West Seattle, Washington
26 Tuesday
A new parents’ group, Wildcats Touchdown Club, is rallying community support for the West Seattle High School football team, under its new head coach, as the new season approaches. Here’s what they want you to know – and how they hope you can help:
Are you ready for some West Seattle High School football? The coaches, players, and parents at WSHS are. The student athletes and the community are excited for the reveal of the 2017 Wildcats … and there is a lot to be excited about.
The players have been working hard since June to get ready for this season under new head Coach Marcis Fennell. Coach Fennell is developing a culture within the WSHS Football program that prepares young people for the rigors of life through education, technically develops athletes to excel in the sport of football, instills values that will assist in producing men and women of character, gets the team involved with the West Seattle community and continues to cultivate the long tradition of Westside Pride!
As the new coaching staff enters its first season, one of their driving initiatives is to provide a positive and safe experience for all students. To facilitate this, we are asking our community, friends and families, to donate to our program. Please understand that all proceeds will directly benefit the student athletes and their experience in the Wildcats Football program.
Right now, the team is in immediate need of the following:
*Equipment (girdles, thigh pads, knee pads, etc.) for student athletes
*Operational equipment (agility bags, hand shields, pop-up bags)
*Team meals (pre-game team meals, halftime snacks, and fall ball double day snacks)
*Giant Tents for team halftime at SWAC (there are no locker rooms for the team at half-time)
*Funds for transportation to and from games
The West Seattle Football team currently has three ways that you can help with our immediate and long-term goals:
Donate directly to the Football Booster club at our Booster Club for Cats Football GoFundMe page.
Our awesome 2017 WS Football Kick-off t-shirt (you can get one with a blank back as well) for $25 each.
Our cool Elite West Seattle Wildcat socks for $24 a pair.
**To pre-order your T-shirt and socks, contact lildeerpaw@hotmail.com with cash or checks payable to the WS Booster Club.
Thanks, all supporters of the Wildcats football program! Every cent donated will assist the coaches and staff in pouring love and education into our young people through the sport of football!
We look forward to seeing you on Friday nights in the Fall!
Don’t forget to put on your calendars that the first game is September 1, 2017 @ 7:00 pm at SWAC!
The full season schedule can be seen here; if you missed our interview with Coach Fennell after the March announcement that he was joining WSHS, see it here.
(Duwamish Rowing Club photo: Gold medal winners L-R, Molly MacDonald, Bree Hopkins, Coxswain: Dirke Holsberry, Hazel Dahlquist, Laurel Glassley)
From the Duwamish Rowing Club, word of rowers’ success and a reminder about your chance to learn to row:
The Green Lake Summer Extravaganza is one of summer’s last regattas for rowing crews in the Northwest.
This year, 24 crews from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska gathered on Saturday, August 5th for one last fun race of 1000 meters before fall’s longer head race season begins.
The Duwamish Rowing Club had seven entries in six races for both masters (adults) and junior youth crews. Our DRC girls under 16 rowed their quad to win the gold medal, crossing the finish line with open water between them and the other crews. It was exceptionally sweet because many of the girls were novices with only three weeks’ rowing experience. A quad is a boat that holds four rowers, each with a sculling oar in each hand or eight oars. They row together in unison.
The Duwamish Rowing Club has both youth and master’s programs and is currently seeking more members. Come join a vibrant, growing, fun team. Over the next six weeks, we are hosting a free learn to row event. If you would like to be on land and on the water learning the sport of rowing, contact us at duwamishrowingclub.org.
(Photo courtesy West Seattle YMCA)
Interested in youth soccer this fall? Registration is closing soon at the West Seattle YMCA (WSB sponsor), which shared this reminder:
At the Y, our sports staff, coaches and volunteers all share a singular vision of helping all youth reach their full potential in life. We leverage the excitement and passion around recreational and competitive programming to create a healthy outlet for children to gain new skills, develop a sense of team and connect with positive role models.
Practices start the week of September 11 at High Point fields. Games are on Saturday starting (updated) September 23 at Roxhill Park or Lincoln Park. Registration closes soon – on August 28. Join us for Outdoor Soccer this fall!
To register and learn more, follow this link.
Congratulations to West Seattle’s Lauryn Nguyen for her big win at the recent Washington Junior Golf Association State Championships! The announcement:
Lauryn Nguyen won her division (14-15 year old girls) by a commanding 7 strokes. In the Girls overall division (14-18 year old), she came back from a 7-stroke deficit after day two to force a sudden death play-off. She won the playoff in just one hole with a birdie on a par-5. She shot rounds of 69, 72, 72 to post a 3-day total of 3 under par to capture the Championship Title. She is among one of the youngest players to win this title, having just turned 14 last May.
Nguyen attended Madison Middle School, where she earned the Principal’s Award for maintaining a GPA of 4.0 throughout her 3 years at Madison. She will be a freshman at West Seattle High School next fall. She is looking forward to playing on the WSHS golf team with her brother Alex for one year before he graduates in the Spring.
The WJGA tournament was held at Meadow Springs Country Club in Richland.
Thanks to West Seattle High School track and field head coach Will Harrison for sharing news of what he headlines as “stunning summer performances for WSHS track athletes”:
West Seattle HS Track and Field athletes rolled from national class spring WIAA track seasons into sizzling summer track seasons:
After capturing the 300-meter hurdles crown at the 3A State Meet to cap off his junior-year spring track season, Cass Elliott took home another state title at the 46th Annual Washington State Combined events Championship, held at Lake Stevens High School on June 2-3. Elliott won the 10-event decathlon with a score of 6008, which included winning the 400, 110 hurdles, Javelin, and 1500 outright against the top 32 athletes accepted into the meet. He would later improve his decathlon score to 6235 in July.
He next competed in the prestigious USA Track and Field Junior (U-20) Championships in Sacramento, California. As a 17-year-old junior, Elliott was up against a loaded field of the nation’s best high-school seniors and college freshman competing for a chance to finish in the top 2 and represent the U.S. at the 2017 Pan American Junior games in Peru. Elliott wound up 9th with a stunning time of 52.07 seconds. For perspective, that time that would have placed 6th in the PAC-12 Championships this season.
Most recently, he competed at the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships in Lawrence, Kansas, where athletes compete in 2-year age brackets. Elliott finished runner-up at the in the 17-18 category with a time of 52.14. He also took 2nd last year in the 15-16 division.
Cunliffe Regains Washington All-Time Sophomore Record
(Cunliffe with Coach Tim Reilly after the Junior Olympic Regional)
Sophomore star Chloe Cunliffe temporarily held the sophomore class, all-classification, all-time state record in the Pole Vault after clearing 12 feet, 9 inches back in April at the Pasco Invite before fellow sophomore, Eastlake’s Ellie Talius broke the record by jumping 13’1 at the 4A District II meet. By clearing 13’1.5 at the Junior Olympic Regional in Spokane on June 25th, Cunliffe narrowly regained the top spot in the record book.
Fortunately, the WIAA does indeed count summer marks for state records. And coincidentally, Cunliffe’s mark also would have placed 6th in the PAC-12 college ranks this year, like Elliott’s. She competed this summer with Seattle Speed TC and NW Pole Vault.
Also Notable
Other notable summer performances from West Seattle Track Athletes were junior Joe Kirk-Woodbury (above) placing 16th in the hammer throw (156’11) and 30th in shot put (44’7.5) in the 17-18 Division at National Junior Olympic Championships, and graduated senior Abdullahi Ali qualified for Junior Olympic Nationals by nationals by placing 7th at the regionals in Spokane in the 110 Meter Hurdles (15.74 seconds). Both athletes competed with High Voltage TC.
(WSB photo: Kayleen Dunson, before Delridge Playfield game in July)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
When the Pan American Women’s Softball Championships start tomorrow in the Dominican Republic, West Seattle will be represented.
Not by a player.
By an umpire!
We’ve introduced you to Kayleen Dunson before. She is in her fifth year as Umpire In Chief for USA Softball in this area (Seattle Metro Softball Umpires Association).
And she is one of two USA umpires chosen to go to the 20-nation championships in Santo Domingo.
The photo and report are from Brent Lindblom:
Congratulations to the Arbor Heights Swim and Tennis Club swimmers who advanced to the Greater
Seattle Summer Swim League “GSSSL” ALL CITY Championship Meet.
Above from left to right and top to bottom:
Brendan Stoll, Dominic Flack, Ben Kinerk, Ty Lindblom, and Hannah Tittel
Lucas Richardson, Will McGlothlin, Lachlan Swanson, and Cookie Hooper. (Not in the photo, Tyler Lenzie)The meet was held at Innis Arden Swimming Club in Shoreline.
Your Arbor Heights All City Winners are:
Ty Lindblom: 1st Place 15-18 Boys 50-yard Back and 5th Place boys 100-yard Individual Medley
Hannah Tittel: 6th Place 15-18 Girls 50-yard Free and 5th Place 15-18 Girls 50-yard Butterfly
Ben Kinerk: 5th Place 15-18 Boys 50-yard Breast
Dominic Flack: 6th Place 15-18 Boys 50-yard Breast
Lucas Richardson: 6th Place 13-14 Boys 50-yard Free
Lachlan Swanson: 5th Place 11-12 Boys 50-yard Breast
Will McGlothin: 4th Place 11-12 Boys 50-yard Breast Stroke
Cookie Hooper: 4th Place 8 and under Girls 25-yard Butterfly and 25-yard Back StrokeRelays:
5th Place Boys 15-18 200-Yard Medley Relay:
Ty Lindblom, Dominic Flack, Tyler Lenzie and Brendan Stoll
5th Place Boys 15-18 200-Yard Free Relay:
Ben Kinerk, Tyler Lenzie, Brendan Stoll and Ty Lindblom
Alternates:
Naomi Williams
Cassidy Wells
Flora Medina
JJ Hartog
Ryan KlemCoaches: Hannah Tittel, Nate Williams, Nicole Roed and Chris Veraya
11:14 PM: Local distance swimmer Andrew Malinak is the person who’s told us about some of his fellow swimmers’ memorable feats in recent years – such as Melissa Blaustein tackling the “Amy Hiland Swim” from Bremerton to Alki Point three weeks ago (WSB coverage here), less than a year after Erika Norris did it.
And he's off. #swimming from Olympia to Seattle. #marathonswimming #openwaterswimming pic.twitter.com/MejBPtEWZo
— Andrew Malinak (@AndrewSwims) July 22, 2017
Right now, Andrew is on a daring swim of his own – having left Olympia around 4 pm, planning to swim all night and into tomorrow, expecting to reach downtown Seattle Sunday evening. Along the way, if all goes well, he’ll be off West Seattle . You can follow him via this tracking site.
He planned to have Alki swimmers including Erika sailing alongside for support. “I’ll swim through the night, and will land in the Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle around maybe 6 pm Sunday. We’ll pass by Alki Light around 3-4 pm-ish. Distance is 53.3 miles.” So keep an eye offshore tomorrow afternoon – you might see Andrew and his support crew. Two years ago, he swam from Tacoma to West Seattle – this is about triple the distance.
SUNDAY MORNING NOTE: The tracking stopped after midnight, and Andrew e-mailed at 1 am that “the swim is over; we’re headed home.”
Thanks to Tanya Powers for the photo and report:
I wanted to share with you that the Galaxy Girls took 1st place at the International Championships for the 2017 Junior Roller Derby Association on Sunday in Loveland, Colorado!
The Galaxy Girls are a part of Seattle Derby Brats, which first formed in West Seattle at Pathfinder School. While they have moved, they maintain a close connection to West Seattle, with one of the two coaches (Luna, aka Patrice Davis) from West Seattle and 4 of the skaters (Seven Skate Nine, Brady O’Flyer, Helen, and Fighty – their skate names) also from West Seattle.
This is their third time taking Championships. We are so very pleased for their win!
You can cheer for the champs in person even before their next bout – Seattle Derby Brats, with Galaxy Girls representation, will be in Saturday’s West Seattle Grand Parade (11 am Saturday, southbound on California from Lander to Edmunds).
Photos by Leda Costa for WSB
It’s our area’s only river, and it remains a heavily industrialized waterway. It’s also where the Duwamish Rowing Club is continuing to grow. Part of that growth – its second annual regatta this past Saturday.
That brought supporters and rowers to the shore at Duwamish Waterway Park in South Park and the river’s waters beyond.
While we were there, Ria Delora and Molly McDonald (above and below) rowed for DRC in a youth race against Lake Stevens. Read More
After an 8-day tournament in Vancouver, Washington, the West Seattle Little League 10-11 All-Stars are coming home with the state championship! Thanks to everyone who sent the exciting news. This is from Darrell Glover:
The West Seattle Little League 10/11 All Star Team beat Kirkland 6-4 on Saturday to bring home the first State Championship for West Seattle Little League.
The team went undefeated (9- 0) through the District 7 and Washington State Championship Tournaments. There were close games and nailbiters throughout the run, but the team always found a way to win. There was “no bottom of the order” on the team – every player was clutch !!
Manager – Mike Fahey, Coaches – Sean Eley and Brian Sherrick. Players are alphabetically – Tristan Buehring, Parker Eley, Caden Fahey, Robbie Foisey, Wyatt Glover, Miles Gosztola, Mathew Hazlegrove, Mathew Henning-Dierickx, Joe Sherrick, Blake Taft, Bobby Trigg, Simon Vance
By Patrick Sand and Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog co-publishers
Like his predecessor, West Seattle High School‘s new head baseball coach has deep roots at the school.
Bryan Tupper, a 2002 WSHS graduate, has been announced as the school’s new head baseball coach, successor to Velko Vitalich, who – as reported here a month ago – retired from the role after 31 years.
We talked with Coach Tupper at a local coffee shop this week. His rise to the head-coach job comes after he spent six of the past seven years as an assistant coach for the Wildcats.
He’s a born-and-raised West Seattleite who started playing ball at Bar-S Playfield and played with West Seattle Little League all the way up through seniors. He played in the Pony League, too, for the West Seattle Dodgers.
After college, he wanted to go into coaching, and Coach Vitalich gave him a chance. Since he’s worked with the team for so many years already, he says he’s familiar with the students in the program, and while he’ll have to get to know some of the freshmen, many of them have older siblings with whom he’s already worked at WSHS.
Coach Tupper says his core group for next season has good talent coming along, and he sees a real possibility to build a program that produces teams like the ones who went to state for five consecutive years in the past decade. The building blocks are in place now, he says, to have a competitive team for next year. He says WSHS’s increasing success in sports has encouraged more student athletes to stay at the school rather than switch to independent schools.
Overall, Coach Tupper says, he sees this as a great opportunity – and it’s in his hometown, where his folks still live, too. Now, it’s on to preparing for the 2018 season.
First they won the district championship, and now they’ll play for the state championship! Thanks to Darrell Glover for the update:
The West Seattle Little League 10/11-year-old All Stars have gone undefeated at the State Tournament in Vancouver thus far.
After a walk-off nailbiter against Kirkland yesterday, they advance to the State Championship game Saturday morning at 10 am.
Score of the game against Kirkland was 6-5; they have won 4 straight games against the best teams in the State, a special bunch of kids.
GO WESTSIDE !!!!
Thanks to Darrell for the photo and report:
The West Seattle Little League 10 /11 year old All-Star Team went undefeated in winning the District 7 championship Wednesday night. The team is off to the state tournament in Vancouver, Washington. Please wish them luck in their first game, which is Saturday at noon.
The team is made up of coaches Mike Fahey, Sean Ealey, and Brian Sherrick. Players are Miles G, Tristan B, Caden F, Robbie F, Matthew H, Bobby T, Parker E, Blake T, Matthew H, Joe S, Will S, Simon V and Wyatt G.
(Janine Surge with first-place trophy from Western Open)
Congratulations to Janine Surge, a West Seattle resident who’s won a prestigious golf tournament and is on her way to another one. Here’s the announcement:
West Seattle resident Janine Surge is one of four female high-school golfers who will be representing Team Washington at the Girls Junior Americas Cup (GJAC), hosted from August 1st – 3rd, 2017 at Reflection Bay Golf Club in Nevada. The GJAC tournament brings together teams from 17 western states and one (1) team from British Columbia, comprising of the top four girls from each state/country.
En route to earning a spot on Team Washington, Janine claimed a 1st-place finish at the WA State Junior Golf Association’s Western Open, firing rounds of 69 and 70 (two-day total of 5 under par) at Capitol Golf Course in Olympia. She also earned an exemption into the prestigious IMG Junior World Golf Championship, to be contested in San Diego July 11th – 14th, 2017 at Torrey Pines Golf Course by carding rounds to 73 and 74 at the qualifier tournament at Tumwater Golf Course.
Good luck, Janine, at Junior Worlds and GJAC!
Janine is a former Madison Middle School student who will be a junior at Holy Names Academy this fall (but is not currently on the school’s golf team).
(WSB video showing 2016 Float Dodgers leaving the start line)
Continuing our summer-event countdowns … we’re less than three weeks from the sixth annual Float Dodger 5K, 
a fun costumed-if-you-want run/walk that precedes the West Seattle Grand Parade on Saturday, July 22nd. West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor) presents it:
8:45 am – Free Kids Dash around the track
9:00 am – California Ave SW closes to traffic
9:30 am – Race starts
10:00 am – Awards ceremony and costume contest
10:15 am – Afterparty at West Seattle Runner
10:30 am – Parade floats are unleashed
“The track” is at Hiawatha Community Center (right across the street from WS Runner!), where the Float Dodger 5K starts and finishes again this year. Here’s the course map. The Float Dodger 5K benefits My Team Triumph; you can register online here (or in person at WS Runner, 2743 California SW).
Another baseball team with congratulations due! Sue sent the photo and reports that “the Cardinals won the championship of the Pony level of West Seattle Baseball last Saturday. They beat the Cubs but it took them 10 innings.”
(Added: WSB photos/video from the end of Melissa’s swim)
12:56 PM: If all goes well, distance swimmer Melissa Blaustein of San Francisco will arrive on shore at Alki Point in 4 hours or so. She left Bremerton as of about 12:30. She’s swimming in tribute to Amy Hiland, who did the same swim in 1958, one year after making history by swimming the Strait of Juan de Fuca. You can track Melissa’s swim here. Updates to come!
3:40 PM: The tracker shows Melissa out of Rich Passage and off South Bainbridge Island. She explains on her “Chasing Amy” website that this is the first of her tribute swims, as she hopes to “undertake the challenge of completing as many of Amy Hiland’s swims as possible.”
4:39 PM: She’s now out in the open Sound between Bainbridge and Alki Point. The Northwest Open Water Swimming Association has posted a few updates, including people on a ferry cheering Melissa on. (And yes, this is the same swim that Erika Norris completed last year.)
She made it! pic.twitter.com/XKOdI9RCY2
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) July 2, 2017
5:54 PM: She made it! As of a few minutes ago, yelling “That was fun!” Video’s on Twitter and we will add here when back at HQ added above – that’s her brother Billy getting out of the water just ahead of her to record her arrival.
7:02 PM: Local marathon swimmer Andrew Malinak, who tipped us to this swim, says two locals, Jerome and Lauren, are planning to do it in late August, so stay tuned for word on that later this summer. Meantime, according to the list on Melissa’s website, she plans to try the Strait of Juan de Fuca in September.
If you’re a runner with some time to spare to help others in your community – Jim McCue has an offer for you. We’ve featured him on WSB recently 
in his role as head coach of the Chief Sealth International High School cross-country team, but he’s also a program manager with the Somali Family Safety Task Force, which has a youth mentorship program coming up titled Run For Change. Jim explains that it “combines long-distance running, health education, and civic engagement” to assist immigrant and refugee youth, many of whom attend Chief Sealth or Denny International Middle School: “Our plan is to align our program with the start and end of each academic year (approx. August to June), culminating in the running of the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. We’re currently in the process of recruiting potential running mentors that would be paired with each student to guide them through both (a) the highs-and-lows of pursuing a dedicated training schedule and (b) a discussion of ways for each student to better approach their personal lives through making healthier decisions for greater behavior change!” Further details:
Mentor Ages: Anyone 20 years and older, preferably in or graduated from college
Gender: all welcome
Skill Levels: all welcome. We’re hoping for a range from technology professionals to artists to engineers, and everyone in between!
Commitment: Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm and Saturdays from 8:00 am-10:00 am. We start August 19 and end with a Turkey Trot during Thanksgiving weekend. We’re hoping to continue the program until the June Rock ‘n Roll Marathon, but that depends on securing additional funding.
An information session is coming up on July 10th at the task force HQ in NewHolly – you can RSVP and get more info here. You’re also welcome to e-mail Jim at ambrosemcq@gmail.com with questions.
First day of summer vacation for Seattle Public Schools students, and some summer-camp decisions have yet to be made. If a 3rd- through 8th-grader in your house is interested in basketball, here’s an offer: Four days of training with the West Seattle High School girls-basketball team – which benefits from the proceeds – focusing on “integrating individual skill into game concepts, (concentrating on) dribbling, shooting, ball handling, footwork, and game-situational skills and drills.” 9 am-noon each day, Monday, July 17th, through Thursday, July 20th, at the WSHS Gym (3000 California SW). $100 for the whole week – you can register right now here, and then pay here. Questions? wshsgirlsbball@gmail.com
(Photos courtesy Clay Eals)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“It has drama, it has charm, it has youthful exuberance.”
So enthuses Bob Kendrick about “Legends of the Road,” the locally produced documentary that will be screened at the historic Admiral Theater tomorrow night to raise money to restore its murals.
Most of all, it has history – history that Bob knows well. He is president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, visiting West Seattle to be part of the screening, which is the story of a Chief Sealth (pre-International) High School teacher and his students who made a groundbreaking 5,100-mile bicycle trip at the turn of the millennium to recreate the leagues’ “barnstorming” trips.
(Bob Kendrick and Gary Thomsen)
That since-retired teacher, Gary Thomsen, was part of our conversation today with Bob and with Clay Eals of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, which is presenting Tuesday night’s event.
Even if you’re not a baseball fan – or history buff – there are reasons to go see it. Read More
More end-of-school year sports news: West Seattle High School has a new girls-soccer coach. We met Todd Veenhuizen at his meeting for prospective players after school on Thursday.
He shared his expectations – including positive attitudes – as they look ahead to tryouts in about two months. And he told them about his background, including serving as an assistant coach for women at UW and Seattle University. The new coach says he believes the team has a solid core to build on, losing only two players to graduation (one of whom happens to be his daughter Sara Veenhuizen). First league game in the fall, by the way, will be against crosstown rivals Chief Sealth International High School.
Zach Jones shares the photos and a report about two championships for West Seattle Baseball All-Star teams last weekend. First, their 8U tournament at the Pee Wee Fields below Riverview:
We had 16 teams from around the area (Seattle, Silverdale, Bellevue, Maple Valley, Renton, etc) in our 8U Hardball Classic. It’s one of the biggest 8U tournaments around. The West Seattle All Stars took the championship in a great win over the Rain City Royals (Maple Valley). 12-4 was the final.
Players on the team are: Avery, Emery, Kingsley, Micah, Jackson, Nolan, Julian, Max, Will, Kaipo, Ivan, and Tate. Coaches: Jorge, Dave, Zach (me).
In addition, we held a mini-tournament Sunday for the 7U teams that entered. Our own West Seattle 7U All Stars won the championship against Puget Sound Powerhouse.
[Atop this story] is a picture of all of our WS kids celebrating the victory together. It was a great moment as the 8U teams stormed the field to celebrate with their 7U buddies!
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