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They entered spring practices with plenty of question marks, given hefty graduation losses after successive playoff appearances. But if the new-look La Conner High football team doesn’t yet have all the answers or isn’t ready to issue any exclamation points, the Braves have made a statement over the course of a half dozen workouts. That being they have the talent to once again contend for a league title and post-season berth. It’s game experience — or lack of it — among many prosp...
It isn’t often someone leaves Las Vegas with more than they brought. But a La Conner native beat those odds last weekend. Mark Reynolds, who recently completed his first year as a teacher and coach in Bay City, Texas, returned from the Las Vegas area Sunday with his fifth powerlifting title belt. The belt is valued at $600, but what it represents means far more to the 25-year-old lifter. Reynolds took top honors at the Natural Athlete Strength Association USA Nationals Meet in Laughlin, N...
Nearly 100 local students took part in recent basketball camps on the La Conner Middle School campus. Youth campers in grades K-5 received skills instruction and had the chance to scrimmage a bit on the big court. Three-day camp sessions were held one week for girls, and the following week for boys. As the photo indicates, a good time was had by all....
La Conner High teams went to great lengths to stay in the running at the State 2B Track Meet in Cheney. Making their third trip to Eastern Washington this spring, La Conner thinclads went the distance — and then some — while facing top entrants from both sides of the mountains last Friday and Saturday. Braves’ sprinter Mitchell Grant thrived in the highly competitive climate, showing few ill effects from waging an uphill battle to medal in one of the State Meet’s more grueling dou...
The Yakima sun wasn’t alone bringing the heat to last week’s State 2B Girls’ Softball Tournament. So did Christine Robbins. The aptly named Morton-White Pass hurler nearly dropped a goose egg on La Conner in Friday’s first round State action at the Gateway Sports Complex, an 11-1 setback for the Lady Braves. Robbins, quick to the plate throughout, fired a four-hitter and struck out 12 batters, sending Bi-District champion La Conner to the consolation bracket. The sophomore standout also helped her cause with a three-run homer, one of four Mo...
It was La Conner High’s battery that jump-started the Lady Braves back on the road to the State 2B Softball Tournament. Batterymates Olivia Hedlund and Emma Christianson helped fuel a well-oiled La Conner machine that hit on all cylinders in twin Bi-District triumphs over NW2B rivals Concrete and Darrington in Stanwood on Thursday. Hedlund tossed successive three hitters in blanking Concrete 16-0 and taming the Lady Loggers 11-1, each game shortened by the 10-run mercy rule. Christianson not o...
For awhile Saturday, the La Conner Braves seemed firmly anchored to a State Final Four berth in Centralia. But then the Braves fell prey to Pirates. The Adna Pirates, that is. Adna scored six runs with two out in the third inning — part of a decisive seven-run rally — that turned a 7-3 deficit into a 10-7 lead en route to an 11-8 Regional semifinal win in Anacortes that ousted La Conner from post-season play. “Adna is a solid hitting team,” Braves’ coach Jeremiah LeSourd lamen...
All spring long, regardless of distance or venue, La Conner High has remained on track. And now the school’s thinclads — who have competed at home, in Cashmere, and as far away as Ritzville — will get to run on the big oval. That being the State 2B Track & Field Championships at Eastern Washington University this weekend. This after La Conner’s Braves ran away with the District title and the Lady Braves were a strong runnerup in last Friday’s fast-paced, eight-school field gathe...
Baptists or Lutherans, it didn’t really matter. Neither had much of a prayer last week against the La Conner High Braves. La Conner swept District foes Tacoma Baptist and Seattle Lutheran to earn the program’s sixth consecutive State Baseball Tournament berth Saturday morning in Anacortes. The District champion Braves, now 12-10 overall, face Adna in a 10:30 start. Concrete and Morton-White Pass play on the other side of the May 24 bracket. Winners of the two contests are scheduled to meet at 4:...
Ace Baker of Braves Purple slides safely to third just ahead of Braves Blue third baseman Luke Marble. The two La Conner Minors Little League teams competed at Maple Field on Wednesday, May 14. Most of the kids — and their parents — appeared to be relieved that the game ended in a 7-7 tie. – Photo by Amylynn Richards...
A triple play in softball is a rarity. Recording three outs on a single batted ball is no easy task, but La Conner High might’ve done itself one better last week. The Lady Braves won three straight games within a five-day period to cap a perfect NW2B campaign and claim the league title in the process. La Conner edged Friday Harbor 5-1 on Monday, then swept a critical two-game home-and-away set with Orcas later in the week. La Conner blanked the Lady Vikings 10-0 Wednesday on the island before b...
La Conner High thinclads literally ran away with the 2B District Track-and-Field Championships at Stanwood on Friday. The Braves bested Concrete 112-15, while La Conner’s girls outdistanced the Lady Lions 88-39 in what was essentially a dual meet between the longtime league rivals. By securing the twin track crowns, La Conner swept five NW2B sports races this spring, Athletic Director Peg Seeling said Saturday. In addition to track, La Conner’s softball and golf teams won outright league championships, while the baseball team shared top honors...
Opposing golfers are tipping their caps to the La Conner Braves. And with good reason. La Conner linksters are wearing some pretty stylish headgear these days, having clinched the league golf crown behind NW2B champion Brendan McLeod. “It was an exciting day,” La Conner coach Chris McKnight said of McLeod’s round and the combined score carded by the Braves’ team. McLeod and teammates Wilson Crawford and Dylan Watkins now advance to Bi-Districts, with a shot at the State tourney looming. The Braves’ trio will be in good company. They’ll be joine...
Match play with La Conner High can be painful. Just ask the Friday Harbor Wolverine golf team. The host Braves defeated Friday Harbor by a cozy 28-shot margin — 180 to 208 — during a key dual match last Tuesday. And La Conner inflicted its pain, despite playing without top returnee Brendan McLeod, who — ironically enough — was sidelined by injury. McLeod has been nursing a nagging shoulder ailment, but if he can heal in a timely fashion, has a shot to contend for the...
The rain last week did nothing to dampen the spirits of the La Conner High baseball team. Quite the opposite, actually. The Braves weathered scattered showers and wet field conditions to defeat league rival Orcas 6-1 and clinch a share of the NW2B title with Concrete. La Conner players already had plenty of reason to be in sunny moods. That’s because the Braves on Tuesday had drubbed Darrington 17-6 in a key road test. The two-game conference sweep gives La Conner, by virtue of winning a tie-breaker with the Lions, top seeding going into this w...
Darrington first responders provided aid and hope aplenty to those impacted by the tragic Oso mudslide. But there was little Darrington’s high school softball team could do to stop the avalanche of runs posted by the Lady Braves last week. La Conner pounded out 16 hits in five innings en route to a 20-3 romp in the nightcap of a key NW2B doubleheader on Tuesday. The Lady Braves had earlier blanked Darrington 3-0 behind a one-hitter tossed by sophomore hurler Olivia Hedlund. With the twin wins, La Conner improved to 5-0 in league play and 1...
The La Conner High mile relay team shared the limelight at the Stanwood Twilight Invitational Track Meet. The Braves’ quartet of Kolbe Rasler, Mitchell Grant, Harrison Orkney, and Josh Summers took top honors in the 4x400 meter event, capturing gold with a time of 4:11.86 in a field that included entries from Lake Stevens, Oak Harbor, and other larger schools. La Conner’s mile relay triumph highlighted a sixth place finish for the Braves, who more than held their own at the May 9 competition. On the girls’ side, the Lady Braves were eight...
The Sedro-Woolley mile relay team was a leg up on its Skagit County foes, but in the end it was a La Conner High quartet standing atop the medal platform. All because of an unfortun-ate wardrobe malfunction. Not one of Super Bowl proportions, but enough to elevate the Braves’ relay squad of Alejandro Ruis, Kolbe Rasler, Harrison Orkney, and Mitchell Grant from runnerup status to 4x400 meter titleists on the boys’ side of the 108th Skagit County Track and Field Championships. The strange tur...
La Conner High smashed Concrete 11-1 Friday to remain in the fast lane for a run at the league softball title. With the lopsided win, the Lady Braves remained unbeaten in four NW2B starts and improved to 12-3 overall. Better yet, La Conner showed it’s gearing up for what might well be an extended playoff ride. The Lady Braves put together their most complete game of the year in the double-digit home triumph over Concrete, a key tuneup leading into critical late season league games with Orcas and Darrington. “The team had a great effort in all...
It was the best of times and the worst of times last week for the La Conner High baseball team, which still has great expectations for another deep playoff run. The Braves, with key league dates this week opposite Orcas and Darrington, were coming off a novel two-game road split in which they both won and lost by double digits. La Conner romped past Lummi 18-1 last Monday behind a stellar mound performance by Erick Reinstra. The Braves, though, fell 10-0 at Lakewood on Wednesday in non-conference action. First, the good news. Reinstra tamed...
Long before their long distance events began, La Conner High track teams had gone the distance. And then some. La Conner ventured 300 miles last weekend to take part in the Undeberg Invitational Track Meet — held in Ritzville, near Spokane — which traditionally draws many of Eastern Washington’s top small school programs. This year’s event, featuring nearly three dozen schools, was no exception. La Conner, Lakeside, and Seattle Academy joined the field from west of the Cascades, and...
Bowled over by non-league power Lynden Christian, La Conner avoided landing in the gutter last week by having secured a two-game split courtesy a key win at Friday Harbor. La Conner struck down the Lady Wolverines 13-3 Tuesday afternoon, taking some of the sting out of its one-hit, 8-0 shutout loss Wednesday to Lynden Christian. The youthful Lady Braves emerged from the up-and-down week with a solid 11-3 overall mark, but perhaps more important having also gained new insight into the art of winning consistently. Primarily in the form of...
It took a lot of drive by Kelley McClung to come back from serious ankle injuries that sidelined her most of basketball season and well into the softball campaign. And that drive is now being showcased on local golf courses. That plus a nice iron game and putting stroke, as well. While awaiting clearance to play softball, McClung has tried her hand at golf — with better than anticipated results. The La Conner High senior shot a 63 in her nine-hole debut during a recent league match with Grace Academy and Mount Vernon Christian, the top...
The La Conner High baseball team, its compass still pointed to the top of NW2B standings, veered off course briefly last week to test non-league waters. Now the Braves, after setbacks at Lynden Christian and Friday Harbor — both larger enrollment schools — are poised to lift anchor and rejoin the league title race. La Conner and Concrete were in a virtual dead heat for the league’s top spot when the Braves’ schedule took them out of the loop for successive trips Monday and Tuesday to face the high-powered Lynx and Wolverines. La...
When it rains, it pours. Perhaps no more so than in the Darrington area, still reeling from last week’s tragic mudslide at nearby Oso, a disaster so heartbreaking it has played out repeatedly in the national media. The La Conner High Lady Braves were scheduled to visit Darrington last week, but persistent rain — not the aftermath of the somber and tearful Oso emergency — washed out the much-anticipated District softball pairing. “We had confirmed with them that they really wanted us...
