Tradition means different things to different people. For the Lindbergh boys cross-country team, it means a third undefeated dual meet season in the past four years. It means a fourth-consecutive league championship, and it likely means a sixth team appearance at state in the past seven seasons.
It’s one thing for players to take losses in stride because better times are ahead. It’s another thing for the small group of seniors on the Hazen volleyball team to take the losses now, because they won’t be around to see the reward.
Thomas Lowes got beat last year. In fact, opponents beat him nearly every time out on the court. So much so that Liberty tennis coach Mike Salokas worried about the freshman’s psyche.
It turns out pain is just a mindset for Chad Meis.
Nine seconds. That’s how much time shaved off the game clock when Lindbergh’s Frank Cange ran his pass route, collided with a defender, stopped, caught the ball as it popped up and sprinted to the end zone. Seventy-four yards total, nine seconds, with a collision in the middle.
What started with Timm Hines wanting to be prepared to lead an afterschool club soon became a whirlwind of Olympic trials, national teams and state records. Hines didn’t know he had an aptitude for archery; but just six months after starting, he found himself at the Olympic trials, shooting next to the world’s best archers.
As the Lindbergh football team completed a 4-6 season in 2007, Dawson Asuega was a world away. Well, not an entire world, just about 5,200 miles away in Samoa.
Lindbergh beat Foster in five games, 3-2 on Sept. 25.
Liberty piled up 360 yards rushing on the way to a 55-21 rout of Sammamish on Sept. 26.
Entering Friday night’s game, Hazen and Renton were two different teams on two different tracks. The Highlanders were 3-0 and had outscored opponents 66-12. The Indians were 1-2 and had been outscored by opponents 78-72. It didn’t take Renton long to reverse its fortunes.
The Lindbergh Eagles never buckled. They got the ball with four minutes and 51 seconds, with good field position and down by six points. The fans looked confident. Lindbergh coach Dominic Yarrignton looked confident. Most importantly, the Lindbergh players looked confident that their senior quarterback Jake Allie could lead them to a score. And Allie did just that, completing seven passes and commanding his Eagles on a 52-yard drive that ended with a touchdown and 23 seconds left on the clock. But the Sept. 26 game wasn’t over yet. Juanita blocked the extra point and then beat Lindbergh in overtime 24-21.
The Renton High Indians handed Hazen its first loss of the young football season in a 54-0 blowout at Renton…
The 24-21 victory comes on a 20-yard field goal.
How do you build a winning team with no seniors? That’s the question Lindbergh volleyball coach Bob Stewart has had to answer this season with his young Eagles team.
Liberty High School has selected Steve Darnell as the head baseball coach. Darnell has been an assistant with the team for five years.
