Good Tuesday morning. Light morning this morning. But we have news and also a quick look at the college hoops schedule for this week.
The news comes to us from the world of soccer. It has been a whirlwind last several days for Valleyite Nikki Stanton. The North Bend product, a 2008 Mount Si HS grad, made a triumphant return to the American-based National Women’s Soccer League, signing back with the team she last played for in 2019, the Chicago Red Stars. The move, as we told you when it was announced last week, was warmly received by fans, and the latest news about her is only likely going to increase that even more.
Stanton, in addition to her playing opportunity for the Red Stars, is now going to have a chance to coach perhaps some of the team’s youngest fans. She has been hired by the Chicago KICS youth soccer organization and will be a part of the organization’s coaching staff.
The organization offers teams for boys and girls, men and women ages 5-23 in all different skill levels. In addition, they also provide summer camps and other instruction designed to help educate and support the growth of “The World’s Game” in one of the United States’ most diverse cities.
Stanton will join three Red Stars teammates – Danny Colaprico, Hannah Davison and Alyssa Mautz – as members of the organization’s coaching staff.
A few of you may remember that several years ago, following her graduation from college, Stanton spent part of a season volunteering as an assistant coach for Mount Si’s girls’ soccer team, under then-head coach Darren Brown, who she played for as a player for the Wildcats. So this move for Stanton looks to be a good one, as she can impart her playing experience and knowledge, and skills she gained helping coach kids within the Mount Si program, to help develop and grow a new generation of youth soccer players in the Chicagoland area.
With Illinois being relatively shut down right now for youth athletics due to COVID-19 restrictions in the state, tournament and game opportunities for KICS are likely limited currently, but they will be active in national tournaments most likely this summer.
Good stuff there and we wish Stanton and KICS good luck this year. Now to basketball.
Weekly hoops preview
It’s time now to take a quick look at the college basketball picture, and let you know how you can support local athletes in action this week. It’s all men’s action as you know now for the next two weeks, after the University of California’s women’s basketball program, featuring freshman Sela Heide, a 2020 MSHS alum from Snoqualmie, took a two-week pause late Sunday afternoon due to COVID-19 issues in the program which forced a game cancellation and now will force postponements for the next four games involving the Bears.
Heide’s fellow class of 2020 MSHS’ers, Tyler Patterson, Hayden Curtiss, and Jabe Mullins are all in action again this week, and they are joined by a 2018 MSHS’er, Brett Williams, as Pacific Lutheran University starts its abbreviated season due to the pandemic. We’ll talk about them first.
Pacific Lutheran (Brett Williams): PLU’s sports are slowly returning following a delay in their start this school year due to the pandemic. The men’s basketball team will officially open its season with games Friday and Saturday nights at home with Whitman College in Tacoma. Tips are slated to be 8:00 p.m. on Friday and 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. No fans are being permitted to attend games in person at PLU, but as has been the custom in past years, the games are being streamed.
The Northwest Conference and their partners at Stretch Internet have upgraded their streaming app, which is available on phones, tablets and set top devices such as Roku, AppleTV and AmazonFire. The app is free to download and the games are also free to watch. Games involving PLU and other Northwest Conference teams will be shown on this app.
The school has started a fan cardboard cutout program, which you can learn more about here. Each cutout costs $50 and will be useable for you at all PLU home athletic events, so you Mount Si fans will want to pick one up and support Williams on men’s basketball, and MSHS girls’ soccer alums Joelle Buck and Calie Rose on Lute women’s soccer.
Williams is a junior this year and is from North Bend. His brother, Jack, a current Mount Si senior, just announced his verbal commitment to PLU a few days ago.
Montana State (Patterson): Patterson, from Snoqualmie, and the Bobcats take their strong Big Sky start, in which they have gone 4-0 to open the conference schedule, down south to Arizona and Flagstaff to be exact. They will be playing Northern Arizona University Thursday and Saturday. Thursday’s tip time is 5:00 p.m. and Saturday’s is at 11am, both our time in the Valley. PlutoTV will be carrying both games, with the longtime and outstanding voice of the Lumberjacks, Mitch Strohman, on the call. Strohman has been the play-by-play man for Northern Arizona sports for over 20 years and is also a part of the university’s media relations department.
Portland (Curtiss): The Pilots have started out slow in the West Coast Conference, and have dropped below .500 after a strong showing in non-conference play. Curtiss, from North Bend, and friends have a pair of TV games this week. The Pilots head to Provo, UT, on Thursday to meet Brigham Young University. That game tips at 6:00 p.m. and will be on CBS Sports Network. Saturday, UoP is back home hosting the University of San Diego for a 2:00 p.m. tip to be on NBC Sports Northwest. Both networks are available on Comcast locally in the Valley, but not on the basic tier, so if you want to catch the two games, you will need to call them to inquire about adding those channels to your cable package. Saturday’s game will be available for streaming on the WCC Network on Stadium. DirecTV and Dish also carry CBSSN, so viewers on those satellite providers will be able to see Thursday’s game also.
St. Mary’s (Mullins): SMC, too, is winless in WCC play at 0-3, a bit of a surprise for this perenially strong squad to start the season. Mullins, from Snoqualmie, and the Gaels will be on the road this weekend. Thursday, they are at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles for a 5:00 p.m. tip on the WCC Network, then on Saturday afternoon, they are in San Francisco to meet the University of San Francisco. That game is at 4:00 p.m. and on CBSSN. These two games tune the Gaels up for a big one for Mullins and all of you Mount Si hoops fans next week – St. Mary’s hosts Portland and Curtiss on January 28.
We wish all of the guys good luck this week.
Good Monday morning! It’s Martin Luther King Day, and we have the news…..
Good Monday morning. Basketball on deck. First, we’re going to take you down under. Australia to be exact where the pro baseball season is underway and a Mount Si High School alum is once again on the diamond this spring in the Aussie pro baseball league.
Pitcher Jimmy Boyce, who played for Mount Si a few years ago and graduated from the school in 2016, is this season pitching for the Canberra Cavalry in the Australia Baseball League. Boyce is a starting pitcher for them and is currently 0-3 with a 5.82 earned run average for the Cavalry, who are 4-9 this season. Boyce, a native of New Zealand, worked the game last Friday for Canberra, falling to Melbourne but not before throwing seven decent innings, allowing four runs on four hits, walking two and striking out three.
Boyce and fellow Mount Si alum Max Brown normally play for the ABL’s Auckland, New Zealand, team called the Tuatara, but that organization was forced to opt out of the season this year due to COVID-19 restrictions in New Zealand. Brown is not playing elsewhere in the league as far as we know this season. He is a 2011 Mount Si HS grad.
Boyce, as you may remember, represented New Zealand in the 2016 World Baseball Classic, and his participation in that event caused a controversy regarding his eligibility with the Wildcats that generated national media attention. He ultimately was cleared to play for Mount Si that season before pitching with junior colleges in both Washington and Arizona during his college baseball career.
Canberra is at Sydney this coming weekend. A note and that is ABL action is now being shown locally in the Valley on tape delay on Root Sports, which is Comcast channel 30. You’ll want to check local listings for games and times to hopefully see this Valley product in action.
Basketball: Cal women pause season due to COVID-19
The University of California women’s basketball program has paused its season for the next two weeks thanks to a COVID-19 issue that has popped up within the squad. As we mentioned yesterday, the school had announced its game with the University of Utah yesterday was postponed; now the team has announced its schedule the next two weekends – home games with the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California before coming north for freshman Sela Heide’s, a 2020 Mount Si HS grad, first ever games as a college athlete on home soil here in Washington, against both the University of Washington and Washington State University – are off due to the COVID situation.
The school, in its announcement, again did not go into detail as to the nature of the issue, whether it involves anyone directly in the program or if it’s just support staff, but nevertheless, the games are off, and considering the team is currently winless and is battling a short-manned roster situation due to injuries, there is a possibility the school may end up canceling the remainder of the season. That will be decided later.
As for the men’s basketball action featuring Valley athletes, there’s a four-pack of action this weekend. Yes, a four-pack as we welcome a new player to the season, and we’ll talk about that tomorrow or Wednesday here on the blog.