Stepping stone. Building block. Both have been used to describe the success of the Kentwood High girls track team last spring, a season in which the Conquerors won the program’s first-ever South Puget Sound League North Division title with a perfect 5-0 record and went on to take a school-best sixth place at the state meet.
They spent last year growing up.
A young bunch on the South Puget Sound League North Division diamond a year ago, the Kentwood High fastpitch team took its lumps.
But the Conquerors still qualified for the postseason for the sixth straight season, winning a pair of late-season loser-out contests — one over Thomas Jefferson and the other to Auburn Riverside — to nab the North’s fifth and final seed to the playoffs.
The favorites, the contenders and the sleepers in the SPSL North fastpitch race.
She can slap the ball like Ichiro, but can leave the yard like Ken Griffey Jr., too.
But Kentlake outfielder Erin Crowley is hardly an offense-first player.
“I feel like defense is more important,” said the 18-year-old senior. “I have a team that can have a good offensive game if I am not hitting and we can still win.”
The faces and names have changed this spring on the Kentwood High baseball diamond.
The optimism, well, that has remained largely the same.
Kentwood won its first Class 4A state title last season since 2000. And though the Conquerors graduated 11 seniors, including their top pitcher and South Puget Sound League North Division MVP Austin Voth and a slew of sluggers, they expect a repeat.
Looking at the favorite, the contenders and the sleeper of the SPSL North 2011 baseball season.
There have been plenty of coaching openings for Quientin Poil to choose from over the years. A baseball junky who has both played and coached at the college level, none of the previous vacancies felt quite right.
Instead of giving the potential openings at least a tip of the cap, Poil let them pass by like a fading changeup out of the strike zone.
First came the weights.
Then came the power for Kentridge High shortstop Kyle Leady.
Leady, a senior, entered last season among the unknowns in the South Puget Sound League North Division. An infielder who bounced in and out of the starting lineup, between shortstop and third base and most often hitting toward the bottom of the order, big numbers weren’t quite expected. Yet, in a span of two weeks, Leady went from a blip on the SPSL North radar to one of the most feared hitters in the league.
The Kentwood High boys basketball team opened with a bang, but finished with a fizzle Monday night at the ShoWare Center.
Behind 22 points from star guard DaVonte Lacy, fourth-ranked Curtis denied Kentwood 59-43 in the championship game of the West Central/Southwest Bi-District tournament.
He got the match he wanted.
He even got the win he was looking for.
Neither, however, happened when or how Tahoma High junior Steven Hopkins had planned. Hopkins, who won the 103-pound Class 4A state title last year, was looking for a repeat performance – albeit at 119 pounds – Saturday afternoon at the Tacoma Dome during Mat Classic XXIII.
Jesse Dehnert had a pretty good idea he was going to crack the Kentwood High record book. He had examined the swim team’s diving standards and figured it was just a matter of time until his name appeared.
As it turned out, the Kentwood junior could not have picked a better — or more celebratory — moment.
On Jan. 8 — Dehnert’s 17th birthday — the Conqueror not only uncorked a school record-setting performance he also earned a state berth. And he polished off both pursuits with one crisp, clean dive during the Lakes Invitational in Lakewood.
Tahoma remained on top and Kentridge broke through during Friday and Saturday’s sub-district wrestling tournament at Auburn High.
Tahoma, which won the South Puget Sound League North Division, walked away with the team title, racking up an eyepopping 394 points, well ahead of second-place Auburn at 266.
Jordan Johnson is well aware that she could be tumbling on the postseason gymnastics mat for the final time this season.
That’s why the Kentwood senior is making the most of these final few weeks.
Johnson certainly made the most of her time on the mat during Saturday’s sub-district meet at Mount Rainier High in Des Moines, leading all locals with a sixth-place finish in the all-around with a final tally of 35.225.
The Kentlake High boys basketball team needed a front-line scorer when the season began.
A program that has been knocking on the door of the South Puget Sound League playoffs for the last couple of years, the Falcons have been consistently good, a competitive bunch that has generally played with anybody.
After hitting a small bump in the road, urgency has returned to the Kentwood High boys basketball team.
With star guard Gary Bell and Kentridge on the horizon in the featured game of Friday night’s third-annual Les Schwab Shootout in Kent at the ShoWare Center, the Conquerors could not have picked a better time to right the ship.
This time of year, however, I prefer to look ahead rather than back. With that in mind, let’s take a look at Kent’s Top 10 sports stories (or potential ones) for the year to come.
What if? That thought has gone through the mind of Kentwood High senior Ruben Navejas more than a handful of…
They have the potential and plenty of talent, too.
Now, second-year Kentlake High wrestling coach Jeremy Williams wants to see it all come together for the Falcons on the mat.
“We definitely want to be in the top three in dual (meets) in the league,” Williams said. “We know Tahoma and Auburn have tough teams, and Kentwood does as well. But we have a lot of guys who have potential and aspirations to make it to state.”
Change is sweeping across the Kentlake High girls basketball courts this winter.
“We’re very green in the post this year,” deadpanned sixth-year coach Scott Simmons. “We’re no longer big.”
They were on the brink last year.
So close they could see the pinnacle.
Good. At times, even great.
But when the season ended, the Kentwood High girls basketball team still wasn’t where it wanted to be.
