponsor] Dolphin swimmer.)
While out in The Junction covering the car-on-side crash Tuesday afternoon, we noticed a forklift in action over by West Seattle Bowl. Further investigation revealed that, like nearby Fauntleroy Way, West Seattle Bowl is embarking on midst of lane-resurfacing work. Materials arrived yesterday and were moved into place, and prep work will continue for the rest of the week. West Seattle Bowl’s Jeff Swanson tells WSB that over the next three or four weeks, they’ll resurface two lanes at a time – all the others will be open, so no change in hours or operations expected.
Here’s an update on the upcoming volleyball camps at West Seattle High School, from Westside assistant coach Jim Hardy:
Help Sponsor the Westside Volleyball Camp with Idaho Vandals Coach Steve Whitaker @ West Seattle HS
We are still accepting registrations for July’s Volleyball Camp for HS and Middle School age players. The camp will run Monday-Thursday July 6th-9th, 1:00-5:30 at West Seattle High School. The fee for the Camp is $120. (Some scholarships and waivers are available.) This is a fundraiser for the VB team, and more sponsors are needed! Contact Head Coach Gail Mowrer to register. Phone 206.935.3231 or 206.293.5063 E-mail: mowrerpowers@comcast.net
Registration form and flyer are on the WSHS Volleyball Web Site:
www.wshsvb.greatserve.com/WestsideCamp.htm
(From left: Anthony Coats, Alex Coats, Coach Steve Meehan, Alex MacKenzie, Coach John Coats, Kevin Simmons, David Meehan, Cameron Slader, Griffin Bills, Cameron Paskett, Morgan Higgins, Austin Hall, James Morrison, Coach John MacKenzie)
Yesterday, we previewed the big championship game; today, the results and the victory photo, courtesy of West Seattle Little League‘s John MacKenzie:
The West Seattle Little League Majors Division D-Rays dominated the District 7 Tournament of Champions championship game on Monday by defeating South Highline National LL 15-0 in 4 innings. After winning the West Seattle Little League title, the Rays represented WSLL in the T.O.C. at Normandy Park City Hall fields. The T.O.C features the winners of all 8 of the District‘s leagues in a single-elimination tournament. The other teams are Seattle Central LL, Rainier LL, Renton LL, Pacwest LL, South Highline American LL, and the 2nd place South Highline National LL.
The Rays scored 26 runs and allowed 0 in the 3-day tournament. “The offense was amazing, with 4 home runs and several extra-base hits, the defense made some great plays and didn’t commit an error, and the pitching was overpowering with 4 pitchers combining to allow only 3 hits and 5 walks while striking out 28. I couldn’t have imagined a better finish to an incredible season” said Coach MacKenzie.
The D-Rays finished the season 21-1-1 and several players will be representing WSLL in the upcoming All-Star tournaments. For more information on the All-Star tournaments and WSLL, check out www.westseattlelittleleague.com.
The Rays’ coaches and players want to thank everyone who has supported them throughout the season.
(2008 photo by Brian Todd, Aus der Traum Photography)
Just in from Seattle Volleyball Association – a clinic this Saturday with your chance to “learn from the best”:
By popular demand, the best players in the Northwest will be taking a day off from playing a tournament and running a beach volleyball clinic to allow anyone a chance to learn from the best. All levels are welcome, whether you’re just starting to play or wanting to brush up your skills. The Northwest’s professional and semi-pro players will help players with passing, setting, hitting and serving, then have the nets open for all players to practice their skills against other players of their same skill level. The event goes 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with open net play for all participants who want to practice their skills with instructors from 2 to 4 p.m. The cost for each participant is $25 per person.
For full details of the event plus contact info, read on:Read More
From West Seattle Little League, John MacKenzie just e-mailed to share this news:
The D-Rays, winners of the West Seattle Little League Majors Division, advanced to the District 7 Championship Game with a 1-0 extra inning game against the Rainier Little League champions yesterday afternoon. The D-Rays beat the South Highline American Little League champs 10-0 on Friday night to get to the semi-final game against Rainier. The championship game will be held tonight at 6 PM at Normandy Park City Hall Fields, located at 801 SW 174th St., Normandy Park.
Here’s a map. Good luck, D-Rays!
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