Just wanted to give a heads up to anybody planning on getting out to a high school game or sporting event next week that schools in the Northwest Conference will be participating in the second annual Coaches vs. Cancer benefit over the weekend.

Boys’ and girls’ basketball teams will be taking part on Thursday, Jan. 21 and Friday, Jan. 22 while wrestling teams will be taking part on Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 23. The basketball teams will have honorary coaches who have been greatly impacted by cancer on their benches for those games. Donations will be accepted at halftime of many of the games with the proceeds going to help fight and raise awareness for cancer. All of the coaches in the league will be wearing special T-Shirts for the games donated by Cloud 9 Sports to show their unified commitment to the cause.

Last year the NWC and Cascade Conference combined to raise more than $10,000 for cancer research and aid through the event. We’ll have more on this in the Bellingham Herald print edition as well as online on Sunday and leading up to it the games, but I wanted to get the information out there before then.

Last year’s games turned into special nights for a lot of people in the community and this year shouldn’t be any different. Anybody who remembers the Squalicum boys’ game from last season will tell you that. 

The Storm’s honorary coach last year was Kyle Roger, the 8-year-old son of a chemistry teacher at the school who was battling cancer. Kyle lost his battle with cancer a week after that game, but on that night, with the crowd cheering him on, he helped call Squalicum’s first play and was hoisted on the shoulders of a player to take a shot after the game.

It’s something the Storm players didn’t forget either. Here’s a picture from that night.

JOE SUNNEN

The start times for the Lynden Christian’s boys’ and girls’ basketball games against Friday Harbor on Saturday, Jan. 9, have been changed.

The boys’ varsity game and the girls’ junior varsity game will now start at 3:15 p.m. The girls’ varsity game and the boys’ junior varsity game will now begin at 5 p.m. All games will be played on the Lynden Christian campus.

The changes were made to accommodate a new ferry schedule from Friday Harbor that’s recently been put into place.

JOE SUNNEN

Here’s a link to the story we ran in the Bellingham Herald on Saturday, Dec. 19 about the latest classification numbers from the WIAA. It’s gotten a little buried on our website because there is a lot going on in prep sports around Whatcom County.

I know there’s some interest in this information and I just wanted to make it easier to find. Right now it doesn’t look like this reclassification will have a huge impact on the NWC at least within the conference.

Read the story here.

JOE SUNNEN

Here’s some video I found on YouTube of the King’s High School football team. It’s a highlight tape with good information on some of King’s top players. Nooksack Valley travels to play King’s in the Class 1A state quarterfinals on Friday, Nov. 20.

JOE SUNNEN

Here’s some video I found on YouTube of the Lynden football team’s Class 2A state quarterfinal opponent, Sequim. This is video of the Wolves’ 34-32 win over Burlington-Edison.

JOE SUNNEN

Here’s a link to a story in the Seattle Times about Marysville-Pilchuck running back Austin Denton and his quest to set the state’s single-season rushing record. So what does this have to do with Whatcom County? Well he’s chasing former Ferndale standout Matthias Wilson who set the mark with 2,678 yards in 1997. Denton has 2,055 yards so far this season.

Click here to read the story.

JOE SUNNEN

Here’s a link to the “Tourney Town” website for coverage of live events at the Yakima SunDome. I’m not sure how frequent the scoring updates will be, but there’s already some video of warm-ups from this morning up on the site.

JOE SUNNEN

Here’s a link to an audio interview with Montesano football coach Terry Jensen at CoachesAid.com.  It’s about six minutes long and has some good stuff about a Bulldogs team that’s undefeated and allowed just one touchdown this season.

Montesano meets Meridian on Saturday, Nov. 14 in the opening round of the state playoffs. Jensen talks about the Trojans about halfway through the interview. No bulletin board material here, but it’s clear the Bulldogs have been doing some early scouting of the Trojans.  

There have been some good battles between these two programs over the years.

Joe Sunnen

As far as websites for high school sports teams go the Meridian football team has to have one of the best around and likely in the state.

According to the site there are plans to provide live scoring updates, photos and video from tonight’s game against Port Townsend. It’s the first time all three of these things are being attempted by those involved with the site, but if it works out it should be a pretty cool deal.

Click here to get to the site. Once you get there click on the “Launch Port Townsend Game Tracker” bar. It’s the big bar in orange just above “Trojan News section.”

Joe Sunnen

Here’s the weekly Associated Press prep football polls for Wednesday, Oct. 22. Scroll to the bottom to see how The Bellingham Herald voted in the poll.

How a state panel of sports writers voted in the weekly Associated Press poll with won-loss record and total points (first place votes in parentheses):

CLASS 4A

1. Skyline (10)                    6-1             109

2. Bothell (1)                      7-0             100

3. Auburn                           7-0             87

4. Jackson                          7-0             72

5. Wenatchee                     7-0             55

6. Curtis                             7-0             53

7. South Kitsap                  7-0             40

8. Central Valley                 6-1             37

9. Eisenhower                     7-0             18

10. Marysville-Pilchuck      7-0             14

Others receiving 6 or more points: 11. Bethel 12.

CLASS 3A

1. Lakes (12)                     7-0             120

2. Liberty (Renton)             7-0             98

3. Bellevue                         5-2             93

4. Union                             6-1             86

5. O’Dea                            6-1             67

6. Timberline                      7-0             58

7. Meadowdale                  7-0             55

8. Mt. Spokane                  6-1             39

9. Camas                            6-1             23

10. Peninsula                      6-1             11

Others receiving 6 or more points: none

CLASS 2A

1. Ellensburg (13)               7-0             130

2. Archbishop Murphy        6-1             115

3. Lynden                          6-1             104

4. Othello                           6-1             84

5. W. F. West                    7-0             73

6. West Valley (Spokane) 7-0              65

7. Mark Morris                  6-1             39

8. Black Hills                      6-1             37

9. Interlake                         5-2             20

10. Burlington-Edison      6-1             19

Others receiving 6 or more points: 11. Selah 16.

CLASS 1A

1. Montesano (9)                7-0             116

2. Connell (3)                     7-0             106

3. Cascade Christian           7-0             98

4. Cashmere                       5-1             87

5. Zillah                              6-1             65

6. Royal                             6-1             51

7. Orting                             6-1             45

8. Nooksack Valley         6-1             38

9. Onalaska                        7-0             23

10. Cascade (Leavenworth)    Á 6-1     17

Others receiving 6 or more points: none

CLASS 2B

1. Colfax (5)                       6-0             77

2. LaSalle (3)                     7-0             72

3. Asotin                            7-0             61

4. Adna                              7-0             60

5. Tacoma Baptist              7-0             45

6. Waitsburg-Prescott         6-0             32

7. Willapa Valley                6-1             26

8. Napavine                        5-2             25

9. Kittitas                           5-1             20

10. Naselle                         6-1             10

Others receiving 6 or more points: 11. Oroville 7.

CLASS 1B

1. Cusick (7)                      7-0             79

2. Colton (1)                      6-0             70

3. Almira Coulee-Hartline 6-1 58

4. Neah Bay                       7-0             57

5. Columbia (Hunters)        6-1             30

Others receiving 6 or more points: 11. Tri-Cities Prep 13. 12. LaCrosse-Washtucna 7.

Here’s how I voted in the weekly polls. I don’t vote in the Class 4A and 2B polls because we do not have any teams from those classifications in our coverage area.

Class 3A

1st Place: Lakes  

2nd Place: Liberty (Renton)  

3rd Place: Bellevue  

4th Place: Union High School  

5th Place: O’Dea  

6th Place: Meadowdale  

7th Place: Timberline  

8th Place: Camas  

9th Place: Peninsula  

10th Place: Mt. Spokane

Class 2A

1st Place: Ellensburg  

2nd Place: Archbishop Murphy  

3rd Place: Lynden  

4th Place: Othello  

5th Place: W. F. West  

6th Place: West Valley (Spokane)  

7th Place: Black Hills  

8th Place: Mark Morris  

9th Place: Burlington-Edison  

10th Place: Interlake

Class 1A

1st Place: Montesano  

2nd Place: Cascade Christian  

3rd Place: Connell  

4th Place: Cashmere  

5th Place: Nooksack Valley  

6th Place: Zillah  

7th Place: Orting  

8th Place: Royal  

9th Place: Meridian  

10th Place: Onalaska

Class 1B

1st Place: Cusick  

2nd Place: Neah Bay  

3rd Place: Colton  

4th Place: Almira/Coulee-Hartline  

5th Place: Columbia (Hunters)

JOE SUNNEN