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Unbeaten Lopez Island defeated La Conner 5-1 in an often-physical boys' soccer match at Whittaker Field Friday afternoon. The Lobos, displaying deft passing and a relentless attack, scored the contest's first three goals before Simon Bouwens got La Conner on the scoreboard by booting a line shot past the Lopez keeper less than two minutes before intermission. The visitors, who enjoyed a clear size advantage, added two unanswered goals in the second half. "They're a very good team," La Conner...
La Conner teams came away from an all-day trip to the Olympic Peninsula with a tie and two close, hard-fought defeats in non-conference sports action on Saturday. Freshman Kiana Jenkins scored La Conner’s lone soccer goal to salvage a 1-1 draw at 1A Forks in a back-and-forth matinee battle with the Spartans. With the tie, the Braves’ season mark moved to 3-2-1 going into Tuesday’s non-league home match with 1A Sultan. La Conner was 0-1 in NW2B/1B play entering the week after falling 4-1 in a conference test at Friday Harbor on Oct. 1. Coach Mad...
Lydia Grossglass went for the hat trick while teammates Angie Pena, Maicy Bowles and Lily Dougliss scored one goal each as the La Conner High School girls’ soccer team improved to 3-1 with a 6-0 shutout win over the 1A Nooksack Valley Junior Varsity at Whittaker Field last Friday. Pena and Bowles got the Braves on the scoreboard with back-to-back goals. Grossglass followed with three consecutive scores and Dougliss found the net in the second half to cap the La Conner offensive onslaught. “The girls had excellent communication,” La Conne...
In an up and down week, the La Conner High School volleyball team finished strong. The Braves (5-4 overall; 1-1 in league) rebounded from a tough 3-0 Sept. 24 home loss to NW2B/1B archrival Coupeville to defeat host Friday Harbor in straight sets last Friday. La Conner captured each set against the Wolverines by double digits, defeating Friday Harbor 25-10, 25-12, 25-13. La Conner head coach Pam Keller received solid contributions from her entire roster at Friday Harbor. Freshman Nora McCormick delivered a team-high 12 kills to go along with...
The Concrete Lions, with two state 11-man football titles to their credit, resembled a finely tuned machine in the eight-man grid ranks Friday night. That machine, unfortunately for the La Conner Braves, turned out to be a steam roller. Concrete rolled to an 80-26 home triumph over La Conner, which was playing just the third game in its inaugural eight-man season. The Braves (1-2) were coming off an impressive 60-0 shutout win over Vashon Island but found the Lions, who snapped a three-game losing streak, to be a different breed of cat in the...
Lydia Grossglass and Bailey Smith combined for three first-half goals and the La Conner High School girls' soccer team withstood a late Providence Classical Christian rally to post a 3-2 NW2B/1B triumph at Whittaker Field Friday afternoon. Smith delivered a goal 14 minutes into the contest to give La Conner an early lead. Grossglass then extended the hosts' advantage with two scores before intermission. A senior, Grossglass scored with 7:45 left in the opening half off a free kick by Angie Pena,...
The difference in enrollment between La Conner and Mount Vernon high schools is enormous. The difference between the two on the volleyball court – not so much. La Conner, a perennial state 2B power, played two close sets at 3A Mount Vernon Sept. 19 before falling in a hard-fought 3-0 non-conference pairing. The Braves (4-3), who were coming off straight-sets neutral site triumphs in Yakima over West Valley and DeSales, fought host Mount Vernon on near equal terms in the early going of their match. The Bulldogs edged La Conner 27-25 and 25-22 i...
The La Conner Braves had extra motivation to defeat Vashon Island in its football season home opener at Whittaker Field Friday night. It wasn’t just because the Braves had suffered a 64-24 loss to Pomeroy in their 2024 eight-man grid debut a week earlier. Returning home, La Conner players were joined on their sideline by celebrated motivational speaker Curt Marsh, the former University of Washington All-American and Los Angeles Raiders Super Bowl champion. He now resides in Shelter Bay. “What I liked a lot about tonight is how you played for...
Coach Maddie Huscher and her staff marveled at how well the La Conner High School girls’ soccer team communicated during preseason workouts a couple weeks ago. Now the La Conner coaches can’t say enough about how well their players are executing attacks in the 2024 campaign’s early going. The Braves opened non-conference action with twin romps in which they scored in double digits against both Muckleshoot Tribal School and Forest Ridge Sacred Heart. La Conner blanked Muckleshoot 11-0 and defeated Forest Ridge 11-2 last week in a pair of impre...
The start of volleyball season was a red-letter day for the La Conner High School volleyball program. The Braves, a perennial 2B state powerhouse, beat visiting Class 1A Blaine in the Sept. 10 season debut for both teams. La Conner, under second year head coach Pam Keller, edged the Borderites in four sets, 25-22, 16-25, 25-22, 26-24, before a supportive home crowd. Freshman Reese Bird was named La Conner’s Player of the Match. She led the way with eight kills, 17 assists, 28 digs, one block and a service ace. Several of her La Conner t...
Cassius Landworth of La Conner's Lakin Construction youth soccer team advances the ball during second half action of a match in Sedro-Woolley on Saturday. The La Conner booters won 3-1....
It was great weather for soccer at Whittaker Field last Thursday. Unfortunately, the host La Conner Braves couldn't weather the crisp passing and relentless attacks of Sea-Tac B power Auburn Adventist. The Falcons, coming off a 2023 campaign that saw them qualify for the state playoffs, posted a tidy 3-1 non-league triumph over La Conner before a large crowd that basked in sunshine and warm weather while taking in an often-physical match. Collisions and contact were frequent as players...
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...