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The La Conner High School volleyball team turned in another capital performance last weekend. Facing teams from larger schools, including undefeated 4A power Puyallup High School, the defending state 2B net champs placed first in the silver division of the Capitol City Invitational Volleyball Tournament in Olympia last Saturday, Oct. 8. La Conner went 1-2 in pool play, including a two-set defeat to Puyallup, before rebounding to sweep three straight matches in the tourney's silver bracket,...
It wasn't yellow flags that dotted dry and brownish Whittaker Field Friday morning. It was instead the orange shirts worn by La Conner students and staff that colored the school district's football field on Sept. 30 in honor of Native American youth who, over generations, suffered cultural trauma while attending residential campuses in the U.S. and Canada. La Conner Schools is one of the first districts in western Washington to observe Orange Shirt Day, which in Canada is a national day of...
La Conner High School volleyball players have given their fans plenty of reasons to celebrate over the past three decades – starting with six state titles. Now the La Conner community has an opportunity to celebrate the Hall of Fame coach who since 1993 has been the program's guiding force. Suzanne Marble, who topped the 500-career win mark two years ago, again has her team aiming for top state honors in her 30th and final net campaign. In recognition of Marble's many contributions here as a t...
Build it and they will come. This famous line from a popular movie is also a mantra for the new Little Braves Preschool on the La Conner Schools campus. Eleven students attended last week’s reopening of the district preschool, which has been resurrected on a one-year trial basis following successful lobbying of the school board last summer. The school district had operated a Pre-K program but stopped it a year ago when the classes shifted to the Swinomish Tribal Community. Parents and school staff convinced the board earlier this year that a p...
There were no cracks in a Liberty Bell defense that held La Conner to 67 yards total offense – all on the ground – in an impressive 54-0 non-conference eight-man triumph at Whittaker Field Saturday, Oct. 1. The visitors amassed 339 yards in offense, almost evenly split between rushing and passing. La Conner struggled to generate offense all afternoon. The Braves managed just two first downs, one via penalty when La Conner quarterback Ivory Damien’s hard count drew successive encroachment flags during the first series in the second half. Brave...
The Coupeville High School football team needed just one score and 16 seconds to post an NW2B shutout win over La Conner at Whittaker Field Friday, Sept. 23. Coupeville's Scott Hilborn returned the opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown that opened the floodgates to a 46-0 Wolves triumph. Hilborn reeled off a 10-yard scoring jaunt that edged Coupeville 13-0 less than a minute into the game, following one of five La Conner lost fumbles. Coupeville capped its scoring onslaught when quarterback...
The La Conner High School volleyball team split a pair of matches last week but literally won the one that counted. The defending state 2B net champs were edged in three sets at 1A Nooksack Valley Sept. 20 before sweeping Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in La Conner’s NW2B/1B debut on Thursday, Sept. 22. The Lady Braves (3-1), who typically play a challenging non-conference schedule, had earlier defeated 2A Anacortes and Sehome at home. “Nooksack is a very solid team,” La Conner head coach Marble said after the team’s 22-25, 19-25, 23-25 s...
La Conner School District colors have long been blue and white. But on Friday, Sept. 29 students will add orange to the color scheme. La Conner Schools is among the first districts in Washington State to embrace Orange Shirt Day, which in Canada is a statutory holiday recognizing the impact residential schools had on indigenous students and communities for over a century. “We want to thank the La Conner School District for embracing this,” Swinomish Education Director Michael Vendiola said during an interactive Zoom program that aired last wee...
After suffering successive losses to open the season, the La Conner High School girls' soccer team got on the board in a 10-2 non-conference home loss to Oak Harbor Sept. 9. Still, an asterisk is in order. The two La Conner goals were scored by Oak Harbor players on loan to the short-handed Lady Braves, who are still without their full roster due to eligibility and injury issues. Head coach Christian Warman said some players need to complete the required 10 preseason practices to participate in...
The roster is different, but the result was the same. The defending state 2B champion La Conner High School volleyball team opened its 2022 season with an impressive triumph over 2A Anacortes at Landy James Gym Thursday, Sept. 8. The most imposing part clearly was a 13-2 run to close out the second set and erase what had been a 20-12 Seahawk lead. "It was a little setback for us," senior middle blocker Makayla Herrera said of the brief deficit midway through the match, "but we were able to come...
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...
La Conner Schools leaders want to meet you and hear your questions, concerns and suggestions starting Sept. 15 at 7 a.m. at Stompin’ Grounds Coffee, on Morris Street. Join Superintendent Will Nelson, Director of Special Programs Andy Wheeler, Business Manager Brian Gianello, Teaching and Learning Director Beth Clothier and Director of Operations and Planning Bobby Vaughn, the district’s five-member cabinet. The Oct. 14 outreach will be at 12 p.m. at the Swinomish Education tents at John K. Bob Ball Park. After the Nov. 15 (2:30 p.m.) mee...
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...
Faced with a projected drop in student enrollment, La Conner school board members on Monday unanimously approved a $13.8 million dollar budget that includes forced staff reductions in the new academic year. The amount is only down slightly from last year’s $14 million. Three full-time teaching positions were cut. At the same time the board also approved a two-year labor agreement negotiated with the La Conner Education Association (LEA) during the 45-minute session July 25. It includes state-funded cost of living support and a 1.5% per annum lo...
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...
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...
Preschool is coming back to the La Conner campus by popular demand. The La Conner School Board on June 13 approved the return of a district preschool program this fall on a one-year trial basis after members were assured it would be supported by outside funding sources and not dip into a K-12 budget projected to be tight due to declining enrollment. Board members gave the green light for a 15-student, four days per week, morning only campus preschool staffed by one teacher and a paraprofessional. The decision followed an impassioned...
School’s out for summer. The next La Conner School District board director elections are in 2023, but this spring the district’s school board made slight adjustments to the five director district boundaries. The 2020 census obliged adjusting director boundaries to match population growth, now over 5,000 residents. The school board voted on new boundaries at its May meeting, adopting maps that adjusted the five district boundaries distributing residents as equally as possible to fairly rep...
