Daniel Landram is keeping it simple this winter.
The Kentlake High guard doesn’t care how many points he scores this basketball season. Nor does he care about how many rebounds he collects or assists he dishes out.
Landram has just one goal.
Nerves. Excitement. Passion.
First-year Kentwood High boys basketball coach Brian Davis is feeling it all these days.
Except, interestingly enough, pressure. Kentwood enters the season as the Class 4A defending state champs, and has finished either first or second in the South Puget Sound League North Division in three of the last four years.
I hate shootouts.
Can’t stand ’em. In fact, I can’t think of a more ridiculous way to end a game, particularly a state championship game. However, I am able to come up with several alternatives in other sports that would be the equivalent.
Consistency has been its hallmark throughout the past decade.
The Kentwood High volleyball team showed off some of that consistency Nov. 11-12 during the Class 4A state volleyball tournament at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
Personal records proved to be the name of the game Saturday afternoon during the Class 4A state cross country meet at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
The Tahoma High girls, behind an entire roster of personal bests, brought home the area’s top overall finish, tying Eastlake for second with 110 points. Eisenhower managed to have just enough to win the team title, doing so with 110 points.
One broke through.
Another broke down only to get back up and deliver one of the season’s most courageous performances.
Despite the heavy rain, there were plenty of local highlights from which to choose during the Class 4A Westside Classic cross country race at Fort Steilacoom Park on Saturday, Oct. 30.
Kentwood High’s Danny Lunder heard the footsteps closing in and the familiar voice that followed.
Despite being in the midst of a career-best performance on the 3.1-mile cross-country course at Fort Steilacoom Park Oct. 23, Lunder couldn’t help but be taken back a bit upon realizing that voice was coming from teammate Will Richmond.
His feet have done most of the talking this season.
Friday night at a jam-packed French Field in front of an estimated 6,000 fans, however, it was the heady play of Kentwood High’s Mikell Everette that proved to be the difference against Kentlake in an edge-of-the-seat South Puget Sound League North Division football game.
Ronnie Flowers had been waiting for this opportunity.
Friday night at a packed French Field, the moment finally came for the second-year Kentwood High senior.
Flowers intercepted a pair of passes, the second of which he returned 55 yards in the fourth quarter to seal ninth-ranked Kentwood’s 19-7 victory over Auburn in a South Puget Sound League North Division game.
Inside. Outside. Up and over.
When it comes to the Auburn High football team’s rushing game, pick your poison. The Trojans have been successful — and then some — with all three options since returning to the South Puget Sound League North Division two years ago. In fact, since returning to the North, the Trojans have run the league ragged, winning the past two league championships without a loss.
They’ve been beaten up and bloodied.
Injuries have become an all-too common theme this fall for the Kentwood High girls soccer team.
More than at any point during the past decade, the race for the South Puget Sound League North Division title on the volleyball court appears to be up in the air.
“It really will be wide open,” said Kent-Meridian coach Michael Christiansen. “I think for a team to win our league, it has to go undefeated.”
Kentwood’s girls golf team expected to take center stage during the fall league season.
She grew up in a soccer household.
But when push came to shove two years ago, Kailey Ulland chose cross country.
“It’s kind of a joke with my family that I chose cross country instead of soccer because we’re a soccer family,” laughed Ulland, a Kentwood senior.
It was a matter of proving everybody wrong.
That being the case, the Kentlake High girls soccer team certainly got it done Thursday, Sept. 9 at Wilson Playfield in Kent.
He was going to be the next big thing at Kentwood High. The type of running back who could outrun secondaries, and find openings when none appeared.
Power. Finesse. Speed.
Changes are afoot on the Kentlake High football field.
New coach?
Check.
New quarterback?
Check.
A playoff berth?
That’s yet to be determined. But first-year coach Chris Paulson, who has taken over the program from Mike Shepard, believes the Falcons have a legitimate opportunity to advance to the postseason this fall for the first time since 2003.
The Kent Little League Senior All-Star team bounced back from a tough loss to win the District 10 title to end June.
In July, that same bunch bashed its way to the state championship.
The local Stars, which is comprised of 14-16 year olds, hit a wall from Aug. 3-10 in Ontario, Calif., where they played in the Western Regional tournament, which brought together the top 10 teams from the region.
She changed her mind.
But Kristin Lutes’ ascension on the volleyball court remained very much the same.
“I was actually committed to Eastern Washington (University),” the 2003 Kentlake High graduate explained. “Then Sacramento State saw me play. Since Eastern wasn’t offering me a (scholarship) …”
The decision was obvious.
It started as a means to lose weight.
In a little less than a year since, however, it has blossomed into a passion to become fit, eat better and reach goals that once seemed impossible for Kent’s Sheryl Sprague.
