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As a former La Conner High School football standout, Loran James is used to seeing the number 35 on stadium scoreboards. But not when the game being played is softball. James, coach of the high school softball team, was thrilled to see 35 posted on the Lady Braves' side of the scoreboard in a league slugfest with visiting Skagit County rival Concrete last Wednesday. James' charges came from behind to secure a wild 35-27 triumph, the youthful team's first win on the campaign. Across campus, the...
Josie Harper, a senior at La Conner High School, is the Soroptimist of La Conner Honored Student for April. Josie excels in academics and sports. She is also modest. This season Josie was twice recognized for her basketball skills statewide. She was named to the 2B all-state second team by SBLive, a sports website that tracks statistics and rankings. The other was the honor of being on the all-state team. The team played a real game, in which Josie and Ellie Marble played with girls from all...
The weather was the worst, but La Conner High School thinclads were at their best in Langley Thursday. The track teams fought off heavy rain and gusty winds to post several personal bests at a non-league invitational meet hosted by South Whidbey High School. As has been the case throughout the spring, reigning state 2B hurdles champ Tommy Murdock paced the Braves, who placed second out of seven team entries, trailing only the hometown Falcons by a 141-101.5 margin. "Tommy's been really consisten...
Eleanor Drews' strong performance as the messy Oscar Madison in the "Odd Couple," the La Conner Schools drama club's spring production, highlights this show. Jack Dougliis as neatnick and great chef Felix Unger, and Oscar's poker playing buddies make it an ensemble cast in a different odd way: the elaborate set that is Oscar's apartment living room is a feat, and accomplishment, to behold. In the opening scene it is almost another character. Try to define all the messes laid across the floor...
There is reason to celebrate in La Conner on May 3. La Conner Schools has set the day aside to observe the 50th anniversary of Whittaker Field and to recognize its undefeated 1968 high school football team. Its success paved the way for a lighted athletics venue on campus four years later. Whittaker Field, named for legendary one-armed coach and administrator Jack Whittaker, opened during the 1972-73 school year. It remains home to football, soccer and track and field teams. The May 3 program is at 2 p.m., prior to the league championship track...
La Conner Schools officials did more than welcome their counterparts from Conway with open arms last Monday. School board president Susie Gardner Deyo also presented the Conway contingent with floral bouquets. “She’s a garden club person,” La Conner board member John Agen explained as Conway Superintendent Jeff Cravy and board representative Amy Hughes gratefully received the flowers. Gardner and the La Conner Schools team held the nearly two-hour special dinner meeting to discuss shared educational goals and to plant seeds with Conway campu...
La Conner Schools will have to make do with less in the 2023-2024 academic year. District officials were facing that as they begin crafting next year’s budget at their April 10 board study session. Declining enrollment, a smaller than anticipated apportionment of federal impact aid monies and the loss of emergency COVID-19-related funds will result in significant spending cuts, district finance director David Cram predicted in a report to school board members. “We’re looking at a $1.5 million reduction in spending to get to a $500,000 fund...
The Swinomish and Tulalip photographer, filmmaker, podcaster and author Matika Wilbur shares her Indian/Spirit name "Tsa-Tsique," meaning "she who teaches children," with her mom, Nancy Wilbur. During an hour phone interview, Wilbur shared the story of her decade long journey leading to her new photography book "Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America." The 10 inch by 10 inch 416-page book can be ordered now. Her research took her to all 50 states. It started in 2012 as a Kickstarter...
Nobody anticipates a train derailment in their backyard. Nobody, perhaps, except Skagit County Fire District 13 Training Officer Chris Olbu. A model railroader, Olbu led a detailed tabletop exercise at the district’s SneeOosh Road fire station earlier this year, presenting the many scenarios that can arise when a train derails. As fate would have it, about two weeks after practicing moving model emergency vehicles around the train track Olbu had set up on the fire station’s second floor, two BNSF locomotive derailed near the Swinomish Cas...
The Coupeville High School baseball team stole a win at La Conner last Thursday. Not that the visiting Wolves eked out an unexpected NW2B/1B triumph. A veteran Coupeville lineup, ran wild on the basepaths –19 stolen bases – and prevailed 12-2 over the youthful Braves, who averted a shutout when Kenai Zimmerman delivered a bases-loaded two-run single in the third inning. La Conner, falling to 1-7, kept within striking distance up until the game's midpoint. The Braves received a solid start fro...
La Conner High School hurdles standout Tommy Murdock took top honors in his races at the Skagit Showdown Meet in Sedro-Woolley last Wednesday. Students from various sized schools competed, but Murdock was clearly in a class by himself. The junior swept the boys' 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles, hitting the finish line in 0:16.02 and 42.00, respectively. The reigning state 2B hurdles champ placed a strong third in the 100-meter dash, clocking an 0:11.46 finish, behind Carsten Reynolds (0:11.17)...
A La Conner High School student group is proving you can play around and learn at the same time. The school’s extracurricular theater arts program group is presenting Neil Simon’s popular comedy “The Odd Couple” with six shows at the Bruce Performing Arts Center starting this Friday at 7 p.m. Performers include Jack Dougliss, Eleanor Drews, Gabe Barnett, Jonathan Gonzales, Rachel Haley, Madoc Hiller, Olie Phillips, Emily Smith and Josi Straathof. They are also gaining valuable math, carpentry, team-building and public speaking skills as they...
Fewer homes sold in Skagit County in March, keeping the average median price high, $556,250 for the 105 homes that closed countywide. Anacortes remains the most expensive housing market in the county, by far: The 23 homes that closed had an average median price of $730,000. Sold home prices in the Burlington and Mount Vernon markets were also high, with $587,500 the average median price for the 20 homes that closed in the smaller city,. The 33 homes that closed in Mount Vernon had an average median price of $585,000. These three markets kept...
Josi Straathof is the Kiwanis Club of La Conner March High School Student of the Month. Josi is a junior. She is the daughter of Brian Straathof and DeAnna Young. She enjoys her science and history classes. She is active in school activities playing soccer and softball. She has a part in the upcoming school play, "The Odd Couple." Outside of school she is involved in art. Josi is not sure what she will study after graduation, however she is interested in animal science. Kaleb Otis is March's...
Home or away, it didn't matter. Matching up with Friday Harbor and Orcas were tough tasks last week for the La Conner High School baseball and softball teams. The Braves (1-6) fell 16-1 at Friday Harbor last Tuesday and were defeated 20-4 by the Wolverines in a rematch at home Friday. The boys dropped a 11-6 decision at Orcas Saturday afternoon. The Lady Braves (0-9), whose roster features several first-year players, lost 21-1 at Friday Harbor April 4 and came up short 9-4 at Orcas Saturday....
At the corners of Morris and Sixth streets you will find three booming businesses and a library that are owned or operated by women: Beaver Tales Coffee, Stompin Ground Coffee Co., Tillinghast Postal & Business Center and the La Conner Swinomish Library. All serve the community in unique ways. Library Director Jean Markert started in September 2022 after serving as chair of La Conner Regional Library board of directors, where she had a key role in the process of building the new library, a project that had been in the works for ten years. Becau...
Spring break was no vacation for a cross-section of Swinomish youth. Pre-teen and high school-aged tribal students sacrificed sleeping in and lounging in front of the TV to take part in a four-day conference at the Swinomish Gym designed to build self-esteem and develop lifelong leadership skills. It was hosted by Swinomish Health Programs. By all accounts it was time well spent for the large percentage attending all four days. They were introduced to the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA)...
For decades the odds were stacked against Native American students succeeding in the U.S. educational system. Statistics bear that out. La Conner Schools faculty and staff reviewed the data during a special program featuring Dennis Eller in late March. Eller is a member of the Cherokee Nations, an administrator at Thomas Jefferson High School in Federal Way and a doctoral candidate. “I had better odds of becoming a starter in the National Football League,” Eller said at one point of his 75-minute presentation, “than I did of earning a docto...
Anne Marguerite Rice 4/3/1939 - 3/17/2023 Anne was born in Seattle to George and Mary Connell. She attended school on Queen Anne Hill, but at age 15 her family was uprooted and they moved to West Seattle where Anne met Lauren Rice, age 16. They became inseparable friends graduating from West Seattle High School, the University of Washington, and both earning masters degrees from Oregon State University. Anne and Lauren were married at West Side Presbyterian Church on December 26, 1959. They had...
New La Conner School Board of Directors Loran James and Kim Pedroza hit the ground running last week in a two-hour marathon meeting. James and Pedroza were appointed last month to fill sudden board vacancies. They did not have the luxury of taking time to get up to speed. And despite the length, it was a relatively fast-paced session. New ground was presented midway through in the form of a 30-minute presentation and proposal by Morgan Brown and Jen Willup of the Between Two Worlds indigenous science class to develop a native food medicine fore...
Growing pains aren't easy, but the La Conner High School baseball team's coaching staff takes solace knowing the youthful Braves are getting stronger. Last week's NW2B/1B action at Darrington and at home against league leading Mount Vernon Christian are examples. Both games ended in the loss column, but the Braves played on equal terms save for one bad inning in each outing. Darrington rode a 13-run second frame to an 18-7 triumph on Thursday. MVC also parlayed a big second inning – the H...
The afterglow of a stellar high school basketball season continues to shine for two La Conner High School seniors. Ellie Marble and Josie Harper have received Girls’ 2B all-state recognition from two national digital sports outlets. Marble was tabbed by SBLive, a technology partner of state associations, coaches and administrators, for first unit all-state honors. Harper was a second team selection. Both Marble and Harper were first unit All-State choices of Prep Girls Sports, a major source of in-depth hoops news and coverage, team r...
The Stanwood-Camano Branch of the American Association of University Women is accepting 2023 scholarship applications through April 29 for university students in their junior or senior year or in Master’s Degree programs. Scholarships of $10,000 will be awarded to three applicants who are current residents of La Conner, Stanwood, Camano Island, Arlington or Lakewood areas or are high school graduates from these school districts Applications are at aauwsc.org/scholarship. Source: AAUW, Stanwood-Camano...
Just months after stepping down as transportation director at La Conner Schools, Kim Pedroza is back, the newest member of the district’s board of directors. Pedroza was selected by board members last Thursday to fill the unexpired term of Lynette Cram, who the Town of La Conner director district seat when her husband, David Cram, became deputy superintendent of finance, human resources and operations. This director position is on the ballot for a full four-year term in November. Retired Dunlap Towing tugboat skipper and former La Conner F...
The Skagit Valley’s environment and economy has been shaped over time by changes in our climate and land use. Some of these changes have resulted in devastating impacts to our communities, including floods, heat waves, droughts and wildfires. In 2021, our farmers and farmworkers witnessed one of their driest years with record low rainfall in spring and a vicious heat wave in summer. By late July, the Washington Department of Ecology issued a drought emergency as farmers dealt with dry conditions...
