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La Conner and Wahkiakum are longtime foes in the athletic arena. Soon they might be allies on the judicial front. La Conner School Board President Susie Deyo raised that prospect during the panel’s 90-minute Nov. 28 hybrid meeting. Deyo asked that the board later this month support a resolution and modest financial contribution – perhaps $3,000. The Wahkiakum School District is suing the state government to extend the McCleary decision mandating basic education funding to include campus capital improvement projects. The state Supreme Court in...
The La Conner High School boys' basketball team broke into the win column Saturday with an 84-15 non-league home romp over Cedar Park Christian of Bothell, a multi-campus school with an enrollment topping 1,000 students. Isaiah Price scored a game-high 26 points and Ivory Damien added 24 to lead the victors, whose suffocating full-court pressure defense forced 21 steals enroute to a wire-to-wire triumph. The Braves shot 38 of 80 from the field – 34 of 58 inside the three-point line, mostly layup...
Neil Bretvick was in his early 20s when he left La Conner to embark on a career as a tax accountant. Along the way he has traveled the world and attended concerts played by the biggest acts in the music industry. Even so, he insists that his hometown – where as a youth he enjoyed sledding down Maloy Hill (Second Street), smelt jigging on Swinomish Channel, swimming in the nearby Skagit River, learning to drive big farm trucks at West Shore Acres and scoring one of the more storied touchdowns in La Conner High School football history – “is still...
After more than a decade, the Waterfront Café has a tried-and-true recipe for its popular annual community Thanksgiving meals. But this year a new ingredient was added to the mix – outdoor dining. La Conner was greeted with bright sunshine and unseasonably balmy weather last Thursday, leading numerous diners to enjoy their traditional turkey-and-fixin's and beverages on the café's deck overlooking Swinomish Channel. "I can't remember it ever being warm enough outside for people to eat out on...
Happy holiday season! Along with lights, trees and lawn displays comes this more recent tradition: the annual La Conner Weekly News subscription drive. These next three weeks your community newspaper will be delivered to every address in our local school district. Friends, neighbors and relatives of subscribers are invited to join the close to 900 households in greater La Conner who have decided that they are better off – and the community itself benefits – by their investment in their subscription to their local newspaper. This is their – y...
A colorful Love La Conner “selfie station” at Gilkey Square is an idea whose time has come. And gone. That was the unanimous sentiment expressed by La Conner Town Council last week. At their Nov. 22 hybrid meeting, members nixed the design for a marketing icon at the downtown waterfront location, saying the timing is no longer right for such promotional signage. “It was conceived during COVID-19,” Councilmember Rick Dole explained. “La Conner was empty during what would have been the height of tourist season. We’ve passed the worst of times. It...
Succeeding a Hall of Fame coach is a tall order, but fortunately for the La Conner High School girls' basketball program new mentor Joe Harper stands 6'-5". He takes over from Scott Novak, who guided teams to multiple state tournament appearances and trophy finishes during three decades. For much of his tenure here he coached the Braves and Lady Braves simultaneously. Novak, a 2015 state coaches Hall of Fame inductee, remains on the faculty. His longtime protégé and coaching assistant, Dustin Sw...
The Kiwanis Club of La Conner High School Student of the Month for October was Eleanor Drews. Laurel Strong is Eleanor's parent. Eleanor is a senior and is active in the drama club, cheerleading and Green Club. Outside of school she enjoys reading, baking and singing. After graduation Eleanor would like to study biology and theatre. She hopes to continue on to veterinary school to get her DVM. Middle School Student of the Month for October was Iris Turner. Her parents are Logan Turner and Erica...
Joslin James, a senior at La Conner High School, is the Soroptimist of La Conner Honored Student of the Month for November. Joslin is the granddaughter of Barb James, a Swinomish Senator, and Bruce James Sr; and the daughter of Sonny and Lana Fornsby James. The Jameses are a Canoe Family at Swinomish. It is not surprising then that Joslin is also very involved in Swinomish culture. James participates with the Swinomish Canoe Family dancers. The group performs in their regalia at school, pow...
By Maggie Wilder Not many of La Conner’s unique features were ever the result of a conscious effort to attract visitors, much in the same way a person does not add to their character by attempting to be noteworthy. I first came to La Conner in the fall of 1966, playing hooky with my high school art teacher, who used to spend summers at the Planter Hotel for a dollar a day. He thought creativity was an ever-present opportunity and paying attention was far more important that how you put paint on canvas. Every fall he told us stories about his ti...
Jon Skiffington, long-time resident of La Conner, peacefully went to meet Jesus on Thursday, November 17, 2022, at home surrounded by family. He was born in Seattle, March 31, 1952, to Lennon and La Vonne. After high school, Jon served as an Air Force SERE Survival Instructor. There Jon encountered Jesus in an amazing way. From that day to his final moments on earth, Jon shared the love of Jesus with everyone he met. He earned a degree in Pastoral Studies from Northwest Bible College where he...
It only seems fitting that the high school basketball team plans an up-tempo style this season. That's because the Braves have gotten the 2022-23 hoops campaign off to a running start thanks to logging nearly 80 off-season games. "It's a group that got to be together a ton in the off-season," head coach and athletics director C.J. Woods told the Weekly News. "When you get to be with a group that you enjoy being with, every day we get to play basketball is exciting." Building camaraderie before...
Ellie Marble delivered some big hits in Yakima for the state champion La Conner High School volleyball team this November. In turn, Marble was a big hit with Washington Interscholastic Activities Association officials. Marble was named the WIAA Athlete of the Week based on her play in leading the Lady Braves to a fourth consecutive 2B net title. A 6'-0" senior outside hitter, Marble totaled 92 kills and 101 digs and was 68 of 72 on serve receive over four matches at the SunDome. Marble and her t...
The iconic Rainbow Bridge has connected La Conner and Swinomish Reservation since 1957. The Young Life ministry is extending that connection on spiritual and social levels. Members of the La Conner and Swinomish communities celebrated that connection during the annual two-hour Young Life dessert banquet at La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib House Saturday night. “The Rainbow Bridge is perfectly named,” explained Jaime Stroebel-Reinstra, one of the event’s lead organizers, “because you always think of a pot of gold being at the end of a rainbow. The...
La Conner loves a winner. And the community is always up for a parade. Townspeople and tourists alike enjoyed both Saturday afternoon, turning out to honor the arrival of La Conner High School's 2B volleyball champions from Yakima. The day before they secured the program's seventh state title. Crowds gathered at Gilkey Square and lined First Street to greet the team as it rode through town shortly after 12 p.m. on Hook & Ladder fire trucks, feted with music from the pep band and cheered on with...
If practice makes perfect, the La Conner High School volleyball team should be perfectly ready to defend the state 2B net crown it has worn since 2019. Just moments after securing a berth to the state tournament in Yakima by sweeping Coupeville in straight sets Nov. 2 at Landy James Gym, head coach Suzanne Marble put her bi-district title team through a practice session. Work remains to be done for the Lady Braves, who bring a 14-3 overall mark to the SunDome tomorrow, Nov. 10, when they begin...
It was a case of less is more when the eight-man La Conner High School football team closed out its season at Lummi Nov. 1. The Braves (2-6) exceeded their prior season point total with an explosive 56-6 non-conference victory. La Conner, which normally plays an 11-man format, had just four days to prepare for this contest. Looking to end a rebuilding year on a positive note, the Braves had little trouble adjusting to the quick turnaround and eight-man game. "It was a fun game to be a part of,"...
The road to a seventh state volleyball championship may well go through Manson. If so, the Lady Braves will have to bypass the speed bumps they encountered during a two-day Eastern Washington swing last week that saw La Conner drop matches to 2B Manson and 1A Chelan. The defending state volleyball champions rebounded from those setbacks with a convincing straight-sets home triumph over 2A Squalicum on Friday, Oct. 28. This was the kind of win that bodes well for post-season, which opens...
By Bill Reynolds Ilwaco High School did a victory jig with a 23-0 non-league triumph – the Fishermen's first of the season – when its relentless run game finally wore down the Braves for two fourth period touchdowns Thursday, Oct. 27. Leading 8-0, Ilwaco doubled its margin when running back Dylan Pelas dashed in from five yards out and Sam Needham caught a two-point conversion toss from Ethan Hopkins with 9:40 to play. The Fishermen added an insurance score with 6:03 remaining on a 10-yard Kyl...
At its meeting Oct. 24, the La Conner School board heard reports from middle school and high school students who attended Cispus Leadership Camp in Randle, near the base of Mount Rainier, last summer. The students reported enjoying the experience, saying they had been introduced to problem-solving and leadership skills, gleaned new fundraising ideas, were encouraged to brainstorm and received instruction in how to promote inclusion, kindness and empathy. “I think we all grew a lot,” said high schooler Hadley Shears. La Conner was the sma...
This year, raising a glass to the artists featured in the annual Art's Alive! festival will be a cinch. Instead of sipping your wine or beer outdoors in a tent – a measure taken in 2021 to keep the unseen but ever-present COVID-19 virus from crashing the party – you can offer your toast face to face with the artists during the Friday night opening gala Nov. 11. Add in some scrumptious appetizers and the 38th Art's Alive! weekend will start with "a more traditional gathering of townspeople to...
She was the definition of a quick study while a senior at La Conner High School, simultaneously earning an associate-in-arts degree from nearby Skagit Valley College before enrolling in fall 2000 at Western Washington University as an 18-year-old junior. But over the past two decades Louisa Firethorne has also shown great patience and perseverance by nurturing her college senior project to fruition from its start as a mere sketch on a napkin. Firethorne, a professional webpage designer, is first...
Ellie Marble is well known in regional volleyball circles and at Central Washington University, where the La Conner High School standout is a prized recruit for veteran head coach Mario Andaya's program. The 6'-0" senior outside hitter and reigning Washington State 2B Player of the Year is also getting plenty of national recognition. Marble was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week for Oct. 3-9 after having led the Lady Braves to key conference net triumphs and...
La Conner High School senior Thomas Kitchen and his Braves teammates unleashed heat that Providence Classical Christian defenders couldn't handle during conference boys' home soccer action Friday night. Kitchen delivered a laser shot into the net at the 6:33 mark of the first half to break a scoreless tie and give La Conner a lead it wouldn't surrender enroute to a 2-1 Senior Night triumph in cold and wet conditions at Whittaker Field. "We've been playing a lot better," Kitchen said afterward. "...
Congratulations to Soroptimist Honored Student for October, Samantha (Sammy) Davidson. Sammy is a senior at La Conner High School. She plans to study biology in college and go on to medical school, specializing in OB/GYN. She has earned college credits through running start at Skagit Valley College and is currently taking calculus online Sammy has had a long history of involvement in scouting. She received her first scout handbook as a birthday present when she was 11 years old and went on to...
