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La Conner High School was already behind the eight-ball when the Braves headed to the Yakima Valley Friday to open its first full eight-man football schedule. That’s because the Pomeroy Pirates, La Conner’s Sept. 6 foe, was coming off a 9-2 campaign in 2023 during which the southeast Washington eight-man grid power posted beatdown wins of 90-0 over Tekoa-Rosalia and 76-0 against Dayton. The Pirates resumed their swashbuckling offensive style in the ’24 debut for both clubs, recording a 64-24 victory on a neutral site chosen to split travel time...
Communication was the key word when the La Conner High School girls' soccer team opened preseason workouts last week. The hope is that by season's end, the rebuilding Braves program will be the talk of the perennially tough NW2B League. "The feedback we're getting is that our communication on the field is much improved," second year head coach Maddie Huscher said. "We've really stepped up with that all over the field, on offense and defense." Huscher and assistant coaches Robert Hancock and...
Defense was its calling card a year ago. This season the La Conner High School boys' soccer team is counting on its best defense being a strong offense. "We'll be more focused on attacking," head coach Galen McKnight told the Weekly News Friday afternoon as his club wrapped up its first week of preseason workouts. "Last year we played a lot of close matches, with 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2-type scores," he said. "I think we can build on that but also play more aggressively on offense." One reason for the...
It was a back-to-work Monday morning this week for La Conner High School volleyball team players and coaches. After a busy summer of team camps and open gyms, head coach Pam Keller, assistant Kamea Luna and a roster led by lone senior Addie Wigal were eager to hit the Landy James Activity Court hardwood by 9 a.m. "We're very young this year," Keller said. She guided the Braves to a state tourney berth last year in her first season as head coach. "But this is a very coachable group," Keller...
Remember “Eight Is Enough,” the popular 1970s TV drama? It’s now the new mantra for La Conner High School football, at least for the next two seasons. Faced with declining enrollment as the smallest Class 2B school system in Washington, La Conner school officials opted following the 2023 season and a series of community meetings to downsize the team to eight players. The Braves will play an independent eight-man schedule this season and next. They will not be eligible for post-season action. Playoff spots are reserved for 1B schools. Durin...
Basketball has always been a big deal in La Conner. But in Spokane it's a really big deal. Bigger, in fact, than almost anywhere else. As has been the case every June since 1990, thousands of hoops players and enthusiasts crowded into downtown Spokane last weekend for the largest outdoor three-on-three basketball tournament in the world. La Conner wasn't left out. La Conner High School girls' basketball head coach Joe Harper entered a local third grade boys' team in the 2024 Spokane Hoopfest, a...
Tommy Murdock hasn't slowed down since capturing twin state hurdles titles in Yakima last month. A week after graduating from La Conner High School, Murdock competed in an elite national meet at historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Murdock, who collected five state gold medals as a La Conner hurdler, took part in the 2024 Nike Outdoor Nationals and USA Track & Field U20 Championships on the same track where the U.S. Olympic Trials will be held starting Friday. Hayward...
Three graduating La Conner High School student-athletes will take their best shots at the collegiate level next year. Graduating seniors Abigail Udlock, Tommy Murdock and Morgan Huizenga signed letters of intent June 5 to compete in college athletics during a 30-minute ceremony at Whittaker Field attended by friends, family members, coaches, school administrators and fellow students. Udlock, a state qualifier in golf this season, signed to compete in 2024-25 at the University of Puget Sound in...
Tommy Murdock was feeling a bit run-down at the recent Washington State 2B Track-and-Field Championships. But, in the end, it was his challengers in two hurdles title heats who felt run down. Murdock overcame illness to capture the 110- and 300-meter hurdles crowns in Yakima, repeating the success he had enjoyed at state trials the year before. "He got pushed at state this year," La Conner head coach Peter Voorhees said of Murdock, "but he was in control." Which has been the case since 2022,...
A La Conner High School alum has been a key factor in unlocking doors leading to the successful rebuild and recent state championship run by the Anacortes football program. Tyler Dubuque, a 2004 La Conner graduate, is the offensive coordinator and primary play caller for the 2A Seahawks, who set a state-title-round scoring mark with their 60-30 championship game victory over Tumwater last December. Dubuque's peers noticed. The Washington State Football Coaches Association has named Dubuque the D...
La Conner distance runner Toby Walls caught up with some of the biggest names in track-and-field on May 25. Walls and his son, Sylas, an up-and-coming middle school racer, were part of the large crowd attending the annual Prefontaine Classic at legendary Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore. Named for late Oregon running icon and Olympian Steve Prefontaine, who from 1973-75 set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters, the Prefontaine Classic each year...
La Conner High School senior Tommy Murdock continued to set the gold standard for the state’s Class 2B boys’ hurdlers on Saturday. For the second year in a row, Murdock swept the 110- and 300-meter hurdles events at the Washington State 2B Track and Field Championships in Yakima. Murdock capped his amazing Braves career – one in which he collected five state gold medals dating to the 2022 campaign – by leading the La Conner boys to an eighth-place finish out of 31 schools competing in the 2024 2B trials at Zaepfel Stadium. Murdock account...
Three of six La Conner High School golfers advanced from Northwest Tri-District 2B competition to state brackets this week in Tumwater. Seniors Abigail Udlock and Sammy Williams and junior Corran Eisen represented La Conner in state 2B/1B play, a two-day contest that began yesterday (Tuesday) morning at the Tumwater Valley Golf Club south of Olympia. Udlock teed off on the girls' side of the state tournament at noon on Tuesday. She was grouped with Chloe Anderson-Cleveland of Orcas Island a...
Kendall Lee has brought her A-game – as in Anacortes – to area tennis courts this spring. The La Conner High School junior has competed in 2024 for Anacortes head coach Jeff Leer and the 2A Seahawks since tennis is no longer offered at La Conner. The arrangement has paid dividends for Lee, who qualified last week for the Washington State Girls' 2B/1B Tennis Championships May 24-25 in Yakima. Playing for Anacortes during the regular campaign kept Lee sharp for 2B/1B post-season action May 17 at...
The La Conner High School baseball and softball teams fell short in their respective league title races this spring, but they were winners nonetheless. Both programs were recipients of 2024 Team Sportsmanship Awards in recent balloting by their NW2B/1B rivals. The softball team, coached by Loran James and Taysha James-Sherman, also garnered two individual honors. Infielder Taylor-Rae Cayou, who enjoyed a monster day at the plate during La Conner’s late season conference doubleheader sweep of Concrete, was a first unit All-League selection. P...
Tommy Murdock, Yandel Rosales-Rojas, Kiana Jenkins and Morgan Huizenga each won multiple events and four eighth graders teamed to win the girls’ mile relay to lead the La Conner High School track teams to second-place finishes at the Northwest District 2B Track Meet in Coupeville on Saturday. Murdock, the reigning Washington State 2B boys’ hurdles champion, claimed titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. The senior hit the tape in the 100 in 11.5 He ran 23.14 in the 200, 15.21 in the 110 hurdles, and 39....
La Conner High School senior Tommy Murdock, the defending state 2B champion in the 110-meter hurdles and two-time state title winner in the 300-meter hurdles, is reaching new heights this spring. Murdock, who set a new school mark in the 110s at the recent NW2B/1B Championship Meet, was named the Skagit Valley Herald Boys' Athlete of the Week following his stellar performance at the recent league trials in Mount Vernon. Not only did Murdock establish a new La Conner High School standard in the...
Six La Conner High School students will be doing their course work outdoors today. They will do so while exchanging textbooks for scorecards, having qualified for the May 15 Northwest 2B/1B Tri-District Golf Tournament at Tulalip’s Battle Creek Golf Course. Seniors Abigail Udlock, Ella Simpson and Hallie Walls will represent La Conner on the girls’ side of the Tri-District tourney. Senior Sammy Williams, junior Corran Eisen and sophomore Brooks Bushey are the boys Tri-District entries. All six La Conner golfers qualified for Tulalip tee times b...
The La Conner High School track teams show they have a finishing kick. The Braves and Lady Braves posted strong performances at the NW2B/1B League Championship Meet in Mount Vernon on May 1, a prelude to Bi-District trials in Coupeville on Saturday, May 11. La Conner teams placed second on each side of the five-school league title showdown. The Braves were runners-up to Coupeville on the boys’ team leaderboard. The Lady Braves were silver medalists behind Mount Vernon Christian. “I was super proud of how everybody competed,” La Conner head trac...
The La Conner High baseball and softball teams lost their regular season finales at home last week, but each program still had cause to celebrate. For the Braves and Lady Braves, all wasn't lost last Thursday despite suffering tough setbacks to NW2B/1B archrival Coupeville. That's because La Conner coaches and fans had occasion to honor senior players who in four years have overcome hurdles imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic to resume their spring pastime. "This senior class lost time to COVID...
It was cold, damp and gusty in La Conner last Saturday, a perfect day for the La Conner Braves softball and baseball teams. The Lady Braves were especially thankful their home doubleheader with Concrete wasn't rained out as head coach Loran James' charges broke into the win column with convincing 22-13 and 21-13 triumphs. It was a case of déjà vu. A year ago, La Conner had also swept a pair of softball slugfests with their Skagit County rivals, winning those battles by 35-27 and 32-27 m...
The La Conner High School track teams should feel at home today at Mount Vernon High School’s Bulldog Stadium for the NW2B/1B Championship Meet. That’s because La Conner enjoyed strong showings on the Mount Vernon oval last week during the 116th Skagit County Track and Field Championships. With reigning state 2B hurdles champion Tommy Murdock leading the way, sweeping his signature events, the La Conner boys placed fifth on their side of the county meet which was paced by 2A Anacortes. The Anacortes girls topped the team leaderboard whil...
Wherever Emma Worgum goes, birdies and eagles are sure to follow. Worgum, who won the 2022 Washington State 2B/1B Girls' Golf Tournament as a La Conner senior, has taken her game to a new level this spring, having fired a Western Washington University women's school-record round of 68 last month at the Sonoma State Spring Invitational in California. Worgum, now a WWU sophomore, followed up with a splendid showing at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women's Golf Championship last...
The La Conner High School baseball team bounced back from three straight heartbreaking, one-run, extra-inning road losses to post convincing wins at Quilcene and Darrington. The Braves defeated Quilcene, a traditionally strong baseball program, by a 7-1 margin on April 17 and then trounced NW2B/1B rival Darrington 12-1 on April 19 to sweept the two-game season series. La Conner thus improved to 5-5 overall and 2-4 in league action going into a scheduled April 23 home game with conference foe Mount Vernon Christian. La Conner plays at Orcas...
Other teams brought larger rosters, but the host La Conner Middle School girls’ junior varsity track team had Faith. As in Faith Jenkins, who won three solo events to lead La Conner to top honors in its portion of a nine-school junior varsity track meet at Whittaker Field last Thursday. Jenkins, a seventh grader, swept the girls’ short sprints. She clocked 13.39 in the 100 meters and hit the 200-meter tape in 29.08. She captured the high jump with a leap of 4’-0”. Jenkins also joined teammates Rory Bird, Mia Delage and Cecilia Keith to place s...
