West Seattle, Washington
14 Thursday
More youth-sports success! West Seattle Baseball president Eric Olson reports that the league’s 9U All Stars won the PONY Northwest Region Championship over the weekend:
The 9U all-stars followed in the footsteps of their 8U counterparts and beat Maltby Pony Baseball to become the PONY Northwest Region Champions. After going down 5-4 in the first, the Niners put on another hit parade, scoring 8 over the last 5 innings to win 13-7. The team really played great team baseball behind a stellar pitching performance by Chase Clifton, who pitched 5 2/3 innings.
The team leaves Thursday to Walnut, California, for the 9U PONY West Zone Championship, with an opportunity to advance to the 9U World Series.
Front: Cooper Hall, Brody Olson
Back: Joel Clark, Brendan Johnson, Jack Cahill, Patrick Galvin, Chase Clifton, Payton Kyle, Kai Perala, Tyler Eisenhut, Wyatt Trujillo, Ethan Wyatt
Coaches: John Cahill, Eric Olson, Vic Hall
Congratulations and good luck!
@westseattleblog photo from today's WSLL game pic.twitter.com/jpzvSP1TcT
— Cami MacNamara (@webcami) July 13, 2014
Thanks again to Cami MacNamara for updates on the West Seattle Little League 11-12 All Stars’ team’s progress in the state tournament WSLL is hosting at Bar-S on Alki Point. After a Saturday victory, the team lost to Federal Way today, 8-4, but gets to play again tomorrow – 3 pm vs. Burlington-Edison. Here’s the updated bracket/schedule.
Big sports day tomorrow in West Seattle. We’ve already mentioned the big Little League tournament happening tomorrow at Bar-S – and there’s football on the peninsula tomorrow too. From Chief Sealth International High School head coach Luther Carr III:
We are hosting our 2nd annual RIP-IT 7 on 7 Passing League tomorrow July 12, 2014 at SWAC from 8:00AM – 4:00PM. 16 Teams from around Western Washington are competing for the RIP-IT Championship trophy. Teams are guaranteed 6 games. Most of the games will be played from 8 am to 1 pm. Following a break for lunch the games played from 1:30PM till 4:00 PM are loser-out games, culminating with the RIP-IT Championship. Entry is free for fans.
SW Athletic Complex is across from Sealth, at 2801 SW Thistle.
From Keven Ruf:
West Seattle Little League 13-year olds in the Intermediate League competed Thursday afternoon for the State Championship in Mill Creek. They lost to an all-star team drawn from three leagues in the Everett area, but they put up a great battle to finish second in the state.
The team played together all season against several other division teams from Central Seattle, Highline, and White Center. In June they won the District Championship at Pac West field in Burien, and earned the right to contest the State tournament in Mill Creek.
The roster consisted of Chris Frost, Will Douglas, Kelvin Wallace, Henry Ruf, Hunter Hammington, Joe Pare, Nate Pelley, Eli Dever, Noah Oehling, and Nathan Villegas.
The team was managed by Dave Douglas and coaches were Brian Pare and Keven Ruf.
The Intermediate League is sponsored by Little League, but is played on larger fields with a 50-foot pitching distance and 70-foot bases.
Their season was highlighted by consistent pitching, good fielding and strong hitting, with many innings of double-digit scoring.
Many of the players will be cheering on the West Seattle 11- and 12-year olds this weekend at Bar-S fields, where they too will be competing for the State Championship.
That tournament starts tomorrow – here’s the bracket/schedule, with the WSLL team’s first game at 1 pm Saturday. If you’re going to a game, don’t forget the Visitor’s Guide to Bar-S!
It’s a huge summer for West Seattle Little League, with, as previously noted here, teams in the state championship tournaments, and one of those tournaments happening right here at the WSLL’s home fields, Bar-S on Alki Point. Updates on all of the above:
(Photo courtesy WSLL)
9-10 ALL-STARS’ FUNDRAISER: This team is raising money for its travel expenses to get to the state tournament in Richland this weekend, and you have one more chance to buy raffle tickets (and/or make donations), 4-6 pm tomorrow (Thursday) at Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) and Admiral Safeway. Some of the items being raffled are listed here.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP WITH THE TOURNAMENT: Current and past WSLL families are being asked to volunteer to help the league with various things during the week of the tournament at Bar-S, July 12th-19th – find out more here about how to get involved.
VISITORS’ GUIDE TO BAR-S: Going to the games during the 11-12 state tournament? Parking, shuttle, and other information that will be helpful whether you’re coming from West Seattle – or from outside the metro area – is in the “Visitors’ Guide to Bar-S“; see it here. At the Bar-S tournament, the WSLL team‘s first game is Saturday at 1 pm vs. Camas (here’s the full bracket/schedule).
Meet another set of district-champion West Seattle Little Leaguers – the Majors, who will take their District 7 title into state play on their home field, Bar-S, where their division’s tournament will be played starting Saturday. We mentioned their win briefly in this story over the weekend; now, thanks to Porter Hammer, we have the victory photo, and the roster:
Manager – Jason Woodward
Coaches – Stan Debiec, Jon Muench
Players – Max Debiec, Konrad Gerhardt, Ulee Hammer, Will Holmes, Paul Johnson, Henry Muench, Justin Murphy, Walker Nelson, Isaac Patchen, Jackson Sullivan, Jack Summers, Kenji Suzuki, Jarek Woodward
The tournament starts Saturday (July 12th) and runs through the following Saturday (July 19th): here’s the bracket/schedule, and you’ll see that the West Seattle team is scheduled to play its first game at 1 pm Saturday vs. the champs of District 4 in southwestern Washington.
Thanks to Refawne Acarregui for the victory photo of the West Seattle Little League 9/10 All-Stars, the latest WSLL team to become District 7 champions, with a Saturday win over Seattle Central. The team managed by Isaiah Brent heads to Richland for the state tournament, opening play next Saturday afternoon – here’s the bracket.
The WSLL Intermediate All-Stars also won their district championship and start state tournament play in Snohomish today vs. Camas. WSLL all-star rosters are here.
And WSLL’s district champs in the Majors will be on the field when the organization hosts that state tournament at Bar-S on Alki Point starting next Saturday (July 12th).
(Photo by Rob Castillo)
July is not only the month for All-Stars to shine in the Major League Baseball world, it’s also time for youth baseball All-Stars too – and we have news of a West Seattle Baseball team on the way to the Pinto World Series. Leah shared the announcement:
Heat Advisory Warning – The West Seattle Baseball 8U All-Stars are on fire!
Congratulations to the West Seattle Super 8’s All Star team for winning the 8U PONY Regional Tournament at the Pee Wee Fields over the weekend. The championship results in the chance for these kids to go show their stuff at the Pinto World Series in San Jose on July 17-20. This is the third 8U Regional Championship that West Seattle has won since the tournament started in 2009, but the first time it has been sanctioned by PONY and resulted in a trip to the World Series.
The team will be doing a fundraiser to help cover some of their travel expenses. Look for more information to come on that. Congratulations, boys!
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Here’s the GoFundMe site where you can chip in to help.
Cross-posted from our partner site White Center Now, since the new league hopes to draw from all over this area:
Pamela McCarty shares the news that Southside Revolution Junior Roller Derby is launching soon, and interested skaters 8-17 are welcome to come to an Info Night at Southgate Roller Rink next Monday (June 30th), 7 pm. Southside Revolution definitely plans a girls’ team, and will also have a coed team if enough boys are interested.
Southgate will be the practice site for the new league. If you just can’t make it Monday night but have an interested skater in the family, there will be another Info Night on July 14th and an August summer camp. Questions? E-mail info@southsiderevolution.com – and you’re invited to check out this Facebook group.
This makes the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon sound like a walk in the park! From Jake Jaramillo of Seattle Stairway Walks:
West Seattleites Michael Yadrick, Doug Beyerlein, and others are running the stairways of Seattle today! Their route covers 100 km and gains more than 11,000 feet of elevation as it traverses 80 of Seattle’s major, 100+ step stairways. They started at Summer Solstice sunrise, 5:12 am in West Seattle at Brace Point. They hope to finish before 10 tonight in Queen Anne.
That’s Michael at right, leading the pack up the Thistle Street stairs in Gatewood/Upper Fauntleroy. Jake adds, “Andrew Lichtman, a stairway trekker from Los Angeles, has come up to walk the same route in two days, camping out along the way.” There’s a Facebook page about the event – see it here.
After hearing from Jake but before writing this, we also heard from Creighton, a friend of Michael, who he notes is a city ecologist mentioned here this spring for consulting on a Fairmount Ravine cleanup. Creighton adds that Michael is tweeting about this at twitter.com/yadrick and that there’s even GPS tracking, expected to work until 4 pm or so. We’ll keep an eye on it for potential updates here. Good luck!
9:56 PM NOTE: Jake reports in comments that Michael, Doug, and company made it within the past hour or so!
That’s a quick promo for a CBS TV show that airs nationally this Saturday (June 21st) – featuring a West Seattle Soccer Club team, the GU13 WS Valkyries. Their proud coach Stefan Persson, who’s also on the WSSC board, explains:
We had the great privilege of being selected to participate in a CBS Game Changers episode featuring Seattle Reign FC and U.S. Women’s National Team player Megan Rapinoe. The filming of the episode took place at Madison Middle School and at Memorial Stadium.
What started as a day of practice for the girls, culminated in them being surprised by Megan at Memorial Stadium, where they got to meet her and then practice and play soccer. It was a fantastic day, with one of our most prominent female professional athletes giving back to kids, creating a wonderful connection between our local community and Seattle Reign FC.
CBS Game Changers is a nationally televised show featuring youth sports, focusing on sportsmanship and passion for the game.
The show airs at different times on different CBS stations around the country; we found it on the official schedule for KIRO (Channel 7) at 3:30 pm this Saturday.
Thanks to proud mom Regina Arceo-Schulz for sharing big news about her sons’ latest rowing achievement:
The Schulz brothers, Spencer (18) and J.T. (16), both from West Seattle, won the 2014 US Youth National Men’s Lightweight Doubles in Lake Natoma, California last Sunday, June 15.
Congratulations! You can see the full results here.
Go play! Family Friendly Tennis has hit the court in West Seattle, thanks to the United States Tennis Association, which has joined the WSB sponsor team to get the word out.
Solstice Park, across from north end Lincoln Park, is one of three locations in Seattle where Family Friendly Tennis is getting under way.
Family Friendly Tennis is a program designed for the entire family to enjoy the sport of tennis together. The program takes place in a high-energy, music-filled environment that provides families with a fun setting in which to learn foundational tennis skills from USTA-trained instructors. When families arrive at the designated location, a greeter will send each parent and child to the tennis court that matches his or her age and skill level and guarantees the most fun. At the end of the session, families play a friendly match on the same court together to show off their improved skills. No tennis experience is necessary; children (ages 10 and under) will be fitted with appropriately sized racquets.
“The USTA/PNW is excited to add Seattle to our roster of communities offering fun and affordable tennis programs this summer,” says Matthew Warren, USTA/PNW executive director. “We’re happy to expand our partnerships with local parks and recreation departments to provide healthy activities and make tennis more accessible to all ages.”
It’s for adults and kids 6+ of any skill level, beginners to experienced players, and you can come for one session or for all of them – there’s no minimum obligation – Wednesday nights 6-7:30 pm through August 13th, Saturday mornings 9-10:30 am through August 16th. Pricing and other info is on this one-sheet; registration info can be found here. And when it’s time to go play, Solstice Park is at Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Webster (map).
We thank USTA Family Friendly Tennis for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; see our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
Right about now, the second and final day of the first-ever West Seattle Cup is wrapping up. Thanks to Steph for sharing this photo, which she captioned: “Seattle Sounder Zach Scott with superfan Zach Arthur. A tale of two Zachs.” He also visited the WS Cup on Saturday, as did Micheal Azira (seen in our Saturday story). If you have a photo to share from this weekend’s event – a celebration of soccer and community – we’d love to include it: editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks! Just as we finished writing this, we note that organizer Terry Kegel posted the “final score” on Facebook:
485 conversations for understanding and 453 goals scored together! A huge thank you to all the players, families, captains, volunteers and sponsors who made this amazing and memorable weekend possible!
It’s a big game for a big world … and soccer excitement is happening at Walt Hundley Playfield with the West Seattle Cup, a community/family tournament organized to coincide with the start of the World Cup. We stopped by at midday, just as organizer Terry Kegel was starting the ceremonies scheduled a few hours after play began:
Young players were settling down to take a break, each in a colorful T-shirt for their team representing certain countries.
Earlier in the day, one team got a thrill – Kelly shared the following photo of Team Uganda with a Seattle Sounders player who’s from that nation, Micheal Azira:
Games continue until 6:15 pm, every 45 minutes in each division (8:45-6:15 tomorrow too) – click ahead to our photos of the schedule boards for the K-2 and 3-5 groups today:
Thanks to Debi Yeabsley from the West Seattle Women’s Golf Club for sharing photos from their Derby Day tournament this past week – specifically, the hat competition! Beth Jackson was “Best Hat” winner:
With appreciation for her fellow WSWGC members’ “creativity and enthusiasm,” Debi adds:
It’s an active and interesting group of women. All ages and abilities welcome. For membership info, e-mail Corinne Burr – ceburr@comcast.net
Almost five months after Alki Elementary teacher Terry Kegel announced the plan for the West Seattle Cup – a communitywide celebration of soccer at the same time as the global attention for the World Cup – it’s days away! His latest update (including the video above):
The West Seattle Cup is finally here this weekend! In addition to the 420 child and parent participants, we are hoping to get as many fans there as possible. Games are played 8:45 am to 6:15 pm and there will be a special midday ceremony 11:45 am-12:15 pm on both days. We also need a few more volunteers to sign up. The event is all about community-building, so let’s get everyone out there to celebrate soccer, culture, and community!
List of teams and schedule information – here
Sign up to volunteer – here
Make a monetary donation to support purchase of uniforms – here
Facebook page for the most up-to-date information – here
The games are at High Point’s Walt Hundley Playfield – 34th/Myrtle.
Congratulations to the West Seattle Girls’ Softball 15U champs, the Cheetahs, who won the division championship last night at Fairmount Playfield, 8-6 over the Tamales. Above, Cheetahs catcher Caitlin crossing home plate; below, that’s Tamales player Sofia (left) waiting to high-five Jaeley as she comes in.
Cheetahs pitcher Kaley:
And Tamales pitcher Erin:
The WSGS league includes some Vashon Island players, and we’re told a group came over from Vashon to see the game. While the WSGS season, which starts in April, is ending this month, registration will start up again early next year for girls 8 through 15 – keep an eye on WestSeattleGirlsSoftball.com. (Thanks to Juan Hernandez for the tip about the big game!)
Big week for soccer, as the World Cup starts Thursday. For local high-school-soccer athletes, the season has ended, but there’s a postscript: Congratulations to the local high-school-soccer players who made the Metro all-conference list this year! The Chief Sealth International High School and West Seattle High School athletes on the list are:
All-Metro Sound Division
FIRST TEAM
M Devin Offord, Sr., Chief Sealth
M Yael Pina, Jr., Chief Sealth
D Lorenzo Waller, Jr., Chief Sealth
GK Sam Orlin, Jr., Chief SealthSECOND TEAM
F Justin Alvarez, Jr., Chief Sealth
F Alazar Gilay, Sr., West Seattle
M Max Sadow, Jr., West Seattle
D Joseph Wally, So., Chief Sealth
D Brian McMonigle, So., West Seattle
D Cole Nofsinger, So., West Seattle
D Riley Germundson, So., Chief Sealth
GK Akil Kasin, Fr., West Seattle.HONORABLE MENTION
Chief Sealth — Daniel Herrera, Carlos Cardoza
West Seattle — Logan Schiller, Conner Elder, Thomas Mensing, Carter Mensing, Johnston Means
(Thanks to Tim McMonigle for sharing the list – see the full conference list on SeattleTimes.com.)
Beautiful day for baseball! At Riverview, four Pee Wee teams from West Seattle Baseball took the field for their championship games this morning. Before the games in the Pinto and Mustang divisions, the pomp, circumstance, and photos. We don’t know the results yet, but the contenders in the Mustang (9-10) division were, above, the West Seattle Design Build team and, below, the Menashe and Sons Jewelers team (both businesses are also WSB sponsors):
In the Pinto (7-8 division), it was Alki Lumber and another Menashe-sponsored team:
Warmups and introductions, of course:
And a ceremonial first pitch for the Pinto game by King County Councilmember Joe McDermott:
CM McDermott had skin in the game, so to speak – his brother-in-law Nathan Thomas is a Pinto coach, and explained, “The kids have been playing since March and these 4 teams have come from a field of 20 in a double elimination tournament over the past 2 weeks.” We hope to get the scores later so we can add them here. In the meantime, congrats to all four teams; you can find out more about the organization at westseattlebaseball.com.
2:40 PM: Thanks for the reports in the comment section below, and congratulations to the championship-winning Alki Lumber and West Seattle Design Build teams!
Two notes tonight from the West Seattle Soccer Club
FALL REGISTRATION OPEN: Spring season’s not over yet – the final games are next weekend – but it’s already time for WSSC to sign up players for fall. Registration is open until the end of June, but don’t wait too long – last fall, WSSC board member Tim McMonigle tells WSB, the league had almost 2,000 players! Details are on the WSSC website.
WSSC BOARD MEMBERS HONORED: Dennis Lapchis, also from the WSSC board, shares the news:
Two of our West Seattle Soccer Club Board Members have received state honors for their service to the kids of our community. Bill Fry received the Washington Youth Soccer “Administrator of the Year” Award and Clydene Evans-Wenzel received the Washington Youth Soccer “Volunteer of the Year” Award. The Of The Year Awards are Washington Youth Soccer’s annual awards to recognize outstanding members of our soccer community. … We couldn’t be more proud of these two outstanding soccer promoters, who have worked collectively for close to 30 years serving our local community and helping our kids have fun, stay healthy, and participate in one of the greatest sports in the world! Congrats to Bill and Clydene!
Beautiful weekend for baseball – including the game that crowd came to watch at Walt Hundley Playfield in High Point on Saturday afternoon. Not your standard baseball game, though:
The reason for the sign? The game was “beep baseball” – designed so sight-impaired players can hear the ball:
That’s the ball, which really does beep, and is 16 inches around. Listen to hear it in this short clip from one at-bat:
The team: The Seattle-South King Sluggers (see the roster here), for whom Walt Hundley serves as home field:
As previewed here a few weeks ago, they extended a special community invitation to their “awareness event,” playing a team from the Seattle Police Department – in black, with special specs that are worn by all players:
This is the second season for the Sluggers, coached by Kevin Daniel
Want to see – and hear – the Sluggers in action? Here’s their schedule.
P.S. According to an update on the Sluggers’ Facebook page, they won 7-0.
You’ve heard of the Winter Olympics … the Summer Olympics … now, meet the Spring Olympics. This past week, West Seattle’s K-5 STEM elementary combined gym versions of popular sports to make them happen – starting with an Opening Ceremony and Parade of Nations during which music teacher Cathy Chutich “led each grade level in sharing songs from their chosen countries or regions,” as explained by parent Kathleen Voss, who let us know about the first-ever STEM Olympics. Then, for three days, PE teacher Gretchen Gray (who shared the photo) led students through events including, from the Winter Games, bobsled, skeleton, speed skating, long jump (skiing), and curling, and from the Summer Games, the 100m dash, 400m relay, basketball, soccer, and a long-jump (track) event. You can see photos and video from the Opening Ceremony/Parade of Nations on the K-5 STEM PTA website.
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