Can you believe it’s almost October?
Weather has been great, prep sports is at the mid-season point already, the Mariners look like they’re going to finish over .500, the Huskies have improved, the Cougars of Washington State are hanging in there and the Seahawks are, well, the Seahawks.
It’s been a busy month and items have piled up on the desk, so let’s give it a Wednesday whirl …
Hot rider
Sequim and Port Angeles both claim Ricky "The Rocket" Amundson when it comes to bicycle motocross. The 15-year-old two-wheel riding expert became a double state champion a few weekends ago at the Sea Tac BMC Park in Tukwila.
The Rocket won the 15-year-old cruiser class and the 15-year-old class to make parents and grandparents very proud.
He was an up and coming cross country runner for Sequim but had a couple of injuries and is taking a year off from the running game.
Prep gridiron
Sequim faces a couple of challenges as the season goes into October. The Wolves should handle Klahowya and Kingston, but then go to North Mason on Oct. 16 and I know the Bulldogs are waiting for this one.
Eatonville and Washington follow at home, then the Wolves have a tough test at an improved Fife squad Nov. 6.
As I surmised early, the Olympic/Western Cascade League (OWL) has been dominated by the four schools in the Olympia area, Capital, Yelm, North Thurston and Timberline, and all four should make it into the playoffs in November, although North K is always in the mix after a win over Yelm.
There will be changes next year as the Narrows League is expected to expand into a couple of divisions with 3A and 4A teams and will take in all of the Olympia schools.
That will leave Port Angeles, Olympic, Bremerton and North Kitsap out in the cold, cruel world again.
Do not miss this
The Olympic League cross country championship race is scheduled for The Cedars at Dungeness at 3 p.m. on Oct. 22. It’s a really nice showcase for all of the Olympic League running teams.
The pros at The Cedars really bend over backwards to make the runners welcome and the last two races have been excellent.
The way things are shaping up, look for Port Townsend to battle Sequim and North Kitsap for the boys’ crown, while Kingston, Sequim and Port Angeles vie for the girls’ title.
A good race to check out will be P.A. and Sequim at North Mason on Oct. 14.
Catching on
Sequim fastpitch fans are proud of Marquita Espinosa, catcher on the Peninsula Pirate fastpitch team. She represented the school in the NWAACC Sophomore Showcase softball event last weekend in Portland.
She hit .320 with 10 home runs last year as a frosh backstop for the Pirates and handled the pitching staff very, very well.
Her North team tied with the East 3-3 and the South beat the North 4-1. No details were available at deadline time.
Husky flop
Really, did you expect Washington to win all the rest of their games after a big upset win over USC?
The Stanford Cardinal ran through, around and over the Dawgs last Saturday night to bring the purple and gold back to earth. Now they have to go to Notre Dame and the Huskies never have beaten the Irish.
It’s a long season, so don’t give up on them just yet.
The Cougs
It was as expected, WSU fans. Southern Cal took out its frustration at losing in Seattle by handing Washington State a loss last weekend in California. Pete Carroll’s troops took it easy on the Cougars in the second half after a quick, early 20-0 lead.
The Cougars may not win another game this season.
Seahawk feathers
If Seattle doesn’t make it to the playoffs, they can look back on a 25-19 loss to the Chicago Bears as the reason.
Seattle squandered many chances to win the game. They pulled two makeable field goals to the left, one miss at the end of the first half which could’ve made it a 16-7 game at intermission.
That would’ve made the Bears have to get two scores to get even. Instead, Seattle coughed up a fumble to start the second half, the Bears went ahead and kept the Hawks at bay.
By the way, I’m not a big fan of the new-look uniforms. It’s called florescent rave green. It reminded me a lot of Oregon Duck uniforms – and I don’t like those either.
Don’t look for the Seahawks to wear those jerseys at home for a while.
Scooter Chapman can be reached via e-mail at scooter@olypen.com.
