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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The La Conner High School graduating class had to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic and then one last time Friday evening. The 128th annual commencement exercises were moved from Whittaker Field to Landy James Gym when forecasts predicted rainfall. There were few dry eyes among families and friends of the graduates during the emotional 90-minute ceremony. “COVID was not kind to this class,” stressed co-valedictorian Delaney Cobbs, one of several student speakers. “By the time we hit our junio...
La Conner high school's graduating class. Graduation Friday, June 10 at 5 p.m....
La Conner High School has held annual commencements for more than a century but the 5 p.m. June 10 graduation at Whittaker Field will offer something new. Those attending will be officially welcomed in four languages, Lushootseed, English, Spanish and American Sign Language. “We’re excited about that,” La Conner Middle and High School Counselor Lori Buher told the Weekly News. In another all-time first, the Class of 2022 boasts co-valedictorians and co-salutatorians. Charity Dakota Jordan, who r...
Even though Eleonora Libé got sick her first days here after what seemed to her an endless flight, she is living her dream since then over the last nine months. The senior exchange student at La Conner High School turned 18 years old this April in Washington state, away from her family. This is the adventure she chose to live back in 2020, when she saw on social media other exchange students from her country in American schools. Stressed with Italian school and eager to travel and...
Winning has long been par for La Conner High School senior Emma Worgum. The Lady Braves’ senior golf standout has excelled throughout her high school career, including summer tournaments. She capped her fantastic four-year run by capturing the Washington 1B/2B girls’ state championship at Deer Park May 25. She carded a two-day score of 144 – highlighted by a three-under-par 69 during Thursday’s second round – to win the title by 17 strokes. “Emma played great,” golf coach Jamie Car...
La Conner High School sophomore Tommy Murdock won the boys’ state 2B 300-meter hurdles title in storybook fashion at Cheney May 26-28. Murdock, who had bolted to an early lead, clipped the final hurdle before tumbling across the finish line. Despite the late fall, it was Murdock who moments later climbed atop the winner’s podium to collect the gold medal in his signature event. “He won pretty decisively,” La Conner head track coach Peter Voorhees said. Murdock clocked a 0:40.76 in the final,...
La Conner High School track standout Ellie Marble has qualified in four events at what will be the first state 2B track and field meet in three years starting Thursday, May 26 at Eastern Washington University. She will compete at Cheney in the 300-meter hurdles, shot put, high jump and 4x200 meter relay after having helped lead the Lady Braves to a second-place team finish at bi-district trials in Chehalis last week. Marble placed second in the shot, fourth in the 300 hurdles, fifth in the high...
La Conner High School golfers dealt with tough conditions last Thursday in Oak Harbor, but at the end of the day their outlook could not have been sunnier. The boys and girls golf teams weathered drizzly skies and harsh gusts to blow past the competition in post-season tournament play as the Lady Braves – led by senior standout Emma Worgum, a Western Washington University recruit – captured top district honors, advancing from bi-district trials as state 2B qualifiers. “It was pretty breezy and rainy out there,” said La Conner hea...
By capturing the NW2B District track crown in Coupeville on Saturday, the La Conner High School girls completed a three-sport hat trick this year. La Conner girls’ teams had earlier won the district volleyball and basketball championships. They kept pace in track, outpointing host Coupeville 78-47. La Conner was led by multiple event winners Ellie Marble and Kaliana Bill plus strong showings in the relays, Marble won the 300 hurdles and shot put while Bill swept the long jump and triple jump. Marble, Lydia Grossglass and Hannah Cook ran 1...
La Conner youth league teams made an adjustment this spring. The teams had to shift venues after last year’s sale of Hedlin’s ballfield on Maple Avenue. Youth practices and games are now on the La Conner schools campus. The transition has required a team effort on several levels, youth league treasurer and board member Catey Ritchie said. “We really want to thank the school for accommodating the La Conner Little League this year,” Ritchie told the Weekly News. “We couldn’t have had a season without them.” Ritchie praised former board members...
La Conner High School track teams are picking up the pace as the season’s finish line looms ahead. Some dozen La Conner athletes compete in district trials at Coupeville this Saturday. Winners qualify for the state 2B meet May 26-28 at Eastern Washington University. Tommy Murdock, the Braves’ standout hurdler, is on that list in multiple events. Murdock owns the fastest time statewide among 2B contestants in the boys’ 300-meter hurdles. He has clocked a 0:42.46. In the 110-meter hurdles, his per...
The La Conner High School baseball team made major strides with an impressive 6-0 league triumph at Concrete April 26. Braves pitcher Brogan Masonholder earned his first win by tossing a six-hit shutout that secured La Conner a two-game season series sweep of the Lions. “We played with energy and confidence,” coach Jeremiah LeSourd said afterward. “It was a major step forward.” C.J. Edwards started off with a double and was driven home by Nathan Bailey. Leading 1-0, the Braves sent 11 batters to the plate during a five-run outburst keyed b...
