The Seahawks‘ trip to the Super Bowl isn’t just about sports. For local students, it’s about … writing! Last week, a local elementary teacher shared students’ thoughts on the now-legendary Richard Sherman interview. Now, teacher Kathy Saxon from Denny International Middle School shares the “persuasive essay” written by sixth-grade student Della (photo at right) – as a letter to Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, explaining why the Seahawks deserve to win. It came in as a scanned PDF so we’re publishing it in the reader window below (or, click here to download):

Thanks to Della and teacher Kathy for sharing! More West Seattle Super Bowl updates to come today. P.S. In case you missed it last night – here’s our story about what’s billed as the world’s largest 12th Man flag, going up in West Seattle Thursday (and you’re invited to be there).

We’ve received two updates to share on competitive swimmers in our area:

DOLPHINS IN STATEWIDE Y COMPETITION TODAY: Good luck to the Dolphins from the West Seattle Y (WSB sponsor) in state Y competition today – see the 42 team members listed here. The meet is at King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, starting at 9 am for 12-and-over swimmers who have made qualifying state times; at noon, swimmers working toward qualifying times for Regionals (in Boise next month) swim; and at 3 pm, we’re told, it’s the final session “for the top eight swimmers in all eligible events of the morning prelim sessions, after which there will be an awards ceremony for the winners of the finals events.” Public welcome, no admission charge. The KCAC is at 650 SW Campus Drive (map).

SEALTH MEET RESULTS & STATE QUALIFIER: For Chief Sealth International High School‘s swim team, Trisha Montemayor sends results of Friday’s meet against Franklin – the Seahawk girls won, the boys lost (team scores here, individual results here), but along the way, Trisha says, Carlos Montemayor qualified for state in the 100 breaststroke; he already had qualified for the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. She also notes that Sealth will host West Seattle High School next Friday (3:30 pm January 31) in its final Southwest Pool home meet of the year – Senior Night for five graduating swimmers.

From Friday night’s high-school basketball slate, in the regular season’s waning weeks:

(Sealth head coach Katie Jo Maris; WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
RAINIER BEACH AT CHIEF SEALTH: Lopsided games for both varsity teams – the Seahawk girls beat the Vikings 66-24, led by #4 Labrea Denson with 15 points:

Full scoring list here.

(Sealth #22 Sydney Thomas, #33 Brandy Hoskins)

In the boys-varsity game, final score was Rainier Beach 103, Chief Sealth 52. #1 Khaleef Griffin (photo below, with #24 Jamari Smith) led the Seahawks’ scoring with 21 points:

The Viking boys ran up the score in no small part thanks to a large number of three-pointers. Scoring list is here.

WEST SEATTLE AT INGRAHAM: Victories here for both WSHS varsity teams – a 63-22 win for the girls, with Sarah Cooper and Gabby Sarver the leading scorers with 16 points each, and DeAndre Love leading the boys with 27 points in the Wildcats’ 81-37 win.

NEXT UP: WSHS hosts Sealth – boys Tuesday, girls Wednesday, tipoff times here.

(Photo tweeted by Richard Sherman – new fan-gear shirt he’s selling)
If you think you’ve heard every viewpoint imaginable about the famous Richard Sherman TV moment right after the Seahawks‘ NFC championship win last Sunday – here’s one more: Schmitz Park Elementary fifth-grade teacher Chris McCall e-mailed us and a couple of citywide news organizations, explaining, “I asked my students to sound off on their blogs about Sherman’s tirade. Their comments are unedited, but interesting. So, I thought I might try to get a few published by sending them to you.” We’ve already had more than a few (presumed) grownups speak out about this, so why not hear from younger fans? Read on for the (unedited, as sent) fifth-graders’ thoughts:

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Wednesday night home games for two local girls-varsity basketball teams:

CHIEF SEALTH VS. FRANKLIN: The Seahawks defeated visiting Franklin, 53-43. Above, Lani Taylor led Sealth scoring with 14; the rest of the stats are here.

WEST SEATTLE HS VS. CLEVELAND: The Wildcats lost at home to another division-leading team, Cleveland, 61-36.

Two WSHS players tied for top scorer, both with 11 points each, Lexi Iaone and Lydia Giomi. The rest of the stats are here.

NEXT GAMES: Sealth hosts Rainier Beach Friday night; girls-varsity tipoff is at 6:15 pm. WSHS will be on the road that night at Ingraham, same start time.

FOOTNOTE: This is truly a footnote – related to the pink shoes WSHS head coach Sonya Elliott was wearing:

As explained in the WSHS online newsletter Westside Weekly, this week the school was participating in Coaches Against Cancer, collecting donations for the American Cancer Society in the stands during basketball games.

Two home games in the high-school spotlight Tuesday night:

At West Seattle High School, the Wildcats fell to visiting Cleveland, 69-46. Here are the stats via our partners at The Seattle Times; Ruslan Burduzha led the Wildcats’ scoring with 16, with Joe Hey right behind at 15.

And at Chief Sealth International High School – the boys’ varsity final was Franklin 84, Sealth 56.

At right in our photo is Khaleef Griffin, the Seahawks’ top scorer Tuesday night with 25 points. See the stats here.

The same matchups as above will play out tonight for the schools’ girls-basketball teams – Cleveland at WSHS, Franklin at Sealth, 5:45 pm JV, 7:30 pm varsity.

West Seattle High School‘s basketball teams headed across Puget Sound last night, and the boys- and girls-varsity teams both won. First, this coaching-staff report on the boys’ game:

The West Seattle boys’ basketball team took a trip across the water last night to Bainbridge Island to take on the Spartans.

The Wildcats, coming off a tight contest at O’Dea the night before, played a gutty game in front of a rowdy crowd and knocked off the Bainbridge Spartans, 62-50.

WSHS was led by senior DeAndre Love, who had a game-high 19 points and added 9 rebounds. Ruslan Burduzha added 14 points and 6 rebounds. Joe Hey had 9 points and 7 rebounds.

Freshman point guard Nate Pryor was perhaps the game MVP with 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. He controlled the pace of the game and made great decisions down the stretch, helping his team pull out the win. This was a valuable league win for the Wildcats, who next play Cleveland on Tuesday at WSHS; game tips at 7:30 pm.

As for the Wildcat women, they defeated Bainbridge 53-31, according to this report from the Bainbridge Review. They too play Cleveland next, at home, with the games on Wednesday, 5:45 pm JV, 7:30 pm varsity. (P.S. Here’s our coverage of Friday night’s busy basketball slate, including photos/narrative from the WSHS girls’ faceoff with Holy Names.)

(West Seattle’s #21, Gabby Sarver, with 10 points on the night)

For WSB: photos by Patrick Sand, text by Tracy Record

All the local high-school basketball action Friday night was on the road – topped by the marquee game, West Seattle High School‘s girls-varsity faceoff at Holy Names Academy on Capitol Hill, two division-leading teams with big win streaks going as the game began. When it was over, the Wildcats’ streak had been snapped with a 63-48 loss – but that final score didn’t reflect the intensity of the second half, as WSHS went on a comeback tear before falling back.

The Wildcats’ #10 Charli Elliott (photo above), second-leading WSHS scorer of the night with 13 points, got two of them in the first basket of the game. Then the Cougars went on a 10-point run before WSHS managed to score again – with Elliott sinking a foul shot – and they were up 18-5 at the end of the first quarter. WSHS managed to wrangle themselves plenty of shots, but didn’t convert enough of them to keep pace until late in the second quarter, and they went into halftime down 34-18.

“Whole new half!” shouted a member of the spirited Wildcats’ cheering section as the second half tipped off, and once again, Elliott was the first to score, with a basket shortly after the half began.

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The West Seattle High School varsity girls are on a roll, to say the least, with eight wins in a row. At home, they more than tripled the score of visiting Rainier Beach on Wednesday night, 63-18. As you’ll see in the stats, Lexi Ioane (top photo, #30) led the scoring with 20 points; Lydia Giomi was next up at 15 – she’s #12 in the next photo, with #10 Charli Elliott, third in scoring at 10 points:

#4 Maggie Cooper bringing the ball downcourt:

#21 Gabby Sarver:

Big challenge ahead for head coach Sonya Elliott‘s team on Friday, as they visit Holy Names, which has a 9-game winning streak going and beat Chief Sealth on Wednesday night, 72-29..

Big night of basketball at the Seattle Lutheran High School gym:

Bear Creek visited to face the Saints. The girls played first; while the game was tied at the half, 13-all, Bear Creek pulled away and picked up the victory, 42-29. But the night included a special celebration for their coach, Bruce Carlson:

Earlier this month, he got his 500th win with the Saints, in their January 7th win over Shoreline Christian. And then he notched number 501, versus Concrete. His day job is at Menashe and Sons Jewelers (WSB sponsor) but he’s been on the coaching staff since the early ’80s – almost but not quite dating back to the school’s opening.

The night was wrapped up by the Lutheran boys’ varsity game

Bear Creek won that one too, 76-52. Top scorer for the Saints was Abijah Smith, with 23. Next up – Mt. Rainier Lutheran visits SLHS to play the boys at 1 pm Saturday, while the girls are on the road that day vs. Auburn Adventist.

Before looking ahead to this week’s sports schedules for local high schools, weekend notes: The weekend began with Chief Sealth International High School winning a swim meet vs. – Trisha Montemayor shared the results: “Chief Sealth beat Eastside Catholic 161 to 132, with the boys winning easily 87-60 and the girls pulling out a win by 2 points, 74-72.” The team scores are here; individual results, here.

In Friday basketball, the West Seattle High School girls-varsity team had its second win of the week, WSHS 66, Franklin 34, and the Seattle Lutheran High School girls lost to Crosspoint Academy, 44-36. Friday’s boys-varsity basketball scores were SLHS 67, Crosspoint 60; Nathan Hale 69, Chief Sealth 54; and Franklin 71, West Seattle 38.

For the week ahead:

*The Chief Sealth International High School sports schedule is listed on the school’s Metro League page; competition at home includes a wrestling match tonight against Ingraham, boys’ basketball vs. O’Dea Tuesday night, girls’ basketball vs. Holy Names on Wednesday night; on Friday, it’s varsity swimming vs. Cleveland on Friday (Southwest Pool) and girls-varsity gymnastics vs. Ingraham and Nathan Hale.

*The Seattle Lutheran High School sports schedule is listed day by day on the school calendar here. This week’s home games are on Wednesday – girls’ and boys’ basketball vs. The Bear Creek School.

*The West Seattle High School sports schedule is listed in full in the school’s online newsletter Westside Weekly (see this week’s WSHS WW here). Home games include boys’ basketball vs. Rainier Beach on Tuesday night, girls basketball vs. RB on Wednesday night, and boys C/frosh team vs. Kennedy next Saturday afternoon.