A way to help the families of the four fallen Lakewood police officers

We know. of course, that there is a Mount Si basketball game scheduled for Friday night, but there is something else going on Friday night that if you are not a basketball fan or, more importantly, want to do something to help the families of the four Lakewood police officers who were slain in the line of duty one week ago last Sunday.

The Seattle Thunderbirds, starting at 9:00 this morning and going until 9:00 tonight, are going to be selling tickets on their website for Friday night's home game at the ShoWare Center in Kent against the Tri-City Americans. The proceeds from these ticket sales will be donated to the Lakewood Police Independent Guild, helping the families of these four officers. Thunderbirds officials said in a statement they are hoping to cut a check for upwards of $50,000 to help these families, so if you want to help out and enjoy a good game at the same time, this is the way to do it. The Kent Valley Hockey Association, of which there are a few players which hail from the Valley, is also asking its members to purchase seats.

Go here and look for a banner which has the pictures of the four officers, click on that banner and you're there.

Also, if you haven't heard, Papa John's pizza restaurants in the Puget Sound (of which there is now one in Snoqualmie) are also donating some money from their pizza sales today to the LPIG fund for these families, so if you haven't had a chance to try their pizza yet, since they just recently opened in our community, this is a good time to do that.

On the Wednesday docket.....

From around the country:

-Out of Fargo, ND, a story from the INForum website about the decline of multi-sport athletes at the high school level in that region. We're seeing that around here as well, with at least one Mount Si girls' athlete giving up one sport likely to focus on the other she excels in.

-Two articles about high school sports and the economy. First one is from California, where boosters in the Sonoma area have indicated they will not be able to save a local high school's sports program from cuts because they, too, are in the red. The boosters kept the program afloat after the school district axed the program once before, but now are saying they are seeing reduced donations, meaning they are facing a shortfall. One middle school athletic director, according to this story, out of the Sonoma News, is suggesting pay-to-play as a possible option to keep sports going this time around.

-Second one is from Westchester County, NY, where voters in the community of Lewisboro went to the polls and said yes to a proposal for sports field improvements at a local high school.

-And to close, we hate it when prep sports ends up in the courtroom, but we have that going on in the DFW Metroplex. According to the NBC station in Dallas, a pregnant high school volleyball player in Fort Worth has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the Department of Education after her coach required her to get a doctor's note to continue playing. There are several other articles on this matter, go to Google News and type "high school volleyball complaint" and you'll see them at the top of the page. Thoughts?

More news and notes today.......

-We have our first update today on Snoqualmie teen skiing star Anna Mounsey, who is at lower left in the photo at right. (Photo courtesy of Jane Mounsey).

Jane, Anna's mom, sent out an email today to let everyone know that Anna has started preparations for the upcoming season. She and her teammates from Team Alpental/Snoqualmie who train full time along with their coaches headed across the border up into B.C. and did a week's worth of practices up at Apex, which is located up near Penticton in the B.C. Okanagan, about a six-hour drive from the Valley via Highway 97 and through the Osoyoos/Oroville border crossing.

Jane tells us that the team's head coach, Jacques Berther, was pleased with the kids' efforts there, and the assistant coach, Jeff Funk, was especially pleased with Anna's work.

The first big event comes up right after Christmas at the pass. We'll be sure to keep you posted.

-RidgeValley Volleyball wants to let all of you know, especially any of you with elementary-school aged girls who want them to try out volleyball. The club's "Little Rookies" program for girls grades 3-6 will hold its first session this Saturday, Dec. 13, from 5-7 at the high school gym. Click on the RidgeValley link in the news links at right on this home page and you will find more information and registration forms there.

Mount Si's volleyball coach, Bonnie Foote, is heavily involved with RV, and the emergence of this club locally will help ensure continued success for the Wildcat program. If you want to get your daughter involved in a great sport and have a chance to be successful while keeping your dollars in your community, this is a great way to do that.

And speaking of RidgeValley, we should mention as well the season for their U-14 and U-16 teams starts up after the first of the year, and they have two teams in each of those age levels, all of which are LOADED with Valley athletes, and many of the coaches are also local as well. So head over there and check that out and make plans to go support these young ladies in action.

-From the cooler comes this one out of Buffalo, NY, by way of Toronto. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, two coaches and a dad from an Ontario-based bantam youth boys' hockey team were arrested after allegedly being involved in a alcohol-fueled bar fight at a suburban Buffalo Holiday Inn. The three men were in the area with their team, who was participating in a local tournament. The men all face a number of charges as a result of the alleged incident. Thoughts?

Monday news and notes

-From our water cooler, we have a good column here from Denver Post sports media writer Dusty Saunders criticizing Colorado high school sports officials for airing the state high school football championships on tape delay. According to the story, the high school association down there, instead of continuing a deal with the local FSN affiliate, instead opted to have the games aired on a Comcast-owned channel and on demand, in some degree similar to how things are done here in Washington (except of course here, the championships for 3A and 4A were aired live). So we would second Saunders' criticism. But this brings up a bigger issue for discussion - should high school sports events, even championship games, be televised at all? Post in comments section.

-The All-State nominations are out for girls soccer and volleyball, and we are pleased to say that the Valley Record has once again been asked to participate in the balloting procedures. The following Mount Si girls have been nominated:

-Soccer: MF Laura Barnes, soph.
-Volleyball: OH Zoe Gogan, jr.
OH Shelagh Macaulay, sr.
S Robyn Schirmer, sr.

As was the case back in the spring with the Mount Si athletes who were nominated at that time, our newspaper, in the interest of staying neutral and unbiased in our coverage, has not selected any of these girls on our ballot. But we expect at least one or two of the volleyball people to make it in since they got prime position on the ballot.

So we offer them good luck, and hopefully we'll be able to break some good news in print.

More later.

Sunday nuggets....

Here's what we missed over the last couple of days:

-Fall sports for local collegians are officially over now. WSU women's volleyball (Faith Hutcherson/Jr/Ames Lake) saw their season end Friday with a 26-24, 25-21, 25-20 loss to Northern Iowa in round one of the NCAA volleyball tournament in Lincoln, NE. Hutch played two games and recorded no stats. Also, UW football blew out Cal last night 42-10. Brandon Yakaboski, who was a star running back for the Wildcats prior to his graduation in 2007, is a junior with the Huskies, but has been out all year due to injuries.

-Humboldt State women's basketball team (Caitie Richards/Fr/Snoqualmie) posted a 65-46 win over CSU Dominguez Hills last night in Arcata, CA. Richards off the bench had half a dozen; those points came as the result of a pair of three-pointers. Richards shot 40% from behind the arc (2-5) in her 21 minutes of action.

-Mount Si's boys basketball team went 1-1 at the Les Schwab invitational in Kent; they won Thursday night over Foster behind 21 from Zander Nelson, but lost last night to Lake Washington 63-61 despite 28 from Tanner Riley. Wildcats play Sammamish Friday at 8:15. (We mention them here since we will not feature them in print this week.) They were supposed to play Tuesday night at Liberty, but that game was shifted back to next Monday, likely due to lack of players for the Patriots as they get kids eligible following their runner-up efforts in the state football playoffs for which we congratulate them here. And the nice thing for them is all of the key players - Wheeler, Bainton and Jenkins - are back next year so they will be knocking on the door once more.