As solid as the Redmond High baseball program has looked in the past, the 2011 Mustangs are shaping up to have a banner year on the diamond.
At the helm of the club will be six returning seniors, with three of them – Dylan Davis, Zach Abbruzza and Michael Conforto – already having committed to playing Division I ball next year.
REDMOND BASEBALL AT A GLANCE• Head coach: Dan Pudwill, 7th season• Last year: 12-4, 4A Kingco champions; 20-6 overall• 2011 turnout: 34KEY RETURNERS• Sr. Dylan… Continue reading
Before the basketball season got underway for The Bear Creek School boys' team, head coach Scott Moe encouraged his players to set their sights high.
On the first day of practice back in November, Moe passed out T-shirts to the team that contained one simple phrase, "SNM5," which stood for Saturday Night March 5, the final day of the basketball season.
That day, nearly four months later, the Grizzlies beat Colfax, 54-43, at Spokane Arena to earn the Class 2B third-place trophy, the program's highest finish in school history.
The Bear Creek School boys’ basketball team came back from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Waitsburg-Prescott Cardinals in overtime, 58-47, in the quarterfinals of… Continue reading
Ever since he started swimming at age four, Redmond resident Zach Alleva favored a certain stroke.
"Since I've been a little kid I've always done the breaststroke," said Alleva, a junior at The Bear Creek School in Redmond who swims for Eastlake High in Sammamish. "Even when I was 4 or 5, when we'd go to my grandparents' pool, I'd kick like the breaststroke and just swim that. It's what I've always done.
Redmond High School senior Catherine Kelly didn't get the finish she wanted, but she leaves behind a legacy of achievement unmatched in the Mustangs' wrestling program.
Kelly placed sixth in the 119-pound weight class of the Class 4A girls' division at Mat Classic XXIII last Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
A talented trio of Redmond High wrestlers and one alternate will be making the trek to the Tacoma Dome this Friday and Saturday for Mat Classic XXIII — the largest high-school wrestling tournament in the nation — with the hopes of bringing back some state hardware.
Three Redmond High wrestlers and one alternate pinned down state berths to the Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome last weekend.
On the girls' side, Catherine Kelly dominated the 119-pound class at the Girls' Region 1 Tournament at Sedro-Woolley High School, achieving two first-round pins and winning the regional title with a late second-round pin of Mount Baker senior Roxanne Rosas in 3:51.
The Redmond High wrestling team put together a strong performance at last weekend's 4A Kingco Championships at Juanita High School, with three Mustangs advancing to championship bouts.
One of The Bear Creek School’s basketball teams is a perennial state contender coming off a perfect 11-0 league season. The other has only been to the state tournament once — in 2007 and failed to win a game — and didn’t even have a coach with two weeks to go before the 2010-11 season started.
Despite the high expectations of the boys’ squad and the hardships that the Lady Grizzlies have faced this season, the two teams, a combined 18-0 in Sea-Tac 2B League play, have been dismantling opponents in the league this season.
The Redmond High boys' basketball team took down one of the hottest teams in 4A Kingco Friday night at home, beating the Newport Knights, 57-45.
Most high school teachers think of their jobs as a full-time gig – waking up at the crack of dawn, and often staying long after the final bell to grade papers, write quizzes, and prepare for future lessons.
Add to that the long hours of coaching duties required to lead both the boys’ swim team and the girls’ basketball teams, along with four kids of their own at home, and you have the Mustangs’ own Andre and Julie Barashkoff, a couple lucky to catch a wink every now and then.
2010 was certainly a year of some phenomenal stories to come out of the Redmond prep sports world. With so many memorable moments, it would be impossible not to leave anybody out, but here is my own personal top 10 list:
Redmond resident Lief Moi got his start in the restaurant business at the young age of 14, working for Italian restauranteur Spiro Aliagas in his heralded Olympia Pizza and Pasta location on Queen Anne Hill.
From there, Moi helped open multiple Italian eateries all over the greater Seattle area, including the Sparta’s and Spiro’s chains, as well as Pizza Bank in Kirkland.
In a non-league holiday showdown against 1A University Prep, The Bear Creek School boys’ basketball team (1-0, 4-0 overall) pulled out a 62-60 win, thanks to some clutch shooting at the charity stripe.
For Redmond head swim coach Julie Barashkoff, there is certainly no rest for the weary.
Just days after the girls’ swim season ended with Heather Harper’s thrilling gold-medal breaststroke performance at the state meet to go along with the Mustang 200-yard medley relay team’s sixth-place finish, she was at it again at the helm of the boys’ squad, which turned out a solid 30 swimmers this season.
The turnout numbers may be down for the Redmond High wrestling team and the rest of the 4A Kingco teams, but optimism runs high.
Unlike other sports such as football, when compared to the rest of the state, 4A Kingco has traditionally been a weak league for high school wrestling. Redmond head coach Paul Mullen admitted that the 2010-11 season turnout was even a down year for Kingco, with low turnout numbers affecting powerhouse programs like Inglemoor, Issaquah and even Woodinville.
When head coach Jason Farr took over the nearly non-existent Redmond High gymnastics program in 2007, to say he was presented with a challenge would be an understatement.
But with more than 20 years of coaching experience and an infectious positive attitude, he has succeeded in rebuilding the Mustangs into a 4A Kingco force. And it all looks to come to a head in 2010-11 with a number of experienced varsity returners looking to make a splash at the state meet this February.
Just two weeks before practices began for the winter sports season, second-year head coach of the Bear Creek girls’ basketball team, Alan Dickson, chose to take the newly-vacated head coaching job at Cedar Park Christian School in Bothell.
That left the Grizzlies’ athletic department scrambling for a last-minute replacement, and it was a veteran boys’ coach that came through in the nick of time.
REDMOND MUSTANGS• Coach: Andre Barashkoff, 1st season• Last season: 6-10 in 4A Kingco Crest Division, 9-11 overall• Turnout: 25TOP RETURNERS• Sr. Stacey Kimball, PG/SG: Experienced… Continue reading
