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Christian Warman is rarely at a loss for words but the veteran La Conner High School girls’ soccer coach says he cannot say enough about the players on this year’s roster. “I could say something about all of them,” he told the Weekly News during one of the team’s preseason workouts Aug. 25. “Our numbers are small, we have a lot of players who are young and inexperienced, but they bring a lot of energy.” There might be times this fall when La Conner is forced to play what Warman calls “Ironman Soccer” with few or no subs to call upon, yet th...
The La Conner High School football team has its season debut against Forks at Whittaker Field Saturday, Sept. 10. Second-year mentor Charlie Edwards’ team will spread the field and rely on speed and athleticism. The home team will be looking to capitalize on potential game-breakers like junior Tommy Murdock, the reigning state 300-meter hurdles champion. The Braves are looking to benefit from an extra week of preparation as their Sept. 3 non-conference home opener with Morton-White Pass was taken off the schedule. Kickoff is 2 p...
Inflation? What inflation? Recession? Not here. The only thing moving up in price at the La Conner Rotary Club auction Saturday evening in Maple Hall was live auction bids. The only thing low that evening were members' hands digging deep into their pockets for their wallets to pay for the items they purchased. And dig they did, raising $91,000 for the many programs they manage and support for children and youth in La Conner and internationally. It was as if club members were doubling down on bei...
Unpredictable gasoline and heating costs. Reliable electricity. Wars in the middle east and Ukraine. Energy independence. The environment. And more. The energy industry affects almost everything, from the price of groceries to geopolitics. People have reacted to energy issues by developing new technologies and policies for the production, delivery and use of energy. These innovations are being adopted faster than energy professionals believed possible 20 years ago. You are probably aware of...
New La Conner Schools administrator Tanya Houle is fond of hats. Good thing, too, since she will be wearing several in her dual role as La Conner Middle and High School assistant principal and career and technology education (CTE) director. The personable Houle wears a smile as often – if not more – than her stylish headpieces. Her approach to school administration is to lead with compassion and create safe and meaningful learning environments for all students. "A couple of my primary goals wil...
Great Expectations. It is not just a famous Charles Dickens novel. It is also the mantra of the La Conner High School volleyball program, winner of six state crowns in the past 20 years, including 2019 and 2021. Only the pandemic stood in the way of another likely championship run in 2020, when the season was shifted to spring with no post-season. Despite significant losses to graduation, the team has turned the page while still hoping to write another chapter, as if inspired by the Dickens title. “We don’t change our expectations from yea...
Data was the name of the game – along with a fall sports update – when the La Conner School Board met Aug. 22 in a 90-minute hybrid session on campus. Director of Special Programs Andy Wheeler and Teacher and Learning Director Beth Clothier took lead roles. Clothier provided her update via Zoom on staff summer training for the new all-grades math curricula. Clothier said more than 50 staffers had participated in nine days of math curricula training this summer. The trainers commended the La Conner staff, ranking it ahead of “90% of other staff...
Less than two years ago Charlie Edwards was the architect of a stout defense that helped La Conner High School clinch a league football title. That was during a shortened, conference-only season shifted to the spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These days, Edwards finds himself in his second year as La Conner's head grid coach and back at the drawing board – this time to draft a blueprint for a successful rebuild of a Braves' program. The team suffered nearly a dozen losses to g...
The roster has changed and so has the game plan for the La Conner High School boys' soccer team. The Braves opened preseason workouts Monday minus key players who graduated from last year's club that placed fifth with a 7-8 mark in the NW2B title chase, forcing La Conner head coach Galen McKnight to tweak his attack. "We're going to have play a different style," McKnight told the Weekly News. "We'll have to play smart and rely on a lot of passing rather than try to score quickly on each...
A lot has changed in 50 years. But some of the best things in life have not. Tom and Judy Zimmerman celebrated their 50th anniversary on Aug. 13 during an open house hosted by their daughter and son-in-law Kelsey and Lance Stevens. The Zimmermans have been community leaders in La Conner over the past five decades – he as a fire chief and Dunlap Towing skipper and she as a council member and La Conner Elementary School teacher. Those attending the festivities were treated to good food and good memories in equal measure. Many of those memories w...
After a vigorous week at the Skagit County fair, two leaders with La Conner roots are taking it easy. As 4H dairy supervisor for the whole fair, Chelsy Mesman of Mesman Farms helped 18 young people between the ages of nine and 18 prepare and show their cows. "It's a lot of responsibility and a lot of kids," she said. Valley Green Acres 4H Horse Club supervisor Lauren Hedlin of Hedlin Family Farms worked with 10 young riders who performed in the horse arena. All county 4H clubs arrived two days...
The actress Bo Derek was famous in the 1970s for being considered a perfect 10. Shelter Bay’s Jean Collins has her beat 10-fold. She’s a perfect 100. Collins, famed for her regular one-mile walks at Whitaker Field, was honored Thursday, July 21 at Maple Hall on her 100th birthday. She didn’t get her laps in at the track, but Collins kept up her step count circling the room, greeting the many well-wishers who gathered from near and far to share her special milestone. As proof, shortly after enjoy...
Residents of the La Conner Retirement Inn celebrated life in the fast lane Friday, July 22. The seniors were treated to a three-hour classic car show that featured a dozen vintage vehicles. The event’s People’s Choice Award winner was a 1930 Ford Model A entered by Shelter Bay resident Colin Banks. Balloting was by Retirement Inn residents, said show coordinator Bob Ferari, also of Shelter Bay, who entered “Bella,” his 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. “Since it was the residents who voted,” Ferari told the W...
It helps being well-grounded when soaring with eagles. Alex Bouwens, a 2022 La Conner High School grad, and Andrew Villard, an incoming senior, have parlayed self-discipline, perseverance and a commitment to public service into achieving Eagle Scout status, the seventh and highest rank of Scouts BSA. It is an achievement only 5% of scouts attain. To earn the Eagle rank, scouts must exhibit sustained leadership in their troop while earning 21 merit badges, 12 of which are required. Those badges r...
The Nelson family is not only deeply rooted in Skagit County but also boasts many branches covering a wide range of achievements near and far over the course of more than a century. A case in point is told by Reggie Nelson, a retired teacher and La Conner High School alum, who will be among the main speakers when he and his relatives are honored as the 2022 Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year on Aug. 4 at Pioneer Park. “My uncle, Duane Smith, was an honest-to-goodness rocket scientist,” Nelson told the Weekly News. “He graduated from...
Here the Magic Skagit mingles into the Bay, sheltered yet centrally located; Swinomish is a place of great healing. People here enjoy a diverse, continuous and bountiful ecosystem. The soil is rich. Water is always accessible. Food is found easily in plentiful amounts. The climate is mild. People are drawn here. Some may realize a portion of why they are drawn here, yet few are fortunate enough to have experienced the full spectrum of its gift. In a field of rich and intoxicatingly beautiful diversity it is easy to loose perspective and take...
Arlene Anne (Gannon) Kimbell (Arly) of La Conner (formerly from Everett), 87, peacefully went to be with her Lord and Savior on July 8, 2022. Mom was born on April 30, 1935 to Ansel and Mary (Kappel) Gannon in Everett, WA. Mom was raised with her younger sister Linda, helping out in their family grocery store in Pinehurst. She had so much fun coming home from school and getting specialty candies from the jars on their store counter. Mom graduated from Everett High School where her nickname was...
La Conner School board members went on retreat Monday to plan a path forward for the 2022-23 academic year, addressing a wide range of discussion topics – from finances and goal setting to maintenance priorities and student enrollment– during a three-hour afternoon in-person public session at the Swinomish Casino conference room. The dozen agenda items included reports from district business manager Brian Gianello and operations and planning director Bobby Vaughn. Gianello had good news, reporting that an infusion of $852,000 in...
La Conner High School baseball prospect Nathan Bailey made history last weekend. Bailey was in Atlanta representing the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community at the first-ever Native American All-Star Showcase as one of 50 tribal high school players selected nationally to take part in a pro-style workout and compete in a marquee Sunday afternoon game. Bailey blasted a run-scoring triple. The Atlanta Journal-American’s digital gallery posted a photograph of him running to third base. The two-day e...
Swinomish master carver Kevin Paul's latest work, a carved and painted thematic totem story pole was installed near the new La Conner Swinomish Library entrance July 7. “It’s really a landmark,” said La Conner Regional Library Board of Directors Secretary Robert Hancock, who attended the hour-long installation and brief ceremony afterward. “It’s something that people coming to town will want to have their picture taken with.” The tall and graceful pole symbolizes unity and a reverence f...
For more than a century, members of the pioneer Nelson family have been outstanding in their fields. The Nelson family has been selected as the 2022 Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year. The Nelsons have had a significant impact on Skagit Valley’s agricultural development, from dairy and cattle operations to grain, berry and potato production. Farming is only one part of their remarkable saga, which began here shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Since then, the Nelsons and their m...
The historic Billiken Club of La Conner, founded more than a century ago, will be recognized as one of four Spirit Award recipients at the 118th annual Pioneer Picnic on August 4. As far as the Billiken Club is concerned, Janna Gage of Seaport Books, is the go-to person. She wrote the definitive history of the Billikens in a guest column for the Weekly News nearly three years ago. At that time, Gage defined the term Billiken, which also serves as the mascot for St. Louis University athletic teams and is a constant source of local inquiry....
Dustin Swanson is the new head coach of the Stanwood High School girls’ basketball team. Swanson was the La Conner High School assistant basketball coach. Swanson, from a pioneer La Conner family, was an integral part of basketball teams here for 15 years, serving on the high school boys’ and girls’ staffs and coaching youths from Little Dribblers through eighth grade. He hopes to replicate the success he had working alongside head coach Scott Novak. Swanson was courtside with Braves and Lady...
Fifteen years ago, 650 students attended grades K-12 at La Conner Schools. But this fall only 530 are projected, an enrollment drop that will have a direct impact on the school district’s 2022-23 budget. School officials are forecasting a $13 million budget next year, down from $14.5 million in 2021-22, in response to anticipated reduced state funding and federal impact aid support linked to student enrollment. The district has already eliminated two in-person teaching positions. The board h...
C.J. Woods has been named the La Conner School District’s new director of athletics after his first year as a teacher and boys’ head basketball coach. The district has been splitting the assistant principal/athletics director position. Woods will retain his coaching position and teach physical education and health at the middle school. He has already done a deep dive into the intricacies of the position. “The role ranges from day-to-day athletic organization to big project planning and organization,” he said. “Every day you coordinat...
