He felt the pinch in his left side.
Changes are afoot.
They’re getting back to basics. Returning to their roots.
And if all goes as planned, the end result for the Tahoma High football team will be a fourth playoff berth in the last five years.
Who’s next?
Lewi Larson runs through the play over and over again in his head.
Omare Lowe has been down this nomadic path before.
You could say the former Tahoma High star has spent a lifetime bouncing from home to home – whether in the National Football League or during a tumultuous childhood – and it would be no exaggeration.
But with each stop, the ever-resilient Lowe always has managed to put adversity aside and land on his feet.
Frustration has melted into determination for Kevin Kooyman.
Walking the Washington State University football sidelines wondering what could have been – or what likely should have been – can do that to a guy who possesses an inner drive nearly as big as he is.
There were no scorecard glitches this time.
They dreamed big.
But Chuck and Elena Stowell never imagined things would snowball quite like they have.
Or in such magical fashion.
The couple’s only daughter, Carly, a Kentlake High School student-athlete, died on April 12, 2007 of an acute cardiac arrhythmia.
Lauren Campbell delivered the look.
Work ethic and desire have never been a problem for Danny Meier.
The issue with him was size – the thing that college and professional baseball scouts long for when assessing a kid’s future potential.
And when Meier graduated from Tahoma High in 2004 – all 6 feet and roughly 170 pounds of him — it was something he lacked. So much, in fact, that few schools, other than a couple local community colleges, even gave him a second look.
He took a flight down to Florida a couple weeks ago.
Scott Simmons has lost a pair of uncles to cancer.
His dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer a little more than a year ago, but is doing better each and every day.
To say Simmons has had his eyes opened by the disease is an understatement.
Simmons will be leading a team in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Covington, Maple Valley and Black Diamond this Friday and Saturday at Tahoma Junior High.
One went in the draft. Another signed as a free agent.
The Kentlake High baseball team spent pretty much the entire spring on an emotional high, winning game after game en route to a state finals berth at Safeco Field.
On that same diamond, however, coach Jason Evans was in the midst of an emotional roller coaster ride, stemming from the loss of his father Dale, who passed away April 14 after a short bout with lung cancer.
