Choosing one sport can be a gamble with high risk, reward
April 18, 2012
By Greg Farrar Anthony McLaughlin, a basketball player at Mount Si High School, likes having picked basketball over all other sports, calling the sport his true love.
When he entered high school, Mount Si High School senior Anthony McLaughlin dropped all but one of his four sports, hoping to score a basketball scholarship to college.
When he entered his next-to-last year of high school, junior Kody Clearman dropped McLaughlin’s chosen sport, hoping to score a soccer scholarship to college.
Mount Si loses to Lake Washington
April 18, 2012
BMount Si and Lake Washington high schools battled it out April 13 to see who was going to claim the No. 1 position in KingCo 3A.
Both teams claimed 5-0 conference game wins. And four of those wins were Wildcat shutouts. But when the dust settled Friday night, the Kangs won 4-1 and took control of the leader board.
Lake Washington rang up four runs in the first inning at Lee Johnson Field in Kirkland. Mount Si held the Kangs to that number, but wasn’t able to catch up in runs.
By Michele Mihalovich Mount Si High School pitcher Trevor Lane lets it go at the bottom of the third.
The bottom of the first inning looked promising when Mount Si pitcher Trevor Lane struck out the first two Kangs in the line up.
But Theo Alexander got a base hit and then Zach Johnson walked. Nick Johnson hit a high ball along the foul line to right field that was dropped by Wildcat Connor Swift, allowing two Kangs over home plate.
Shawn Gray hit a home run deep over the center field fence, bringing the total runs to four.
Lane finished up the inning with a third strikeout.
Connor Deutsch to attend Cal Poly
April 18, 2012
Mount Si High School senior Connor Deutsch has decided to attend California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as a walk on, football coach Charlie Kinnune said April 16.
“Connor Deutsch has been an integral member of our program during his four years here at Mount Si High School,” Kinnune said. “His ability to play on both sides of the ball helped us tremendously.
“As a junior he started at cornerback and made two huge plays at the end of our Glacier Peak game that allowed us to enter the state tournament,” he added. “As a senior, he was our starting tailback earning first team all-conference.
“We wish Connor well. Cal Poly is a great fit.”
Mount Si soccer loses match to Liberty, 3-0
April 18, 2012
At the end of the April 13 match at Liberty, Wildcats head coach Darren Brown had a succinct postgame talk for his players.
“See you Monday,” he said, and left the field.
The game, described by Brown as “embarrassing,” had ended in a 3-0 loss to the Patriots that hurt beyond the mere losing of a contest.
Mount Si entered the contest as the top team in the KingCo conference. It left it as the third-ranked squad. Mount Si entered the contest on a high from a 1-1 thriller against Mercer Island on April 10. It left it having one shot on goal against the Patriots.
More worrisome, the Wildcats started league play with a five-game winning streak. Since then, they have lost two out of three as of April 16.
The Patriots populated their back lines, playing the Wildcats with a 4-5-1, and stifling the creativity of the Mount Si squad at three-fourths of the field.
“It’s the only time we do this, when we play Mount Si,” Liberty coach Darren Tremblay said of the tactical formation that puts four defenders, a crowded midfield of five and a lone forward on the pitch.
Mount Si baseball team wins, 1-0
April 11, 2012
By Michele Mihalovich Mount Si High School pitcher Trevor Lane strikes out Mercer Island batter Cameron Ogard in the fourth inning April 4.
The Mount Si High School baseball team won its second conference game with only one run against Mercer Island High School on April 4.
The run didn’t come until the bottom of the fifth inning, but both teams had trouble even getting a player to first base.
Underdog crew wants to lift Mount Si track team to new heights
April 11, 2012
On a warm spring day, Mount Si High School track and field coach Dave Clifford looked around at his crew of youngsters closing out a practice and sighed. If only more days looked like this, he seemed to be thinking.
Spring has taken its time appearing in the Snoqualmie Valley this year and the cold has affected the practices of Clifford’s squad.
“Wet, it’s not a problem as much as the cold and it has been an unusually cold March,” he said. “It’s been a problem especially for the sprinters and jumpers.”
For pole vaulters and hurdlers, it’s just flat dangerous, Clifford said, adding that he has had to cancel some practices.
“It’s just a drag on everything,” he said.
By Sebastian Moraga The Mount Si High School track team enjoyed its first chance to practice in warm weather in what seemed like ages April 9. The team, despite an uneven practice schedule due to the cold, has put on a respectable show during the first third of the 2012 season.
To the team’s credit, students have shown enough work ethic to overcome an uneven practice routine and post some good results.
More than half of the girls showed up for the voluntary practices over spring break.
The girls have won all of their dual meets.
Football players try new fundraising approach
April 11, 2012
The rising cost of playing high school football at Mount Si High School has led to a new program called Wildcat Workers for Hire.
Kathy Hyland, just one parent of many who helped organize the effort, said the parent-led work group is not affiliated with the high school or any other group.
“It is independent and run by players and their parents” so the players can help pay the Pay-to-Play fees, which went from $125 two years ago, to $175 last year.
This year’s fees have yet to be announced.
Contributed Mount Si High School linebacker Bryce Abbott does yard work to earn money for football fees through a parent-led effort called Wildcat Workers for Hire.
Hyland said the football players “have decided to get back to the good ol’ work ethic of doing odd jobs to raise the money for their football costs to help their families out.”
The players started doing odd jobs in March and plan to continue through June.
Hyland said a lot of the workers have been doing various yard work projects, including removing storm debris, pulling up brush and weeds, and raking leaves and pine needles.
But car washing, pet sitting, spreading bark mulch and mowing are also on the menu.
Track team mows down Kangs, Totems in rain
April 4, 2012
By Chris Smith Mount Si’s Mitchell Smith jumps five feet, six inches for a new personal record March 22 against Juanita. Smith finished tied for second with teammate Jon Proctor and the Rebels’ Christian Robertson.
Mount Si High School’s track team defeated Sammamish and Lake Washington in a three-team meet in Snoqualmie on March 29.
The Wildcat girls earned 106 points to the Saints’ 32 and the Kangs’ 51. The Wildcat boys earned 99 points to the Saints’ 43 and the Kangs’ 38.
Mercy Rule ends game, gives 19-3 win to Mount Si fastpitch team
April 4, 2012
The pitching of Sammamish High School of Bellevue is what led to such a lopsided score against the Mount Si High School fastpitch team March 28.
The Wildcats won, 19-3, when the referee called the game in the fifth inning.
The Mercy Rule generally kicks in when one team is ahead by at least 10 runs in the fifth inning.
By Michele Mihalovich Mount Si High School softball pitcher Lauren Padilla pitches a three up, three down in the second inning against Sammamish High School of Bellevue.
Totems pitcher Iesha Banks pitched the entire game, despite walking 12 Mount Si batters, with three of them sauntering over home plate because of loaded bases.
The first inning started off with Mount Si getting four runs, and another four in the second.
Eleven more Mount Si runs were scored in the third inning, including a home run hit by Mickey Blad over the right field fence, which also brought home Kendra Lee and Eleni Trull for a 19-0 score.
Mount Si head coach Larry White described the hit as a “monster” home run.
Banks started showing some improvement in the fourth inning, pitching her first strikeout of the game, and holding Mount Si at 19 runs.
The Totems rallied in the fifth inning, and eliminated a skunking by scoring their first runs of the game.
Lacrosse team is off to roaring start
April 4, 2012
The Mount Si High School lacrosse team is already rewriting its history.
Granted, it’s a short history, with the team starting play in 2010, but the current upswing of the helmeted boys in red is still stunning.
They won zero games in 2010; they won two games the next year. Five games into the 2012 season, their record is 4-1 with six league and two nonleague games to go.
Wins have included a 10-5 drubbing of Liberty, a 12-2 beating of North Kitsap, and a 9-8 nail biter at Redmond. Then, a 9-3 victory against South Kitsap had a special flavor to it. The boys from the Peninsula became the first team to lose two matches to the Wildcats. The last game of 2011 was a victory against South Kitsap, too.
“There’s a first time for everything,” Mount Si head coach Woodroe Kiser said.
All of that winning makes Kiser smile the smile of a man who saw all of this coming, even if nobody else did.
At the end of the 2011 season, Kiser predicted that the season-finale win would give his team confidence entering the 2012 campaign.
