West Seattle, Washington
25 Wednesday
From co-publisher Patrick @ Southwest Athletic Complex: Another cross-town rivalry game is in the books. Full coverage, including video of the trophy presentation, to follow soon
We’ve been telling you over the past month (stories here, here, and here) about the Parks Department‘s plan to seek proposals from would-be operators of West Seattle Stadium, in hopes that someone would come forward to make about $4 million in needed improvements at the stadium, in exchange for a longterm contract to operate it. Last night at Parks HQ downtown, the Board of Park Commissioners was briefed (see the briefing document here) on the Request for Proposals (RFP) that the department plans to put out, and members of the public were invited to comment too. Parks Board vice chair Jackie Ramels of Alki, who led the meeting, tells WSB about a dozen people spoke at the hearing, including West Seattle-residing Olympic runner and retired SPU track coach Doris Heritage, two UW track and field athletes/coaches, and representatives of several private high schools and track and field clubs, all of whom wanted to reinforce their interest in the stadium’s value as a track-and-field venue. Ramels says Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher told the meeting that this process is aimed at using the property more — of a potential 5000 hours of usage each year, it’s only being used about 900 hours — and taking care of significant, needed capital improvements, while protecting historic users. That includes guaranteed public access, according to what the board heard from Rebecca Salinas, Seattle Parks Director of Partnerships, and the point was stressed repeatedly as people voiced concerns during the hearing. The RFP draft is to be finished next week; then the Parks Board will make a recommendation to the superintendent at its November 13th meeting, with the RFP going public November 17th.
Last night, West Seattle High School celebrated homecoming with a win – today, it’s homecoming for Seattle Lutheran High School at West Seattle Stadium. We have a multi-part Saints sports update courtesy of Bil Hood:
Today’s Seattle Lutheran High Homecoming football game will be webcast at www.bsports.org. Click on “Channel 2” to hear the Saints take on NaSalle at 1 pm.
In addition to the announcement of the Homecoming court, the game will also feature the Junior Saints Cheer Squad. The 15 members of this squad attended last summer’s Saints Cheer Camp for Grade Schoolers; this will be their big public debut.
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Congratulations to Kyle Hay, WIAA/Seattle Times state athletes of the weekClass 2B
Kyle Hay, Seattle Lutheran football: Hay accounted for five touchdowns against Chief Leschi. He ran for 62 yards and three scores, passed for 138 yards and a touchdown and returned an interception 51 yards for a
TD.
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The SLHS Soccer team and Coach Norton will be on TV today on KING 5 at 10 am. Then replayed again Saturday at 5 pm on Northwest Cable News. Then replayed again Sunday at 11:30 am on KONG 6/16.
If you’ve got school news – sports OR otherwise – let us know so we can share the news with your West Seattle neighbors! E-mail items short or long, any time. SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Congratulations to the Saints – they beat Naselle 22-19.
That video shows the West Seattle High School Wildcats busting through a banner to take the field at the start of the second half of Friday night’s homecoming game against Rainier Beach at Southwest Athletic Complex. WSB co-publisher Patrick has sports-reporting experience in his arsenal and was down at SWAC live-tweeting the big game; now that it’s in the books, he’s written up a full report (including a video interview with WSHS’s coach), which you’ll find just ahead:Read More
Homecoming game’s over — West Seattle pulled out a 20 to 16 win over Rainier Beach on a very soggy Friday night at Southwest Athletic Complex. Story to follow soon (we tweeted key plays as they happened — see the archive at twitter.com/westseattleblog). Next Friday night, it’s the “Huling Bowl,” West Seattle vs. Chief Sealth (which is 0-5 after losing to Franklin 27-12 tonight).
That bright new banner paying tribute to West Seattle High School‘s past, present, and future, now hangs in the school gym, scene of today’s pre-homecoming rally, featuring free food!
Signs of spirit were visible in the parking lot too:
West Seattle HS — undefeated! — takes on Rainier Beach at Southwest Athletic Complex at 7 pm; WSB will be there to cover the game (including updates via Twitter – check out twitter.com/westseattleblog), second-to-last regularly scheduled game of the year. (Tomorrow, by the way, is Seattle Lutheran‘s homecoming game – more on that later tonight!)
We first reported September 30th that the city Parks Department is seeking proposals from private concerns that would be willing to make renovations at West Seattle Stadium — renovations the city estimates would cost at least $4 million and doesn’t have the money for — in exchange for an agreement to “operate and maintain the Stadium including the track and field areas, but not the parking areas … a multi-year contract that allows (the operator) to recoup its capital investment and support its own business.” Following up on that – this is scheduled for discussion at the Delridge District Council meeting this Wednesday, according to district neighborhood coordinator Ron Angeles (7 pm, Southwest Precinct meeting room, public invited). He also forwarded updates on how to formally comment on the stadium’s future and the forthcoming “request for proposals,” including the previously mentioned public hearing before the city Board of Park Commissioners on October 23rd, the board’s November vote, and various ways to send comments right now. Read on for full details, including a recap of the repairs the city wants the future stadium operator to make:Read More
(Photo by Scott C.)
From the Orchard Street Ravine dedication this afternoon: The mayor and Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, looking on as Cindi Barker of the Morgan Community Association (which has its quarterly meeting this Wednesday) says a few words. More coverage a bit later. Meantime, it was a great day for sports on fields all over West Seattle:
State Sen. Joe McDermott, a proud uncle, sends that photo of his nephew Aidan playing Holy Rosary first-grade soccer, while noting, “They don’t keep score, but they play hard and have a great time!”
As noted in comments on last night’s report about the West Seattle High School Wildcats‘ sixth-straight football win (photo left), their next game is Homecoming. This afternoon, we received an invitation to share with you, to come celebrate not just Homecoming, but also the great season WSHS is having so far: 4:30-5:30 pm Friday at the WSHS Commons, a good old-fashioned pep rally, free, community invited, hot dogs and hamburgers. See you there! (The actual game is 7 pm, SW Athletic Complex, vs. Rainier Beach.)
Dropped by Southwest Athletic Complex just in time for the end of the game — West Seattle High School 54, Cleveland 7. WSHS is now 6-0 in ’08. We’ll add post-game-cheering video later. (Chief Sealth has the week off; Seattle Lutheran played Chief Leschi tonight and also had a lopsided win, 67-6!) ADDED 11:30 PM: Video of the cheerleaders’ celebratory routine at game’s end:
(video lost in blip.tv shutdown)
Lots going on today (all in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup) but if you can get over to West Seattle Stadium, go give three cheers – or more – to the Westside Wildcats junior football teams, who are playing their counterparts from the Rainier White Ravens organization in a series of games starting at 9 o’clock this morning. We took the photo above at one of their practices earlier this week at the Madison Middle School field; the Wildcats have more than 160 kids ages 6 to 14, counting the cheerleaders, according to the “bantam” group’s head coach, Bill Kemp, who took a moment to talk to WSB on video:
This is the first year for the Westside Wildcats, who play in the South King County Junior Football League. Some Saturdays they play here in West Seattle (like today), some Saturdays they’re in other neighborhoods as the visiting teams – here’s their schedule; they’re playing at home next Saturday too, same times as today, five matchups starting with the seniors at 9 am and running through the bantams’ 4 pm start.
WEAVERS: Special guests are visiting Cafe Rozella (which is on the southeast edge of West Seattle/north edge of White Center) this afternoon/evening — a women’s weaving collective from Oaxaca, Mexico, 3-9 pm. Read more here.
LAUNCH PARTY: Can’t think of the last time we heard a local business announce a “launch party.” But that’s what’s happening tonight at Beveridge Place Pub, 6-9 pm, to inaugurate Farris Law, PLLC, a new practice focused on small businesses. Proprietor Valerie Farris has planned the party as a fundraiser for Furry Faces Foundation and the West Seattle Food Bank through a fundraising raffle ($5/ticket, 4 for $20) for a variety of donated items including many geared toward her potential clientele, from a “PR startup package” to gift certificates for web design.
HANDBALL, ANYONE? Tonight (and/or any other Tuesday), you are welcome to join the open practice for Seattle Team Handball at Hiawatha Community Center, 7-9 pm. “All ages and genders,” according to the Seattle Team Handball website. (Tuesday afternoon note: Organizers say there’s a chance they might have to move to the West Seattle High School gym, so if you don’t find them at Hiawatha, head next door.)
SELF-DEFENSE FOR TEENS AND WOMEN: Tonight is the second of two “self-defense seminars” for teenage girls and women offered this month by Lee’s Martial Arts – open to ages 11 and up. More on the LMA website.
One week after the big victory over O’Dea, West Seattle High School‘s football team remains undefeated, beating Nathan Hale last night.
Missed getting this one in this week’s West Seattle Weekend Lineup, sorry about that. But the results and details from today’s Sundodger Invitational cross-country track meet at Lincoln Park are already up on the UW Athletics website; certainly the weather conditions lived up to the race name today (here’s the course map if you’re interested).
Just in from our correspondent at West Seattle Stadium: The big game just ended, and West Seattle High School‘s football team has beaten O’Dea, 21-6. We shot video of the game-end celebration and we’ll put it up when it comes into WSB HQ a bit later. This is big because WSHS has NEVER before beaten the football squad from O’Dea, which the Times noted here has won the Metro League 12 of the past 14 seasons. ADDED 10:32 PM: The end-of-game video, starting a few seconds before the clock ran out. Note that we did NOT go to shoot the game itself, so we don’t have highlights – we went to the stadium late in the game to make sure we’d be able to share the score fast if they won (last year we learned it’s almost impossible to find out the score any other way), and since WSHS did win, we shot the fans going wild (more so than the players). Congratulations! (P.S. Anyone interested in sending pix/video and/or texting or phoning in the score after any local schools’ games, we’d love to share more of this; let us know if you can help.)
Take a sec, spare a click to help a local school get TV time: We mentioned this yesterday, and the deadline’s tonight: The West Seattle High School-O’Dea matchup will be featured on channel 7’s Friday night sportscast – IF it wins the webpoll on this page. P.S. Thanks to Jonathan French for sending this Times link that notes the Wildcats are bidding to be the first WSHS team to knock off O’Dea. The game’s at West Seattle Stadium, 7 pm tomorrow.
Yet another thing that’s unique about West Seattle – we’re one of the last neighborhoods within city limits with a bowling alley. Which brings us to a quick mention that West Seattle Bowl just opened registration for its juniors league – first day of play is next Wednesday; more info’s on the flyer.
Just back from the Delridge Community Center basketball courts south of the Southwest Youth and Family Services building, where a refurbished court with that colorful center was just dedicated by its namesake Brandon Roy (WSB preview here). The 24-year-old former West Seattleite, now Portland Trail Blazer, returned to his old neighborhood to pose for photos galore with family — including his toddler son “BJ” (Brandon Junior) — friends, and sponsors, signing some autographs along the way. It wasn’t quite the Kodak, er, Facebook moment when somebody asked him to try a shot:
In fairness, he may be a bit rusty – he’s recovering from knee surgery that happened just last month (full details on his official “B Roy” website). And in addition to looking ahead to the new NBA season next month — he and fiancee Tiana Bardwell also are expecting their second child, a baby girl due in January. Here’s what he had to say during the ceremonial portion of today’s event:
Just got a note from “Bradley5” suggesting WSB’ers might be able to help WSHS make it onto the channel 7 sportscast this Friday night as the “Game of the Week” — the WSHS-O’Dea game is one of seven “Game of the Week” options in the webpoll on the right side of this page. It’s a one-click vote; deadline’s 7 pm tomorrow.
Just announced by the Parks Department — an event next Wednesday afternoon, with former West Seattleite and current Portland Trail Blazer Brandon Roy dedicating a “refurbished community basketball court” at Delridge Community Center. Here’s the full announcement:Read More
The only West Seattle connection here is County Councilmember Dow Constantine, but “Voice of the Mariners” Dave Niehaus (at the center of the photo, next to DC) is beloved here as well as elsewhere in M’s-land, so we wanted to show you this county-provided photo. Constantine and fellow councilmembers paid tribute to Niehaus at their meeting today; from the news release:
“Dave Niehaus loves the players and he loves the game, but he has never forgotten that his first duty is to the fan sitting at home,†said Constantine. “To the radio listener, this excitement and wonder for our national pastime is what makes Dave Niehaus special.â€
Also per the news release, Niehaus had this to say: “Those magic moments of 1995 will return to Safeco Field. I promise you, they will return.†Sure hope so. (Semi-pertinent side note: When we got here in ’91, and went to our first M’s game in the Kingdome, its interior signage carried the name “King County Stadium.”)
That’s how Julie titled her e-mail, seeking to share this:
Today in our neighborhood (Genesee)……..we had two very polite West Seattle High School football players (selling Gold Card Savings coupons for new football uniforms) come to the door.
We’ve had so many unsavory obscure organizations canvassing for ages it is hard to remember there really are some worthy causes out there. And they were polite teenagers too!
I hope they get lots of support from our community. Go Westside!
We’ve told you before about the uniform-fundraising drive — which kicked off with a food booth at West Seattle Summer Fest.
This morning’s Great Cross-Sound Race, 7-plus miles round trip from Alki, ended with a three-peat for Evan Jacobs (shown above close to shore post-race): He also finished first last year, solo, and finished first in 2006 with a partner. One thing very different this year compared to a year ago — the weather (as you can see in the photos from our coverage last year) — brilliant sunshine this time around. Full results will eventually be posted on the Sound Rowers website.
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